El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-11-13
DEFECTS F0IND
IN HIGH SCHOOL
j. L. Campbell Says Col
umns Out Of Position;
Defect Not Serious.

There are defects in the shell Of the
high school building. but they do NOT
affect the strength. stability and safety
OF the finished structure according TO
J. l. Campbell. whose recent letter IN
the press resulted in the invita- ton by
the school board to show wherein the
work. done under contract with J. T.
Morgan, was faulty.
Mr. Campbell sets forth the defects In
a letter addressed to president F. NJ
Whitaker and the board. read at a spe-
cial meeting OF the trustees Friday
night The letter was received and
filed.
CampbeII's Letter.
The letter follows:
Acting on your request, ] have
examined the workmanship on the
reinforced concrete frame of the FL
PasO high school building ] find
some imperfections which should
not have occurred and which should
not occur under a desirable and at
tainable standard Of excellence OF
workmanship. That there may not
be even mOmentary misapprehen-
sion Of the significance Of the de-
fects, / am pleased TO say that they
Will not appreciably affect the
strength, stability and safety OF the
finished building
Columns out of Position.
They consist OF irregularities Of
the surfaces and lack Of eXactitude
in position Of some Of the columns
ana Deans ne matter OL LOL III
viii be corrected in finishing the
building. but the error in position
cannot be remedied- It IS neither
practicable nor necessary to make
such correction. because the error
in position does not in any case eX-
coed two inches. except on the first
floor. where two columns were so
much ont of position that the err
ror was remedied by building an
additional column against the orig
inal one
The defective workmanship is
due TO lack Of rightly and eXact1-
tude in setting and holding some Of
the concrete forms This is a usu-
al cause of such trouble
As Good as Any FL PasO job
The work on the high school may
be defended on the ground that IL Is
quite as good as other work Of a
similar kind in FL Paso. Indeed. as
far as my observation goes, the
work on the building is second to
none Of its kind in FL Paso, but
that fact is Q reflection on the FL
Paso standard Of workmanship,
rather than q communication OF lack
Of excellence It also removes spe-
cial application of the criticism TO
the contractor on the high school
building
Higher Standard.
A higher standard or excellence
in workmanship is readily attain
able We should have il. This is
illustrated in the present cOnstruc-
tion Of the high school building in
which the quality of the workman.
ship improved from the bottom TO
the top Of the structure. most OF
the defects occurring on the lower
parts Of the building.
COmmends Work.
Aside from the imDerfections de-
scribed, commend the work on the
building as being Of excellent
character. I desire particularly 10
mention the admirably exact align
ment Of the exterior columns Of the
building and. with the few eXcep-
tons specified, this also applies 70
the interior columns.
Ny Investigation does not include
the design Of the building The de-
servedly high reputation and
known ability Of the designing
architects should be accepted as
sufficient guaranty that the design
is all right
Accompanying the letter was a bill
Of SIS to cover the services Of Charles
5. Henning in assisting in the exam
nation Aewarrant was ordered drawn
TO cover the amount
Contract Approved
The contract with s. 3. Houx. repre-
senting the American Construction
company, successful bidders for the
Of the high school building,