Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story : The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the Wo by Laton Mccartney (readict .txt) 📗

BOULDER

beside construction-site campfires, Morrison was the boss of the Boisebased Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company, and a most formidable rival. He had already come to California in quest of financial backing from Leland Cutler, a prominent San Francisco banker and an old friend and schoolmate of Herbert Hoover’s. Cutler declined to put up any cash, and he told Morrison that whoever obtained the Boulder contract would be required to put up a $5 million surety bond. It was a staggering sum, especially in the midst of an economic depression, and Cutler had suggested that Morrison consider bringing in partners. As a possibility, he mentioned another builder who had expressed an interest in Boulder, Felix Kahn of San Francisco’s MacDonald and Kahn.

Since that conversation, Morrison had been busily trying to round up backers. In addition to $500,000 of his own, he had one important lure: the participation of Frank T. Crowe, a whipcord-tough former Department of Reclamation superintendent, who was then counted as the premier dam-builder in the country. Twenty years before, as a young engineer fresh out of the University of Maine, Crowe had drawn up the original estimates for Boulder, and the dam had loomed large in his imagination ever since. “I was wild to build this dam,” he told a reporter, years after Boulder’s completion. “I had spent my life in the river bottoms and Boulder meant a wonderful climax-the biggest dam built by anyone anywhere. “3

W ith Crowe’s help, Morrison made his first approach to the Wattis brothers of Utah Construction, a firm with which both he and Bechtel had worked in the past. W H. Wattis was 76, and his hand shook so badly he could barely hold a pen; but both he and his ill and sour-tempered brother, E. 0., were enthusi�stic about Morrison’s proposal. The Wattises’ problem was lack of cash. Though they could match Morrison’s $500,000, they could not handle the entire surety bond on their own, much less the $40 million they estimated that Boulder would eventually cost. Moreover, they were not happy at the prospect of taking in partners. “If we can’t do it on our own,” W H. griped, “the hell with it. “4 Morrison managed to mollify them, but only after promising them that any outsiders brought in would be “our kind”-if not other Mormons, then clean-living Christian folk.

Returning to San Francisco, Morrison went next to Charles A.

Shea, a fiercely independent 47-year-old Irish-American with the build of a bantamweight boxer and a disposition to match. Though not precisely the sort of clean-cut associate the Wattises had had in mind, Shea had a reputation as the best tunnel-builder in the Bay area. Also, 31

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

vicepresident and E. 0. Wattis second vicepresident. Charlie Shea was put in charge of field construction, working closely with Harry Morrison, while Felix Kahn was designated to handle finances. To no one’s surprise, Frank Crowe was the unanimous choice for general superintendent.

One crucial piece of business-exactly how much to bid on Boulder-was put off until later. The construction business was a tight-knit, competitive, gossipy fraternity, ever alert for intelligence on upcoming projects. One offhand remark by anyone about Six Companies’ bid could, conceivably, doom the entire project. Accordingly, it was not until forty-eight hours before the bid deadline that the builders met to settle on a final figure.

Gathering at the hospital bedside of W H. Wattis, Bechtel, Kaiser and the other builders listened as Frank Crowe, who had built a scale model of the dam for the occasion, reviewed each phase of the project and its attendant costs. When he had finished, the partners totaled the numbers, then added 25 percent. If