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Show WHAT DOES IT I U ? The Doard of Public Works Agrain Adjourns WITHOUT AWARDING THE PAVING PAV-ING CONTRACT. A Policy Adopted Yesterday Xot Carried Car-ried Out. EXPERIMENTS MADE BY THE RIVAL CONTRACTORS. Samples front Richards Avenue and Htate Street Subjected to Crucial Tests Home Material v. the California Cali-fornia I'roduet Contractor and Hi Little Hatchet Come to Grief The Bidders Mystified at the Action Ac-tion of the Board. The Culmer-Jennings Paving company was prepared to meet any insinuation that might be made against the durability of its pavement, and its managers showed their faith in their work this morning by escorting escort-ing Messrs. Haines, Conklin and Clawson to Richards avenue and inviting them to select a sample from any portion por-tion of its broad surface. Tbe board accepted the challenge and finally selected a segment about one foot square, which was taken up after an hour's hard work. It proved to be a splendid specimen, even Mr. Blake of the Blake Faving Company of Denver, which has contracts in that city aggregating 4400,000, speaking in eulogistic terms of it. Commenting on the sample alluded to in yesterday's Times and which its representative representa-tive saw in the office of the board of public works, W. H. Jennings said today that it was a piece of waste and no more like the pavement itself than day is like night. "We have," said he, "put in a bid lower by $13,000 than our first, and we, of course, expect ex-pect to be awarded the contract. The cutoff cut-off is a serious one, but we will demonstrate that our paving Is just what we claim it Is. We propose to do a first-class job and show the people here and the country at lartre that Utah materiel leads the world. Of course, we will rot make anything on this contract, but it will be the means of building up an exDort trade. Your paper deserves credit for the staunch fight it has made in the Interests In-terests of home people and home materials and my company will by Its work prove the soundness of the position which The Times has taken. the boap.d meets. At 2 o'clock the rival contractors met in the office of the board of public works. Tbe piece taken from Richards avenue was on view, and beside it was a similar piece from the State street paving, which Contractor Griffin, of the firm of Ryan & Griffin, had procured. Both pieces were testd. That from State street chipped oft easily under the blows of a hatchet, and the presence of volatile oils was easily noticeable. That from. Richards avenue was apparently of the consistency of rubber. It flaked ot in strips and it was a difficult matter to break off a piece of any sire. A bole was cut into the face of the home product and Mr. Jennings Jen-nings readily patched it, the paving sample giving forth a ringing sound as the hatchet pressed tbe repairing material into the crevice. Mr Griffin essayed to do the same with bis sample but the slab split In twain. He, however, claimed that it was due to his efforts to cut off a chunk and that it was not the result of his repairing exploit. Pieces of the samples were ground under foot into minute fragments; other pieces were rolled between the finsrers of members of the board and contractors and the olfactory organs of all were brought into requisition. Griffin appeared anxious, the members of the board thoughtful and the representatives of the Culmer-Jennings company cheerful. They were not ashamed of their pavement and expressed themselves as confident of the fact that Utah material could hold more than its own against all comers. Tbe experiments over Messrs. Haines, Conklin and Clawson discussed the situation in undertones. Finally Chairman Chair-man Haloes apparently prepared for action ny - lan-iug uia tuir oi state. That is all he did do for fully fifteen min- utcs fifteen minutes of agony and apprehension appre-hension to those assembled. Finally Mr. Conklia moved to adjourn until un-til 7:30 o'clock this evenins. He said that their sick, member, Major Downey, should be again consulted. The chairman opposed him. He did not think It was fair to call the bidders together so often. The paving question ought to be settled at once. "Yes," replied Conklin, "but on the other hand we should be careful not to make any mistake. I would like to have the privilege of again meeting with Major Downey." Chairman Haines said that he was ready to vote at any time and could not see that any benefit would come from again consultiag with Major Downey. He understood that a Eollcy had been agreed upon at the meeting eld yesterday. Conklin intimated that he was doubtful if the plan had been thoroughly understood, whereupon the chair stated that he would favor an adjournment until this evening. Clawson was opposed to an adjournment, saying that his mind was made up and he was prepared to vote. The motion to adjourn was concurred In, and then the bidders looked at each other in a mystified way. |