The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-11-19
HELD UP FOR
COAL AND OIL
United States Pays Fancy Prices 10.
Fuel Supplies Under the sys-
tom Of Asking
Bids.
MEMENToEs OF MAINE
People Arc Writing for Pieces of the
Old Ratt,cshIp for Monu-
ments or For Sou
venirs.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1S.-That the
United States government is held up"
and made to pay exorbitant prices for
coal and oil for fuel is the charge
made by Brig. Gen. j. B. Aleshire,
quartermaster general Of the army, in
his annual report now made public.
BY law. fuel supplies for. the army
must be purchased under the bidding
system. the lowest bidder getting the
contract. Gen. Alcshire says that
under the present system, bidders COM
municate the amount of their bids to
one another, and heterogeneous
keeping up high prices are thereby
maintained.
AS an example of the excessive
prices demanded and obtained under
the bidding system, Gen. Aleshire
cites the case of the transport Burn
side, operating between the Pacific
coast and the Philippines. On one
occasion it was necessary to coal the
Burnside under an emergency without
asking bids. In open market, coal was
purchased at $3.50 a ton. for 400 tons.
Previously, the army had paid 1925 per
ton for the same grade OF coal, under
the. bidding system. Four hundred
dollars was saved on the one purchase,
and it is estimated that by buying reg
ularly in the open market $4,000 a
year could be saved in coal purchases
Tor this vessel alone. Similar con-
iO~c & no IL or
and also in the purchases of anthra-
cite coal for use in army posts.
General Aleshire asks that con-
gress give him authority to. use his
discretion in purchasing fuel, 80 that
the government may escape the pres
ent system of excessive prices. Such
authority has already been granted to
officers of the navy department.
Worlds pleasure ground and health
Isanatorium," is title that may wei!
iibe bestowed upon Hot Springs. Ark
Kansas, according to report just made
by Harry H. Meyers, superintendent.
to the secretary of the interior ITO
illustrate how widely these waters are
known" he says.s"a daily bath report,
bselected at randem. shows patients
bore from seven foreign countries.
The past year was the most prosper
.! Gus ever known here. Every month
lof last year shows more visitors. than
! the corresponding month of 1910, the
Total number of visitors for the year
being approximately 10000. The
total receipts of the lighthouses in
1910 were s217.91G and in 1911 they
amounted to s253,314."
The number of baths. sold by %
bath houses, named by Meyers, was
S7S,174 in the last year The net
profit was $l12,36S.
What has been the worst detri.
meht and curse to this resort for 40
years." says the report, lis what is
known as doctor and hotel drumming
Formerly it was not at all unusual
for 20 or 80 hotel runners to meet the
visitor at Little Rock or Benton on
every train, and frequently some drum
mer went as far as Memphis and st
Louis. The hotel drumming was but
mere subterfuge in most instances
the real object being to place the
visitor in the hands of some physician
who would give half his fee to the
drummer am happy to be able to
report that since October Is, 1909
when United States inspectors were
placed on all incoming trains to no
tify the public what to avoid and to
give full information as to how to pro
coed. the drumming on the trains has
entirely ceased, and the practice OF
the doctors dividing fees for drum
med patients has been reduced to the
lowest ebb ever known
The war department is being be
sieged daily with letters from citi
zens in all parts of the country who
request that they be given portions OF
the wrecked battleship Maine for