The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1923-07-13

| ceed with the electric light plant by
vote, that also is a mandate of the
people, and how men can be for one
thing because of the mandate of the
/ people expressed at an election and be
against the other, both being of SIM
4 liar nature, and yet hold themselves
out as good business men and con-
sistent men in their reason and logic.
is beyond me.
Now then, | felt that it was my
duty as the chief executive of the city,
in pursuance of the mandate of the
people, to go into the matter very
thoroughly and advise the public of
the result of my investigation. If
that investigation would show con
clusively that it was foolish to build
/ the plant, that it was waste of
money to do so, then | say to you, not
withstanding the mandate of the peo-
pie if | was convinced that it was
waste of public funds to do so,
say to you, am man enough to
give voice to my honest opinion.
Fight For Bond Sale
In pursuance of that mandate of
the people, the council of the city
of Hamilton proceeded to pass legis-
lation providing for the issuance of
bonds and authorized the director of
public service to engage competent
engineering services to advise the Of
ficials after making a thorough in
yestigation of the entire matter. The
auditor, in pursuance of law, proceed
ed to advertise our bonds and sell
them, and we received no bids. /
think the bonds were advertised five
times The last time we did receive
a bid from the A. G. Becker Co. of
! Chicago, H. All bids are accom-
panied by certified check or bond to
4 guarantee good faith Of the bid
Knowing the methods that were be-
ing pursued by our competing com
4 PetiiJ, WIZ hIloW ScehS 10 SeI US
energy, and | make these statements
advisedly and knowingly, and as /
stated before, | believe | am in a
position to substantiate the charges
and statements | made, | advised the
city auditor to Immediately cash the
check because | was afraid something
might happen and that the bid was
not on the square A short while
after we received communication from
the Becker Co. in which they said
your bonds are illegal, you have ex-
ceeded your bond Imitation" and
they set up one hundred and one diff
ferent reasons why the bonds were
illegal When they submitted bid the
title of bonds was to be approved
/ by the most noted firm of bond at
torneys in the country, Squire, San
ders & Dempsey, of Cleveland They
demanded the return of check which
was put up in good faith as deposit.
We advised them we were sure the
bonds were legal and we would not
return their check; if the bonds were
illegal they would not want them, if
the bonds were illegal we would not
want them to have them and would
not want to sell them, but we were
prepared to substantiate our claim
as to the validity of the bonds In
the meantime we expected to hold
their check until the bonds had been
declared illegal We also notified
them we would receive bids at private
sale, and if the bids were greater
than their bid submitted and good
faith deposit check put up, we would
then return their check The day we
received bids a gentleman represent
ing Stacey & Braun Co. came to me
and said, "Have you returned the
Becker check ?" / said, ''No, we have
not How did you know we were
holding it," He said if the check
was not returned they would not bid. y
| said, "All right; don't bid then. y
They die bid, however, and their bid
was the highest bid and they got the
award. Then the bid was subject to
the approval of the same firm of at
torneys as to their legality, and they
took the bonds. The only reason for
my calling your attention to this mat
ter is to show you the opposition we
received in going into the matter of
the construction of this plant, and
the methods pursued by those who
were interested in preventing the peo-
ple's mandate from being executed
and to sell us electric energy.
Mr.. Monroe
Chas. Monroe, president of the
Hamilton Service Co., and vice.
president of the Peoples Gas anC
Electric Co, of Chicago, one of the
biggest power outfits in the country
in one of our conferences, in answer
to point blank question to me where
made charge, admitted he was the
one that got to the Becker Co. through
some banker friends and prevented
the sale of bonds, for the reason