Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-03-01
Trouble Over a Contract.


There is trouble and contention in
Kent county over a contract awarded by
| n committee of the Levy Court for the
! improvement and alteration of the court
house. 1t has almost reached the pro-
! portions of a scandal.
The charge is made that the Levy
| Court committee awarded the contract
to Philadelphia concern at price sew
erai thousand dollars in excess OF what
local contractors stood ready to do the
work for. Naturally, it is incumbent
upon those who awarded the contract to
give reasons for their action. Unless they
can justify their course, they will have to
stand convicted of wrong doing.
The Dover State News, in its current
| issue, calls upon the Levy Court for an
explanation ''If the published state
ments concerning the transaction are
| true, It says, 1T has every earmark of an
irregular proceeding and every taxpayer
in the county, irrespective of politics, will
demand to know why. We understand
that this contract was not awarded by
the Levy Court as whole, but by q
small committee appointed for the pur-
pose, which, however, does not relieve
the entire body of the responsibility.
If it is true that the contract as award
cd is thousands OF dollars higher than
the figures contained in bids submitted
hy two Dover contractors. then the action
is not only mn injustice to the local con-
tractors, but it practically means the
wasting of that much money paid in taxes
by property owners of Kent county. 1t
does not seem probable that the Levy
Court Committee should utterly ignore
the local and lower bidders in making
the award to the Philadelphia concern
without a very good reason, and we
shall expect the Levy Court to prepare
a statement at its next meeting held on
the first Tuesday In March, clearly ex-
planning that reason We recognize the
fact that the Kent county Levy Court is
Democratic body, and We have been proud
Of its good and efficient work in the past
But II il is guilty Of deliberately throw
ing away several thousands OF dollars
IN order To favor a Philadelphia firm
over local bidders. without very sub
stantial reason. then we believe it is
deserving Of our criticism inst the same
as IL Is deserving of our praise when
it docs good work ts We SAID before
we hope this reason Will be forthcoming,
and if injustice has been done the mern-
beTS of the Levy Court We shall be first
10 open our columns in their defence
But II is imperative that we have an
explanation. and the sooner the better
The Milford Chronicle also gives at
tcntIon 10 the situation, and. being
partisan paper. naturally consider. the
question from q partisan point Of view
and reflects upon the Democratic ad-
miniStration of the county
II is unfortunatc that tins condition
should have arisen The Levy Court
OF Kent county for the past ten wears,
has gwen the people good adnInistra- ,
ton II has introduced effective methods !
Of conducting the county business Is
peciallv hes II enforced thorough and !
close system Of tax collections It has
expended the taX money honestly ana ef- |
fectIvelv II y Too lad that II has |
incurred the ,l,pic.on of vrong-doing /
and apparently made such departure
from the path Of good bushes, policy /
that seems to lie involved in this court
house contract We hope those respon-
sible VIII be able to show that their action
: in accord with good public policy and |
: not Il yielding 70 the temptation to |
obbery.