Arizona republican., 1920-11-24

AS the full force of this proposition dawned upon those present spirit of determined resistance united all into compact fighting force, not only to stand firmly by Maricopa county's contract with Twohy Bros. but to fight to the limit any effort to hold up the county; and also by every legal method possible, force the compliance by the syndicate of bondhouses which purchased the first issue of the s4 000,000 road bonds to live up to their contract to the letter.
 Inspect Road Building
 The visiting taxpayers gathered al 1 the office of the highway commission about 10:15 yesterday morning and went in body to the road work under way nthe Yuma road near Green wood cemetery. The remarkable thoroughness of this work has already been described in The Republican.
 The industrial narrow guage con- struction train was then boarded, and conveyed the crowd six miles west to the Fowler mixing plant and distrfbut- ing station where the exceptionally modern methods employed were shown the visitors.
 The next order of the day was fine mulligan luncheon which was greatly enjoyed by all the guests after which the real business of the day was begun in the order of events about as follows: Chairman Haclzett in the following address outlined the con-
 st ruction problems confronting the commission and the need of knowing promptly whether new bond issue to complete the project was to be voted, that the commission might make it's
 plans intelligently and treat Twohy . Bros. justly:
 Hackett'e Address
 Gentlemen: The primary object ot
 calling together this body of citizens is for the purpose of discussing the con
 struction of highways within our coun-
 ty, as we'll as a bond issue to procure
 funds to complete the entire program
 of highways as laid out by the highway
 commission and submitted to the elect crate, upon which bonds to the extent
 of s4,000,000 were voted May r, 1913. The highway commission was ap- pointed on March 31, 1919, and gave bond as by statute required. Soon aft CT the voting of the bonds the high
 way commission met on the advice of
 the board of supervisors, to proceed with the preliminary work until usch
 time as money derived from the sale
 of the bonds was available. at which
 time we would be in authority to call ] ! for bids for actual work on the high ways. We immediately appointed Mr. . K. c. Perkins as our engineer and , turned over to him the engineering !, features of the entire project, approv ing a scale of wages for the engineer ing corps. Mir. Perkins surrounded, o himself with capable field parties and early in July had three parties doing I field work and an office corps work 7 ing up field notes preparatory to get ! ting out plans and nrOfileS
 l Our next step was to determine the e possibility of securing freight rates h on material that might enter into the
 various types of roadways To our s mind we were confronted with an ex- 2 cessive rate on stone aggregate, which
 We decided must be transported by s railway to the various groups of prof p ects to be constructed.
 The first money became available . Sept 22, 1919, at which time we did 5 not have a sufficient mileage of road y ways to attract a contractor of the ca = pacity We had in mind, to bid on our
 roads. We reconhnended a $4,000, 0oG
 bond issue upon the estimate of cost
 of California roads, the construction oi
 which proved inadequate later as well
 as advanced cost; and further, that this
 amount of work would be of a volume
 sufficient to attract contractors whc c were SeehIng a IdrRe NOlumS Oi DuSl- 0 ness that. would enable them to equiI
 themselves to do the work economical D ly. Road building is not unlike any V commercial business, and if any char e acter of business is to meet with sue | cess, the business. must be carried or l. in great volume which will permit o, IS a minimum percentage of profit being q added to the selling price. the volume S, reducing the overhead expense to very
 low cost in proportion to the amount Il of work done or goods sold.
 = We advertised for bids to be sub. H. mitted on January 6, 1920, but notwith, re standing the fact' that we advertised d in technical journals throughout tn,
 country, we received no bid that V,
 could legally consider, the only one be
 ing a cost plus bid submitted by tn
 Shattuck- -Edinger Co. of California T This bid meant nothing more in net re |~ suit than employing the organization at of Shattuck- -Edinger Co. to spend tn of proceeds of the bond issue on force ac le count and while we were advised b, sy our attorneys that we could not legalE m accept this proposition, we all recall tn 4 insistence of many Of our citizens il