Low Bid, No Bid

In Seattle last December, Army district engineers opened bids on contracts for generators and transformers for the Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River near Bridgeport, Wash. A $6,238,373 bid by Britain's English Electric Co. Ltd. undercut closest American competition by $931,788, or 13%. But the Buy American Act of 1933 requires federal purchase of U.S.-made goods unless the U.S. price is more than 25% higher than an import.

The Army engineers bucked the problem to outgoing Army Secretary Frank Pace, who bucked it to Eisenhower's new Army Secretary Robert Ten Broeck, who shuttled it upstairs to Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson, who took it to a Cabinet meeting. Irritated to discover that he was hemmed in by the terms of the Buy American Act, President Eisenhower nonetheless told Wilson to stick by the law. Last week, on a technicality, the Army sent rejection orders to all companies concerned, including the British, and let it be known that it was not yet sure just when it would call for new bids.

In Washington, British Ambassador Sir Roger Makins got the point, protested to the State Department, citing the cancelations as a reversal of announced Administration "trade, not aid" policy; State echoed Sir Roger's complaint, expressed fears that the reversal would cost the U.S, good will among her allies.

Just who would sell the Chief Joseph transformers was still moot. The Administration, before it can make any "trade, not aid" drive really effective, will have to force a showdown in Congress on repeal of the Buy American Act.

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