The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-01
N and he president
 be bigger

name. The annex was to be bigger than
 the old building. Into the wall of every
 room in the mammoth annex safe was to be set. There were to be hundreds of I offices. That meant hundreds of safes.
 The old office building had the safes of l Robbins company. but the supervising
 architect In charge of building the an-
 nex had told the man from P1ttsburg that
 the company had not been invited to bid ] on the new lot of safes. In fact, the su- pervslng architect seemed to have some
 feeling against Robbins company
 Robbins hurried back to the office and
 tried to get into communication with headquarters by long distance telephone, 1 but everybody in the New York estab- lishment had gone for the day. That threw him upon his own resources. Fittsburg was not in his division, and it was another mans business to look after . trade in that city, but 1t would be last | ing disgrace to the company if that con- tract was awarded without the company even putting a bid in. Robbins had to | think quickly and act quickly. To get his | travelling bag and bite to eat did not take long. Next morning he was in Pitts- | burg, and was a caller at the office of the supervising architect.
 The architect confirmed what the gen t1eman had told Robbins in Philadelphia, | and then the architect expressed regret that Robbins had wasted his time by journeying to Pittsburg.
 Your company was not asked to bid and we would not take bid from It if it was offered,' he added. We put your safes In the main building. There are more than 100 there now and not one of | them is in working condition. They are ro good. We reported to your company about them and not only could get no | satisfaction but were treated with dis courtesy. With all due respect to you personally, MT. Robbins, we want noth- ing more to do with your people,"
 To 99 men out of 100 that would
 have been a crusher, but not to Rob-
 bins. The supervising architect had arisen from his desk, put on his hat and
 told one of his assistants he was go- | ing to the annex.
 Would you mind if I went with you? | I'd like to see that huilding" said Rob- | bins.
 "Huhl Come along if you wish.p re- | sponded the architect
 The two men ohatted until they got | to the annex Only little of it's gi- gantic frame was In place. They re- nained there until the architect was through with his inspection, and then when he was about to return to the office Robbins expressed a desire to see the safes in the main building.
 The architect took him in and they l went from room to room until they had
 seen 10 or 12 of the safes. Robbins made careful examination
 We'll" said the architect when Rob-
 bips declared he had seen enough, "it
 is as I told you. isn't it?"
 "Yes," replied Robbins. "The company
 Is to blame and you are to blame too."
 Whats that!'' exclaimed the architect l My dear sir." said Robbins, "a slight oversight is the cause of all the trouble
 with those safes. When you planned this
 building you made calculations, no doubt
 for the customary settling, but you did
 not take these safes. into consideration. | See here'
 And then he showed that the rigid frame
 into which the safes had been set had thrown them out Of plumb as the building
 settled. Every one of these safes can be put in frst-class order without much trouble"
 said Robbins, land the company should
 do it. I'll so report to headquarters. It is | too had if was mt dnne rrornntJy ,,nor
 the receipt of your complaint. think
 when all the facts are known the person responsible will have an unpleasant time.