108 The Philippine Journal of Science mi 



lowest bidder regardless of the advisability of purchasing better 

 material at a reasonably higher price. 



(4) The awarding of contracts to the lowest bidder offers little 

 incentive to produce a higher grade cement than that which will 

 meet the specified minimum requirements. In fact, many man- 

 ufacturers have to cut down their burning and grinding expenses 

 to the lowest possible figure in order to secure sufficient sales. 



The importance of always securing good cement is enhanced 

 in the Philippines where most of the material comes a long 

 distance by sea and where the cost of transportation is high; 

 and many attempts have been made to establish a system of 

 inspection and purchase which would insure the importation 

 of nothing but satisfactory cement, and thus eliminate costly 

 rehandling and troublesome delays which always accompany 

 rejected cement, and which heretofore have spasmodically 

 occurred to the detriment of all interests involved. At times, 

 local officials have bought cement on reputation and personal 

 experience, irrespective of cheaper brands then available. To 

 our knowledge none of the cements so purchased were other than 

 first-class. On the other hand, all cements which have given 

 questionable or unsatisfactory results were purchased from the 

 lowest bidder. Nevertheless, accusations of personal motives and 

 prejudice, or the possibility of such, and the cry of unfair treat- 

 ment from local agents of other brands ultimately forced officials 

 to purchase on a basis of quantity rather than quality. 



Similar attempts and results have been of common occurrence 

 in other countries, so that the following brief history of the 

 local operations of standard cement specifications, and, in fact, 

 the entire discussion throughout this paper, are general in their 

 application. 



OPERATION OP STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS 



Previous to the year 1907 the local standard for Portland 

 cement was based upon the requirements of the 1902, U. S. Army 

 specifications. During this time the engineer in charge of the 

 construction of the water-supply system for Manila purchased 

 a certain high-grade cement which had an excellent reputation 

 and always passed well above the specifications in use. It was 

 well burned, finely ground (about 88 per cent passed the standard 

 200-mesh sieve), its sand-carrying capacity was large, its pack- 

 ing was good, and different shipments received from time to 

 time showed a remarkable uniformity in physical and chemical 

 properties. However, certain manufacturers objected to the 

 purchase of this cement on the ground that they were willing 



