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A MILD RETORT.
At the regular meeting of the Executive Committee of the Texas
State Association of Architects, held at Waco, Sept. 15, the follow-
ing statement was issued in reply to Governor Ferguson’s recent
personal defense before the people, belittling the profession of archi-
tecture and impeaching the integrity of Texas architects:
In his defense recently before the people of Texas, Governor
Ferguson offered an alleged saving to the state in architect’s fees
on some State work entrusted to him. In actual figures, he claims
that he secured the services of a reputable architect for about $7,000.00,
whereas the regular fees charged by architects in general would have
amounted to $37,000.00. This enormous difference would lead one
to believe that there was a typographical error in giving the amounts,
but, from the context, the figures seem to be intended. Such a
great difference, furthermore, would be looked upon ordinarily with
suspicion by serious minded people, but in order that the architects’
position may be made clear, we take this occasion to state a few
facts in this connection.
In the first place, the regular fee charged by practically all
reputable architects is the minimum fee which has been in vogue
for seventy-five years. It is one item which has not advanced even
though practically everything entering into the cost of the archi-
tect, from his education down to operating expenses, has increased.
This has been accomplished by high efficiency and volume of busi-
ness. A further fact in this connection is that architects as a class
are poor men and few in number.
Again, the actual cost, according to published statements, of
similar work by the depatrment at Washington having charge of
the architectural work on Post offices and Custom Houses, is more
than twice as much as the regular fee charged by architects in
Texas. Moreover, architects in the North and East, and in fact
members of the American Institute of Architects ail over the country,
have found it necessary to advance the regular fee twenty per cent.
Thus, although Texas architects are asking the smallest fee in vogue
for seventy-five years, the Governor was able to secure the services
of a reputable architect for about one-fifth of this minimum fee,
and less than one-tenth of the actual cost of similar work to the
United States Government. In actual figures, this cost on $740,000.00
worth of work—the amount entrusted to the Governor—would have
been $75,000.00; the fee charged by representative members of the
profession in the North and East would have been $44,400.00; the
regular fee in Texas would have been $37,000.00; and the fee paid
for the same service, according to Governor Ferguson, was about
$7,000.00. Furthermore, the actual cost of operating the average
architect’s office, as proven by experience, is not less than sixty per
cent of the total fee. Accordingly, we have the cost on this$ 740,-
000.00 worth of work to the United
States Government, $75,000.00; to Texas
architects, $22,200.00, and to Governor
Ferguson, $7,000.00, or less than one-
third of the proportionate cost of main-
taining a regular architect’s practice.
But granting that such a transaction
was made, it does not follow that a
saving was effected thereby. The final
and only test of the value of an archi-
tect’s services is revealed in the actual

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