Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1913-10-21
LEw1sTowN FERGUS COUNTY, MONTANA OCTOBER 81 1918

the hall he had received the following
telegram from Prof. Kneale. He had
not been in communication with that
gentleman and knew nothing as to
what prompted him to send the mes.
sage:
Bozeman, Oct. 20.
Mayor w. D. Symmes:
A party from Lewistown submitted
small sample of pavement to me to
test. The chemical department tested
for voids by the water method in a
small bottle. This test would not show
the voids In the stone aggregate as
laid In the street. The voids in the
sample we tested were completely
filled with bitumen.
PROF. r. D. KNEALE.
6irkland Heard.
Engineer Birkland was asked for
his view and said that he had given
Mr.. Wise the small sample which the
latter took to Bozeman. There was
not enough of 1t to make such test
of any value. His own tests had been
made on samples of about 80 pounds
OF the mixture, taken directly from
the machine, and he found the ma
terial to be up to the standard in all
respects.
Another Chemist Heard.
Chemist jenkins, of the staff of War
rem Bros, owners of the bitulithic
patents, was asked by the mayor to
give his opinion. He stated that he
was not connected in any way with
Mr.. Mcclure, being in the employ of
Warren Bros. to check up the work OF
contractors using bitulithic to see that
It conformed to the requirements. As
this was the end of the season and
paving contracts were being finished
up everywhere, he had been detailed
to Lewistown longer than he usually
remained in one place. His laboratory
tests showed that the material used
here had been up to specifications and
he had been able to give this contract
special attention. He was prepared
to say that Mr.. McGuire's work was
fully up to the standard.
Engineer Birkland was asked to give
his general opinion on the Main street
job as completed and replied that Nc
Guire had lived up to his specifications
and done first-class job. Mr.. Wise
had not made any inspection Of the
plant at all.
The lid was completely off by this
time and plain talk was the order of
the evening. Contractor MCGUIRE was
called upon and said he had done as
good job here as could be done. Mr..
Wise had been asked to go down to
the plant and inspect the material and
process there, but had refused to do
so. His action was, in reality, the
action of rival company that, in his
opinion, was simply using Mr.. Wise
&sla tool to attempt to embarrass the
contractor. He could say honestly
that he had never seen better paving
job than that completed here and he
believed that every property owner af-
fcted was satisfied with the sole ex-
ception of Mr.. Wise.
The Mayor Talks.
Mayor Symmes said he had put In
a great deal Of time on this paving
work. Warren Bros. were careful to
have their own representative here all
the time to see that nothing was
sighted and from all the information
he had been able to gather the job
was a first-class one.
II went personally to see Mr.. Wise
and asked him to let me know just
exactly what he had. What he had
was simply lot of stuff of Hanlon &
Oaks, rival firm that bid here, and
who followed the same tactics they
did at Great Falls a couple of years
ago. Now other property owners have
been asked to sign a protest. How
many signatures did you secure, Mr..
Wiser"
II did not go out with any protest"
replied Mr.. Wise.
well, l will say that a property
owner told me he had been asked to
Continued on page twelve.)