New York Tribune

MORE CANAL PROTESTS.

One from the F. S. De Ronde Company Over Roofing Contracts.

The protest made by Hudgins & Dumas to President Roosevelt against the award to J. E. Markel, of Omaha, of the concession for furnishing food to the employes of the government on the Isthmus of Panama, is expected to be followed by other protests by bidders who have failed to get contracts from the Isthmian Canal Commission, of which Theodore P. Shonts is chairman. Among them is a protest which Mr. Shonts himself recently refused to entertain. according to Alfred P. Holley, general manager of the Frank S. De Ronde Company, of this city. who also declares that he was ordered out of Mr. Shonts's office and told that, on account of the protest, his company could not have any contracts from the commission in the future.

Mr. Holley declares in an affidavit that his company made a bid for roofing materials in response to an advertisement of the Isthmian Canal Commission, dated April 19. and on May 17. when the bids were opened, a representative of the purchasing agent announced that some twenty bids had been locked in the agent's safe and could not be presented until the agent returned. These bids, Mr. Holley says, were not presented until half an hour after the bid of his company was received. It was not until June that the award of the roofing contract to F. W. Bird & Son, of East Walpole, Mass.. was announced. Mr. Holley says their bid was among those said to have been locked in the purchasing agent's safe.

The protest in the roofing contract case declares that F. W. Bird & Son received an award for paroid roofing at a total of $5.850, in the face of the Frank S. De Ronde Company's bid of $4.875, and that the Massachusetts firm got the award for three-ply tar paper at $2.500. while the New-York firm's bid was $2.400. The protest says "there can be no possible controversy as to the quality of the roofing." and that "there can be no question of three-ply tar paper. it being the same the world over."

Mr. Holley says that when he went to the office of Mr. Shonts to protest against the award he was received brusquely. and when he read his protest he was ordered out by Mr Shonts, who said: "If you people come and take up the commission's time on foolish and useless kicks like yours, you need expect no future business."

A representative of Hudgins & Dumas said yesterday that the charge of collusion in the Markel award would be pushed against Mr. Shonts as far as possible, but that the firm did not expect to have to go into court, having confidence in President Roosevelt's desire for fair play. Until some word was received from the President in response to the protest, it was said. no new action would be taken by the firm in the case.