The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-01
COST PLUS PLAN
 ADVOCATED BY A : BOSTON BUILDER
Boston Contractor Would :. Do Away With Competi- tive Bidding on All
 Building Activities.

A movement Is on foot to limit competitive bidding in building con- tracts and. so far as possible, substi- ute the cost-plus plan under which the government got such tremendous results during the war. One of the prominent advocates of the change is Leonard c. Wason. president of the Abenthaw Co. has executed millions of former president of the American Concrete Institute, and now mem ber of the executive committee of the Associated General Contractors of America.
 Mir. Wason, who speaks from ar ex- perience of 20 years during which the Ahehthaw Co. has executed millions OF dollars worth of work under the cost plus plan, agrees exactly with General Marshall, chief of the Construction Division of the War Department. who is an avowed champion of the cost plus plan.
 "A contractor" MT Wason declares, lis entitled to a fixed percentage of profit upon the money actually spent for the owner, who, under the plan advocated can have direct control over all the expenditures and have his own inspectors on the job to see that the right material is used and that the work Is properly done. The tempta- sometimes essSim4p t4gpF,.,t the work, which is contractors under the system of com ! petitive bidding, is thus eliminated. { The contractor under the cost-plus ! nIo aefa io+ {r+ h reputation if he is to secure other work on the same basis. Not only does the successful working of this plan demand abolute confidence be- l tween owner and contractor, but it i encourages the contractor to get the best results for the owner.
 "Brigadier General R. c. Marshall, Jr., chief of the Construction Division Of the War Department of the United | States Army, which has during the period of the war had charge of the construction on the cost-plus basis of more than $800,000,00O worth of building, makes the following state ment with respect to the cost-plus contract:
 "The great lesson of this war on the subject of relationship between the contractor and owner is the cost-plus contract This represents the only equitable basis under. which a con tractor may perform constructive and economic service for the owner. It Is the only form of contract which affords protection to both parties. To me all of the energies, thoughts and experience of this country within it's | J +11a o,t year and a half of this worlds strug- gle shall have been in vain unless out of 1t shall grow, as a permanent insti- tution solidifying the economic rela- i tionship between the contractor and the owner. the cost-plus contract
 Mir Wason points out that under the ordinary method of competitive bidding theI owest bidder is obvious, ly the one with the least margin to work upon and that sighting the work to the extent of only five per cent. may readily reduce the actual value of the building fully 25 per cent. In a concrete building, for in stance, the concrete may be mixed with just a little less cement, the size of the columns and the thickness of floors and walls may run just frac- tion short of full dimensions, and only one out Of a number of steel rein forcing rods may be left out of each column-all little skimpings in them selves but in the aggregate, very ma terially reducing the integrity of the building.
 'It is proposed to seek legislation in Congress by which the cost-plus | xryfIf fo r1- ity with that of competitive bidding in the case of government work" de- clared Mir Wason. "The results ob- tained during the war as well as in general business amply Justify 1t and the conviction Is growing that under proper control and inspection the peo- pie can be assured of getting full re- turns for that part of their taxes which goes into public improve ments."