SPECIFICA TIONS. 29 1 



plicitly indited, stipulating such general information as may be 

 deemed sufficient for the notice and guidance of prospective 

 bidders and stating the formalities incident to the proposal. 



To obtain reasonable, fair, and intelligent competition is 

 the legitimate object of all such advertisements for proposals, 

 to secure which it is imperative that the relative value of all 

 offers be submitted to scrutiny and comparison upon precisely 

 the same terms; hence it becomes the duty of those authorized 

 to conduct such negotiations to cause to be prepared, either 

 graphically, by descriptive phraseology, or both, what is technically 

 and respectively known as "the plans" and "specifications" 

 to be used primarily for the information of bidders, and event- 

 ually to be incorporated into the body of .the contract expressing 

 the mutual obligations of the contracting parties. 



In drafting a contract it is necessary to the integrity of the 

 instrument that the exact understanding of the parties to the 

 agreement should be stated in precise terms; ample provision 

 must be made not only for present conditions, but to cover future 

 emergencies or contingencies, while the technicalities of the law 

 must be strictly followed and adhered to throughout. Hence, as 

 has been said, in important contracts it is usual to entrust the prep- 

 aration of such instruments to legal advisers, while necessarily, in 

 constructive contracts, engineering details are left to the engineer- 

 ing expert, the collaboration frequently resulting in errors, mis- 

 understandings, and discrepancies between the terms cf the 

 contract and the intent of the specifications. 



In cases of resulting differences, the intent of the parties 

 will be sought and established if possible, but in the absence of 

 conclusive evidence as to what w T as meant, the contract itself is 

 of the first importance, as it represents the instrument by which 

 the obligation to perform the work or to furnish the material is 

 assumed, and there is a tendency to give greater weight to it than 

 to the plans and specifications which are chiefly descriptive of 

 the work and the manner of its performance and which are almost 



