Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition CommissionLouisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
History
Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission
Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 : Saint Louis, Mo.)
There is obviously a marked variance between the property
referred to in the specifications and instructions and the
property enumerated in the recorded contract. The specifications
seemed to require that 50 per cent of the amount of the bid
should accompany the same in the form of a check certified by
some banking institution in the city of St. Louis, and that the
remainder of the amount bid should be paid upon the execution of
the contract.
Further, the specifications required that a bond should be filed
with the Exposition Company in an amount equal to the bid to
guarantee faithful execution of the terms of the contract by the
bidder. The specifications expressly reserved copper wire, the
intramural railway, the railroad tracks in the buildings, all
machinery, etc., whereas the contract executed on November 30
seems to include all the items referred to and many other pieces
of property not mentioned in the specifications.
The contract as executed seems to call for the payment of
$450,000, of which only the sum of $100,000 was to be paid in
cash and the remainder at stated periods in the future. Instead
of requiring a bond equal to the amount of the bid the bond
called for in the contract is less than 10 per cent of the
amount of the bid.
It is alleged:
First. That secrecy was observed in handling the bids for the
wrecking of buildings.
Second. That the Chicago House Wrecking Company was favored from
the beginning.
Third. That the exposition officials rejected higher bids than
that of the Chicago House Wrecking Company, so that the latter
might have further opportunity to raise its figures.
Fourth. That only a partial list of the property, which did not
include many valuable articles, was submitted to bidders outside
of the Chicago House Wrecking Company, and that a complete list
was refused other bidders.
Fifth. That a written offer of $400,000 cash, and more if lists
could be secured, was ignored.
Sixth. That a bid of $450,000, half cash, was presented to the
Exposition Company after the announcement of the sale of the
salvage to the Chicago House Wrecking Company for $386,000.
Seventh. That the contract was eventually given to the Chicago
House Wrecking Company for $450,000, with contract provisions
inferior to the former $450,000 bid made by a party outside the
Chicago House Wrecking Company.
Eighth. That the contract with the Chicago House Wrecking
Company does not adequately protect the Government, the city of
St. Louis, and the stockholders, the $40,000 bond being out of
all proportion to the size of the sale.
Ninth. That the sale of the salvage to the Chicago House
Wrecking Company was consummated over the protests of some of
the directors of the Exposition Company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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