Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-07
DELIBERATE LIES
SAYS TAYLOR
IContinued From First Page.l

SATS IAILUk
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instead of the Morton Truck and Trac-
tor Company. However he was a bit
hazy he admitted as to what the COM
pany had offered to sell its apparatus.
Councilman Taylor offered his state
ment after explaining the present
situation relative to the Front Drive
Motor Company patent infringement.
This he said, led him to make answer
If Council permitted to other attacks
contained in the editorial.
Commissioner Taylor's remarks In
full were as follows:
Deliberate Falsehoods,' Says Taylor
I'm connection with my report to
Council on the action that has been
taken with reference to the Friend
ship tractor, l should like. with Coun-
ellis permission. to answer the de-
liberately false statement made by an
evening newspaper in a recent edi-
torial attack on my method of con-
Quoting the office of the Department
of Parks and Public Property.
The contract with the Front Drive
Motor Company for furnishing the
tractors was concluded with the con-
sent of Council, long before there was
any intimation of an intended action
ment of patent. I had no more knowl-
edge of such an action than any other
member of Council, any newspaper or
anyone else. However, when l was
notified of the intended suit, l
promptly took up with the City Solicit
tor the question of indemnity for the
apparatus that was being made for
the city. The bond given when the
contract was let, provided for 25 per
cent. Under this new development
thought the city should be indemni-
fed in full, and the City Solicitor was
of the same opinion. Accordingly,
Mr.. Seitz wrote the Front Drive Mo-
tor Company to this effect, his views
embodying what we had agreed upon
together All the correspondence
that had passed between my office, the
City Solicitor and the Hoboken Com
pany was submitted to Council last
week. At that time. I said that while
/ was decided as to the question of
indemnity, l would readily agree to
what the whole Council thought about
1t. All this is matter of record.
''Wilful Twisting of Facts
The same editorial charges me with
having induced the city commission
to let a contract for 'filr for the
the city. at 26 "a cents a yard while
the same company sought and OBJ
tanned permission from the McCor-
mick estate to dump the fill in South
Harrisburg without charge This is
a wilful twisting of facts, made with
the deliberate intention of mislead-
ing the newspapers readers. ...
The bid for the supplying of the
fill for the River Front south of
Maclay street was awarded to the
Brown King Construction Company.
which was building the Second street
subway only after three previous at
tempts to let a contract by advertis-
ing for bids was unsuccessful. The
lowest bid received prior to the letting
of the contract was flfty-nine cents
a yard. Even this bid had a string at
tached to it. The contractor would
only haul it for this price, If he were
allowed to build an industrial railway
up Front street. Council unanimously
decided that they couldn't stand for
that. The lowest other bid was rs
cents dump wagon load.
The Truth
THE Brown-K King Company bid
-26 2-S cents per yard and agreed to
dump the earth, spread 1t, and put
it over the bank. Before I offer
ed an ordinance, however. I conferred
with each member of Council, and
every member agreed that the propo-
sition was the best. I didn't wish to
offer an ordinance unless the other
Commissioners agreed to 1t. And
when they had done so, I had the or
dinance prepared. Council unani-
mously adopted the measure. am
convinced that this was the best pos
sible bargain for the city. but if there
was any mistake of Judgment. then
surely the other members of Council
are as much to blame as myself. Now
as to the price. Any contractor, any
engineer, in fact most any intelligent
layman. will admit that the length of
the haul--a distance of nearly two
miles-would cost money. At that.
the Brown-King Company delivered
the dirt at cost price, twenty-six and
two-third cents
The "Short Haul
Fill was dumped without cost to
the Mccormick estate on some of it's
property in the lower end OF the city,
it is true. The haul is only a few
blocks and an easy one. That ac-
counts for the lack of cost to the Nc
Cormick estate. But the Park De-
partment also got some 1000 yards of
the same kind of fill from the exca-
vations for the River Front below
Paxton street, without a cent of
charge.
"The people in the upper end of
the city have long desired a small
strip of park along the top of the river
bank. They deserved it. and it was
only right that some provision be made
for this. What the Park Department
did this summer never had been ac-
complished under the old city govern
ment.
Mr.. Walter, Too
Now as to the damage which AL
derman Charles p. Walter, the repair
contractor, charges was done on Front
street by the hauling of the trucks.
Mr.. Walter, as Council will recall, only
raised this question after his effort to
extend his repair contract for another
quarter of year had been unsuccess-
full. 1t is charged that some provision
for protecting the asphalt from the
trucks should have been made in the
fiji contract. How could this be done? ?
The streets are expected to withstand
the weight of the traffic. No distinc-
ton can be made as to its weight or
character. What was the trouble
with the paving? Thousands of yards
of the 'ill,' the same character of fill
was hauled over South Front street by
heavy trucks to get to the lower river
front or the Mccormick property in
the lower end of the city. Was that
paving damaged? 1t was not
The West End Play Ground
AS to the playground purchased
by the Park Department at Fourth