Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-10
FIGHT OVER BIDS
! HAMPERS PUPILS
Delay in Purchase of Equip
ment Works Handicap at
Mckinley School.

Instruction in certain subjects re-
curing machinery or laboratory equip
ment has been seriously curtailed at
the new Mckinley High School by
competitive bidders, wrangles and what
school officials term red tape" methods
in purchase of needed equipment, it
was learned in school and District gov
eminent circles today.
Besides the handicap imposed upon
instruction, it also was revealed that the
same conditions had tied up delivery
of required cafeteria equipment, so that
for at least another week the students
will be unable to buy hot food there
and will be obliged to use boards placed
over barrels and boxes in place Of
tables.
Glasses affected by lack of working
facilities include those in pattern
making, cabinet making and wood
turning, which are without lathes. and
those in physics chemistry, home eco
Monies and biology, which lack labo-
ratory equipment.
Machines Not Ordered.
Although efforts to buy II wood
iathes for the mechanical classes were
launched last March Is, orders have
not yet been placed for the machines.
Meanwhile, however, the Bureau of
Efficiency, the Bureau of Standards
and the superintendent of machinery
of the District Fire Department and
the District Refuse Department all
have been involved in various capaci-
ties to determine which Of several
lathes under consideration should be
purchased by the District. Money al
ready appropriated for the purchase
of the equipment has been available
for year.
At present the instructors at Nc
Kinley High School have been attempt
ing to teach their subjects with three
sample lathes which the various bid
ding concerns had sent to the build
ing pending award Of contracts.
Delay in placing Of orders for the IL
latf1es has been caused chiefly by the
failure of bidding concerns to adhere
to the specifications for the machines
and their reputed subsequent deter
mined efforts to force the District pur-
chasing officer to accept their prod
ucts. The first bids were opened April
%, 1928, but because the specifications
called for patented instrument, thus
shutting out all but che concern new
blOo nCAC d0fCIAloCA Ava NSNObCA 90
The final bids were received Novem-
Der "a. and the school officials recon-
mended the acceptance of those SUBJ
mitted by a Baltimore concern, al
though its figure of $4,712.40 was
higher than four other concerns. Only
one bid was higher.
The school business manager, how
ever, commended that the company was
the lowest bidder adhering to Specif1-
cations. The specifications included
among other items the requirement
that the pupils lathes, 10 of which
were ordered, weigh 1000 pounds, and
that the machines controls be COM
pletely inclosed. The lower bidders, il
was commended, offered machines that
not only were lighter than the required
but which lacked the safety
devices demanded by the school au.
thorities.
Machines Are 'Underweight."
All but one of the bidding concerns,
also a Baltimore firm, dropped their
demands. This concern, supported at
various times by members of the Sem
ate and House, however. bidding
S3,9S0.12. had been so insistent upon
acceptance of its product that the
Bureau Of Standards sent experts to
Mckinley High School within the last
four days to weigh the samples now IN
the building. The findings of the ex-
pertS showed that the machine of the
latter weighed 780 pounds stripped
and minus Grating. while the other
product tipped the scales at 593
pounds.
Maj. r. o. wilmarth, assistant SUI
perintendent of schools in charge OF
business affairs, pointed out that the
lathe of the disputing company which
was weighed is not the machine which
viii be furnished by that concern, but
manship before bids were submitted.
M. c. Hargrove, District purchasing
officer, said today he was writing
letter to Maj. Wilmarth asking whether
the specified 1000 pounds indicated
shipping weight or stripped weight.
Upon that fact probably will depend
the purchase recommended by
the school authorities will be made or
the entire proceedings must
be repeated by soliciting new bids.
Mai. Wilmarth readily told The Star
that the 1000 pounds which the
school authorities specified as the
weight of each pupils lathe was its
shipping weight. This would indicate.
according 10 the School people, That
the disputing concern probably would
receive the order.
Even after the order is given, how
ever. As days will elapse before de-
livery Of the machines can be made.
BY that time, the second semester of
the 1928-29 school year will have been
started.
Work now is under way on the in
stallation of the cafeteria equipment.
ThrouNlout the Fall and until now,
no hot foods have been served in the
lunchroom. Frank c. Daniel, principal,
said today, and cold lunches have been
eaten by the pupils on makeshift
tables" formed by boards placed on
barrel tops.
Difficulties similar to those involv-
ing the lathes have tied up delivery Of
the laboratory equipment, although
this material probably will be in use
within short time now, Mr.. Daniel
said. Since opening of school, how
ever, the students, relying upon the
equipment for their instruction in the
laboratory subjects. have been obliged
to forego that feature Of their edu-
cation.