OCR Text |
Show satisfactory that it will be continued in the future, at least until some one devises a still better system. The second change affected the season for letting contracts for clothing, blankets, dry goods, hats and caps, and the like. In the past the bids for these articles were opened after the contracts for subsistence supplies, hardware, schoolbooks, medical supplies, etc., had been awarded. In view of the fact that all clothing must be . manufactured after the contractors receive the requisitions which state the quantities and sizes needed for each agencyand school, and as the Office had from time to time received complaints of consequent delays in the arrival of apparel essential to the health and of the beneficiaries, I concluded that the first letting had better be held earlier in the spring and be for clothing and piece goods only. Accordingly, the date for opening these bids was advanced from the middle of May to the 5th of April. It is confidently expected that all the goods contracted for at that time will reach the most remote agencies and schools before the roads bemme impassable on account of the fall rains and long before cold weather sets in. Other bid opening were held in this city on the following dates: On April 12, 1906, for blankets, dry goods, cotton goods, hats and caps, and notions; on April 26, 1906, for rubber goods, boots and shoes, medical supplies, and hardware; on May 1,1906, for crockery, furniture, harness, leather, agricultural implements, wagons and wagon material, paints, oils, tin and stamped ware, stoves, school-books, and other miscellaneous articles; on May 8, 1906, for rolled barley, gross beef: net beef, corn, salt, bacon, beans, lard, coffee, sugar, tea, soap, bak'ing powder, and other groceries; on May, 29, 1906, for hard, soft, and blacksmith's coal; on June 21, 1906, for groceries, crockery, furniture, harness, leather, agricultural imple-ments, paints, oils, tin and stamped ware, stoves, hardware, etc., cov-ering Pacific coast agencies and schools. All work incident to the awarding of contracts for the above-men-tioned articles, together with the preparation of contracts and bonds, was expeditiously performed, and a11 supplies ought to reach their destination at an earlier date than heretofore, except, perhaps, in the case of shipments passing thru the San Francisco warehouse, where delays may be caused by business confusion necessarily resulting from the earthquake and fire in that city last April. The third change had to do with our contracts for corn meal, cracked wheat, hominy, rolled oats, ground feed, flour, oats, dried apples, peaches and prunes, and canned tomatoes. I made up my mind, after careful consideration, that it would be wiser to defer the purchase of these. supplies till early autumn, in order that pros-pective bidders may know the crop conditions with some certainty, and thus be in a position to figure intelligently on prices. I |