The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1909-02-25
what is purchased during each


what is purchased during each
year.
Senator Beatty introduced bill
to provide for competitive bidding
for all supplies for institutions, of
officers of state and county. In
the state institutions the stewart
shall make known to the Board of
Directors of Trustees the first Of
each month what he shall want
during the month to come, and the
Trustees shall advertise in two
papers of opposite politics for bid
ders on the monthly supplies, and
the contract for supplying the In
stitution for month shall be let
to the lowest bidder, and the same
each month with the county otll
GERS, they shall make known to
the auditor the amount OF supplies
that they will need during the
coming month and he shall adver-
tise for bids to supply the same,
and the lowest bidder shall get the
contract. The failure of Mr..
Beatty's plan as covered by his
senate bill is that it will be a graft
encourager, and should not become
law. just for instance take the
bridge laws, throwing the letting
Of bridges open to public bidding,
the bridge men are allehged to al
most always get together and pool
on the bridge, instead of entering
into spirited bidding. The price
is boosted every time and the
county or state pays more than the
individual officer could have got
ten the work done for privately,
besides the county or state is out
the price of advertising, which
would perhaps amount to as much
as the purchase price of the goods.
The thing to do, Mr. Beatty, is to
get honest men in Office, and they
will see that the county or state is
not robbed by the contractor. Let
the officer deal as honestly and as
carefully with the county money
as he would with his own, then
the interests of the county will be
subserved, and not by competitive
bidding that means that the sever
al pr posed bidders will get to-
gether and boost the price to more
than double the price that the
supplies should cost. There was
a time, that we want to refer to,
when tine Athens Asylum was run
the most economical of any time
in its history. 1t was at the time
when Mr.. F. G. Rochester was
Steward of the Hospital. That
gentleman as tie purchasing Off
Ger of the institution did not ad-
vertlse for bids for supplies but he
would go to the cattle raisers, and
farmers there-about and get their
price on their product and then
see the other fellow and get his
price, and parley with them about
their prices as he would If he were
dealing for himself. In all other
matters of supplies, he operated
the same way and got good goods
at reasonable prices. He repre-
sented the state and he stood be.
tween the state and the fellow
that wanted to sell the state an in
ferlor goods at an extortionate
price. He bought for the state
just as carefully as he would buy
for himself, and he saved the state
more than his own salary every
year. This system is far ahead of
the competitive bidding system
for there are no bidders to get to-
gether in this instance, and there
are no expensive advertising for
the bids. Make your officer re-
sponslble for the cost of tho sup.
plies he gets, and he will do the
best he can with the peoples money
every time.
However, Mr.. Beatty did intro
duce bill of great MERIT, and it
has passed the Senate, as it should
haye done, and that is the meas
ure providing for the teaching Of
the prevention of tuberculosis in
the schools. 1t proposes that
there shall be $40, 100000 spent by
the state each year for lecturers
to go into every public school and
college and deliver lectures and