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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (July 27, 1921)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1981. THE OREGON DAILY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. OREGON FOSTER ROAD JOB AWARD MADE TO CONTRACTOR SHEA man, Genevieve Combs; chief of health department, Katherine Bennan ; judge Herschel Wright. The Foster road improvement project, originated before the World war put a quietus on public improvements and re vived several months ago subject of some of the most spirited hearings ever held in the city council chamber reached the point this forenoon where the city council by unanimous vote awarded the contract for the trunk sewer to J. P. Shea. This action was taken after City At torney Grant had presented a report showing that the litigation instituted by G. W. Chilson, in which he sought an order restraining the city from award ing the contract or proceeding with the work, had been cleared away. The question was raised by Commis sioner Bigelow as to what position the city would be In if the contract were awarded and an appeal was taken by Chilson to the supreme court and the su perior court were reversed. Grant stat ed that Contractor Shea has agreed that he would not hold the city responsible in such a contingency and that the gen eral fund of the city would thus be pro tected ; but it is understood that Shea later stated that he would expect the city to reimburse him for such work as he might have performed prior to the decision should the matter be taken to the higher court and the decision should be adverse to the city. The contract price for the trunk sewer, from Sixty-second to Ninety-second street, is $319,911.49, cr 20.7 per cent below the estimate of the city engineer, and is a saving of (18,000 to the prop erty owners over the original bid of Shea. This was made when he agreed to meet an alternate bid put in by an other contractor. The rate is $15 in stead of IIS, the original bid, per lineal foot for the 78 inch sewer. Shea stated today that he would be prepared to start the work on this large project within a month and he expects to make rapid progress before the rainy season sets in. COUNCIL SETS DATES nr LICENSE BE VOCATIOX CASES The city council has set 10 o'clock of Thursday. August 4. as the time for pub lic hearings on the revocations of the following licenses: John Perkusick, card room at Cl North Third street; Mike Loso, soft drink es tablishment at 40 North Third street; Peter and Josie Bosatti, hotel license for a hotel at Eleventh and Washington streets; John Conrad, card room at 48 Vj North Third street; Martin Johnson, card room at 225 First street ; William Sawyer, card room at 235 First street; R. Bruno, card room at 248 First street. HEW HA DBALL COVET BEE5d X.AH OUT BY C1TT A new handball court is being con structed at the Johnson creek play ground by the park department and surveys are being made for the location of the second baseball field at Pier park in the St. Johns district. The first ball field located there has proven so popular that there is a demand for, fur ther ball facilities. Pier park Includes 65 acres of rolling land which it is said gives opportunity for the development of one of the hand somest parks in the city. Picnic grounds have been cleared and water piped to them. The nearest point to this park reached by the streetcars is Meyers street, on the St Johns carllne, the en trance of Pier park being about three blocks from that point. HARDING TO MEET DEBS' HEADERS Washington. July IT. (TJ. P. dent Harding today had a succession of appointments with organisations and persons who have been urging him to release Eugene V. Data and other political prisoners. Announcement of the appointments followed reports that Debs and possibly the others convicted of violations of war-time laws are to be released soon. Washington Postal Examinations Set Washington. July 2C. (WASHING TON BUREAU OF THE JOURNAL) Poatoffice examinations on August 26 are announced for the following offices in Washington: Carson, Long Beach, Napa vine. La Crosse and Tenino. the public works department had agreed to do the work at actual cost. CITT COUNCIL TO ACT ON PUBLIC WOBK ACCEPTED The city council at its session on Aug ust 3 will consider the acceptance of the following public work on which notices of completion have been filed: Sewer in Forty-first avenue southeast, from 130 feet west of Fifty-second street southeast to Fiftieth street southeast; Lane St Pasanen, contractors. Sewer in Saratoga street, from 100 feet east of East Thirteenth street to East Kighteenth street ; Latta St Kaady, contractors. Improvement of Sixty-second street southeast from Woodstock avenue to Fifty-fifth avenue southeast. General Contracting company, contractors. 'Sewer at Forty-second avenue south east from 120 feet west of Fifty-second street southeast to Fiftieth street south east, Lane St Pasanen, contractors. PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT BIBS WILL BE OPENED AUGUST S Bids will be opened at the session of the city council August 3 on the follow ing public work : Improvement of Humboldt street, from Denver avenue to Interstate avenue. East Nineteenth street, from Oregon to Pacific streets. East Twenty-second street, from Wy gant to Alberta street. , East Clay street, from East Forty-fifth to East Forty-sixth street Sewer in East Clay street from East Forty-fifth to East Forty-sixth street Sewer in Forty-second street south east, from Twenty-sixth avenue south east to Twenty -seventh avenue southeast Sewer in Buffalo street from East Fifteenth to East Thirteenth streets. East Tenth and Holm an street sewer system. SECOND MOM SUM GITEN IN PHONE BATE HEARINGS The high cost of hearings before the public service commission was empha sized today, when the city council made its second appropriation of $5000 to aid in carrying on the present telephone rate BIDS FOE 1MPEOVEMENT OF CITT OPENED BT COUNCIL When bids were opened at the session of the city council today, the low bid ders in the following public work were as follows: . For improvement of Simpson street from Campbell street to Interstate ave nue, Simonsen & Johnson, $4570.75. City engineer's estimate, $6162. Improvement of East Seventeenth street from Lambert avenue to the north line of Southmoreland, Simonsen St Johnson, $3586.25. City engineer's esti mate, $4574. Improvement of Cora avenue, from East Thirty-seventh street to Forty second street southeast Simonsen St Johnson, $7338. City engineer's est! mate, $9400. CHILD SELF GOVERNMENT INSTALLED; MAYOR TALKS Mayor Baker, Park Superintendent C. P. Keyser and Harry Coffin, repre senting the national safety council, were the speakers at Mt Scott playground at 4 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, when the children's self, government . council was ingalled.,; Wr -; The officials for the new government, which is the .first of its kind instituted at the Portland public playgrounds, are i Mayor, Alvin (Sarretson ; commissioners, Lucille Hart Maud Tollman, Harold Benson, Glenn Schenk ; police chief, Charles Hurd; chief of safety commis- to the figures presented by Wllliard m his exhibit ob Tate basts" as the "fair valuation'' of the properties of the Pa cific company in this state. There Is a broad distinction between "fair valua tion" and "valuation for rate making purposes." Shaw Insisted, in renewing to the figures prases ted by WiUard in. rehearing of the telephone- rata case in progress before the public service com mission here. Wniard agreed with Shaw on this point and explained that the figures presented In his exhibit $12. 429.607 represented the valuation of the com pany for rate-making purposes as fixed by the Oregon commission, rather than the "fair valuation'' of the telephone properties. LIKE GREEK TO LA THAN Willard's exhibit on the decrease of raw' materials entering into telephone construction was also submitted to a heavy bombardment with Shaw insist ing that it was misleading In that none of the materials listed were used in then raw state; that labor, freight and other items must be added in bringing the product Into a finished state ready for use in telephone work and that the en tire exhibit was misleading because it failed to set out all of these facts to gether with other information and sta tistics which must be considered in con nection therewith. To a layman the rehearing has re solved itself into a battle of technical experts employing weapons of such long range as to completely overshoot the comprehension of the humble "rate pay er, who, by the way, is mostly con spicuous at the hearing because of his entire absence, the attendance being al most entirely made up of engineers anc attorneys representing either the tele h.flrinr Tt wslr pTnlftlnMl that th r 1 tv has several very important witnesses Phon company or the patrons of the whii-V. it rioairea tr. hrvlrl at tho hparinr cumpany. When the matter was originally con sidered by. the council it agreed that if EINSTEIN THEOBT HOHN8 IN The high cost .of living and Einstein's the valuation of the telephone pi sanity in the state far rate making purposes CLAIMS SCOPE LIMITED The order of the commission ai ants the rehearing. McNary pointed out limited the scope of the rehearing to the recent order establishing increased rasa. McNary Insisted that to permit the hear ing to run hack to the order of 191 would be unfair to the tolepnrme com pany, which had not prepared to make a stand on the question of valuation. After To mil neon had assured the com mission that it was not proposed to at tack the valuation of the company's property but that it was merely desired to analyse the report for the purpose of comparison. Chairman Williams permit ted Willard to introduce his exhibit on a rate basis which shows a valuation of the company In 1916 of 8i2.429.MS of which approximately $1,000,000 was in tangible assets QUALIFICATIONS QUESTIONED James T. Shaw, attorney for the tele phone company, devoted his effort la cross-examination of WiUard to under mining the claims of the witness to rec ognition as an expert on telephone valu ations. Willard admitted that his engi neer inx experience had not Included tele phone plants except in connection with light and power punts, street railway and interurban systems and other public utilities, which experience, Shaw insist ed. did not Qualify the witness to expresi an expert opinion on matters affecting the telephone business. Two more witness are to be called by the city of Portland and sev eral valley patrons of the company are exnected to testify regarding service this afternoon, alter w n i c n me hearing will be turned over to the tele phone company, which has a uosen or more witnesses on hand ready for In stant action, with many more said to be subject to call If their testimony should be needed. derstood the rate extracted from the npaay had t AB de clared that t they should use their tele phone to call the heads of their fannies bill Portland and nothing wice a day their total would run M from M to It a four-party line or necessary an appropriation - of $10,000 J JL1 "V? "na ZuTL mi. theory of relaUvity afforded ground for PARKING MEASURE THURSDAY a lively battle of wits between Shaw and Willard this morning with Assist ant City Attorney Tomlinson frequently The city council has fixed 2 :30 o'clock coming to the rescue of his floundering Thursday afternoon as the time for a I witness and Chairman Williams inter hearing of the Portland Automotive I rupting the cross-examination in an Trade association relative to parking I effort to clear the atmosphere in time of . automobiles on Broadway. The new I for the noon adjournment ordinance provides for a limit of park- Willard's exhibit showtnx the relative ing to 30 minutes on the northerly por- position of the cost of living and wages tions ot Broadway, where many auto paid employes of the telephone company concerns are located. The association between April. 1917. and the present time, desires a time limit but wants it ex- Presented the excuse for th worriv at tended to two hours. gum en t which hinged upon Willard's authority to start the two factors at a common point four years ago. ATTACKS CHART In spite of Willard's repeatedly uttered contention that his chart was merely prepared for comparative purposes. Shaw persisted in his declarations that it was an "engineering absurdity," false comparison, and meant absolutely nothing at all. The chart, which was evidently ln- CONTRACT FOR TWO FIRE ENGINES GRANTED BT CITY The city fire fighting equipment is to be increased by the purchase of two triple combination fire engines. On recommendation of Commissioner Bige low the city council this morning award ed the contracts for these engines. The price is to be $13,000 each, and one contract for an American La France engine was given to the A. G. Lonr company, while the other, for a Stutz I tended as an argument for a reduction OSWEGO CLUB OET8 ATTORNEY TO FIGHT HIGH PHONE RATE Attorney G. G. Smith of Portland has been retained by the Oswego Lake Hy droelectric club to represent the Oswego Lake district in the telephone rate hear ing. Abolishment of the toll system and long distance service and reestablishraent of the direct service system which the community has always enjoyed, vi stressed at a meeting of the club held Monday night Also attention was called by one speaker after another to the ab surdity of. paying a $2.25 telephone rate for what was held to be a valueless privilege of telephoning tree to neigh- Dors wno live upon me u ttcrea which Oswego is located. One merchant staged that the present rates, including tolls, had jumped' his telephone rate to considerably In exec of his combined taxes on his store property and stock. Another man whose telephone Is used solely to communicate with his business house in Portland. ported an increase of from $1.50 to $9 a month. One speaker said that he un engine, went to the Stutz Fire Engine company. COMMISSIONER MANN ON DEFENSIVE, BUT WINS OUT City Commissioner Mann, under whose supervision comes The Cedars, had an uncomfortable few minutes at today's council session over an Item of $1122.90 expended for a septic tank and conr nec tions at this institution, which ' he had constructed without having obtained authority therefor from the city coun cil. Mann won out the council agreeing to pay ' the amount from the general fund. Mayor Baker read the riot act de claring that no commissioner, must make expenditures of this character without having first secured the approval of the council. Mann's defense was that an emergency situation was created which demanded immediate attention and that 93 ALARMS IN JUNE The report of Fire Marshal Grenfell for the month of June shows that the fire department responded to 98 alarms, of which 35 entailed losses amounting to $141,672.82. There were 3468 inspections made and 814 hazards abated. Two ar rests were made for violations of city ordinances. of wages 'of employes of the telephone company as one means toward reduc tion in telephone rates, shows that whereas wages have increased 80 per cent since 1917, the cost of living is today only 41 per cent higher than it was at that time, due to sharp declines in the past few months. A reduction of 10 per cent in wages would mean a saving of approximately $300,000 in operating revenues to the company and should be reflected 'in re duced rates to the telephone subscribers, it has been argued. COMPANY CRITICISED Insisting that to begin at a common starting point in 1917 was grossly mis leading. Shaw reminded the witness that nis company naa Been bitterly criticised at that time because of the inadequacy of its wage scale which had resulted in a strike of telephone employes, and had been called before the commission, to explain the condition. If the chart were made to show the true conditions at that time with wages CITY'S DATA AROUSES IRE OF TELEPHONE CO. (Continued Prom Pas One) pany this morning proceeded to lay down a barrage of technicalities in an at tempt to batter down the facts and fig- I below the cost of living, Shaw Insisted, ures presented by Willard. I it would not now show the wage line Sharp exception was taken by Sha,w I as having crossed the cost of living curve at an ana wouia leave no room tor an f,IJ-"SSl s CLbEK an F I i ISf SlSiTa u iff I J aRji I 1 s Faring toward vacation-land! Your vacation clothes may be best bought here, where the newest types for men and young men are displayed fin all their attractiveness of pattern and color. Whether your journey leads you to mountain shade or sunset sea, or whether you elect to rest in this pleasant city, you will find here clothes to meet your every requirement, Mt a price that vou will agree is moderate, indeed 1 Suits for men and young men, twenty-five dollars and upwards BEN SELLING Leading Clothier Morrison Street at Fourth argument for lower wages as a means toward lowered telephone rates. Willard was still on the stand under cross examination when the hearing ad journed for the noon luncheon, , PORTLAND FATS HIGH With the exception of Atlanta, Ga Portland pays a higher Tate for telephone service than Is paid in any other of a group of 20 cities in the United States, ranging in population from 200,000 to 500,000, according to an exhibit presented by Willard at Tues day afternoon's session. i COMPARISON' MADE The cities listed in Willard's exhibit include Milwaukee, Washington. Newark, Cincinnati. New Orleans, Minneapolis, Kansas City. Seattle, Indianapolis. Jer sey City. Rochester, Denver. Toledo Providence, Columbus, Louisville, St Paul, Oakland. Akron and Atlanta. In Portland the exhibit shows the sub scriber to a main line business telephone service contributes a total of $123 a year,' toward the support of the telephone com pany. In Atlanta, Ga., this class of serv ice costs $120 a year, but in all of the other cities the rate Is lower than in Portland, telephone users in Columbus, Ohio, paying only $66 a year for this service, while those in Akron, Ohio, pay $72 a year. No figures are quoted In the case oi Milwaukee. Providence. Louisville and Oakland, while in Washington. Newark and Jersey City telephone patrons pay for service according to the amount. DECREASED COSTS CITED Willard. whose testimony and cross- examination consumed the entire after noon, introduced In all eight exhibits. Including one on materials used in tele phone plants, ana others showing the fluctuations in wholesale prices, de crease In the cost of living and wage reductions throughout the United States. Commenting on the latter Willard de clared that a reduction of 10 per cent in wages of the employes of the Pacific Telephone company in Oregon -'ould re sult In a reduction of $300,000 in the I operating expenses of the company which reduction, he intimated, should be I directly reflected In lower rates to pat rons of the company. Such a decrease, he explained, would leave the wages of telephone employes at a point fully 10 per cent higher In buying power than were the wages received In April, 1917. MEASURED SYSTEM ADVOCATED Replying tr a question from Assistant City Attorney Tomlinson, who Is con ducting the rehearing for the city of Portland, Willard declared that the measured service Is the most equitable method of handling the telephone busi ness, for the reason that in this way every user of a telephone pays for exact ly what is used. Institution of such a service, sn admitted, woutd probably cost the big user more, but It would mean cheaper telephone service for the small Will skirts be longer q ofr Shorter f lead the authentic crdidjram r Paris Fashion Office in the August number. Ninety one other features. Ls good HOUSEKEEPING Out to-day charge levied against LJnntea era for a two-party Una. with I luteal farther from the Portland court- TANCOUTBE TOCTH BIBS July 1. John TTtgdsu Joy. son of Mr. and Mm T. Joy of tm Mast R street, died m Portland, aged IS. He hi by his parents and two stotera. Mm, A. M. Arnold and Miss Blanch Joy, both of Vancouver. The body Is hold at bar's sartors. s7 & -E fa w jt r PL THOMPSON'S ) Deep-CarTe Leases NX Are Better A - I I f f Vary material decreases In the price of lead, copper, tin. pig Iron, wire nails and steel bars, all of which enter largely Into telephone plant construction, are shown In the exhibits entered by Wil lard, who contended that these decreases should bo reflected in reduced rates to patrons of the telephone company. Strenuous objection was interposed by John McNary. associate counsel for the telephone company, whan tt appeared as if the petitioners for a rehearing of the t si iip. nan rats case were going to at tempt to tsar span the order of the pub- He service commlseson to HIS, fixing tt t tt THOMPSON'S Dees-Carre Leas Are Better (TwUmut Bcstetend) THE SIGN OF PER FECT SERVICE Have Your Glasses Look W ell f Glasses seldom escape uncon scious criticism of others. They make a favorable or unfavorable impression according to the way they are suited to you. 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Simmon's Brass Beds Special Five very attractive styles in this nationally famous lint of beds have been deeply cut in price. We anticipate an eater detfltnd for them certainly the prices warrant it $44.75 style special this 5 TmjF $40.00 styU pscial this ?Q1 H(Z week at wOXelU $39.75 this JAZ AA DWeVV $68.50 styhi special this at $45.70 In Spite of These Prices We Extend Credit Free and cons plot information resardinf houses, districts, etc.. far aishaj through our Home Rental Bureau. 1 U law II unswT Tho sdranlaaas BsssV of Special Prices TiJJkB satsnatd to out oXMBuLL of . town custom p B j Electric Ranges Simplify Work and Guarantee Results TU-. u : .'4. , - r-1 r- MUUMU oiil illicit J VI UtiaiiUll LlfcCU it idllC3 ICUUlrC the art of cookery to ascience easily understood even by achild. Automatic features, possible only in Electric cooking, transform hours of labor into hours of leisure. Electrical cooking is clean, cool, economical and simple. 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