State College Regents Accused of Inflating Contract Bids
A Tacoma dispatch reports laboratory equipment priced at $3,700 when the college chemist said it could be had for $1,700 — and a college hall contract nearly double the low bid.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tacoma Dispatch: It has just been learned, through Western Washington parties, that Regents Cooper, Hoyt and Felkner, of the state agricultural college, attempted to let the contract for laboratory equipment to Kram & Bradley, of Spokane, for $3,700, when the college chemist said that the material could be had for $1,700. A college hall contract was let to Taylor & Lander, of Pullman and Moscow, for nearly $14,000, when the lowest bid was a trifle over $7,000. There was a stormy scene in the board over the matter, Regent Smith, of Tacoma, objecting to the apparent frauds. At a meeting in Seattle last week the college hall contract was rescinded on the alleged account of lack of funds. Orders were also given for competitive bids on the laboratory equipment, Kram & Bradley having acknowledged their acceptance of the contract. It is understood that Kram & Bradley hold that the contract is binding. The matter has been hushed up since the middle of June.
“There was a stormy scene in the board over the matter, Regent Smith, of Tacoma, objecting to the apparent frauds.”
Public-college procurement scandals are not new: this 1892 dispatch alleges inflated bids and a board fight over contracts at what became Washington State University. The amounts are small now, but the pattern — insider bidding, rescinded awards and calls for competitive bids — reads like modern public-contract oversight stories.
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