New-York daily tribune., 1861-06-07
Cheating the Departments.
Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.

Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.
WASHINGTON, June 4, 1861.
For years past gigantic sytleu Of jobbery and
corruption has been growing up connection with the
Administrative branches OF the Government. The
decentralization OF our politics bas been largely due othe
corrupt practices which msinuatng y,ais
into the political administration, found their d'sgrce-
fu elimination during the last year of Mc. Buchanan
term Of Office Our whole political system has been
made To revolve about few grad schemes of plumber
Tne institution of Government Printing House has
we trust, put end 10 the Disgusting exposure
of frauds 10 which We had become accustoued III
nection with the public printing. Hardy second to
THE as means of faudu, ntly taking money from the
Treasury, and putting it in tie pockets of political
favorites though made 10 play important part
in the direction of political moveneuIs-are the con
tracts for furnishing stationery 10 the several Depart
menis, and to the two Houses of Congress. The der
TO cousion and corruption is left vide open by tie
custom of issuing proposals for Glasses embracing
several Items" instead Of making each item CHS
by itself The same s., stem is followed in advertise
ments of some of the bureaus If the Army and Navy,
and wherever proposals ssued in this form, it may
be taken for granted that bids made III good faith viii
not be successful however reasohable in themselves,
and advantageous TO the Government.
Take, for example. tie proposals. Of the Treasury
Department for the last year for stationery. Class
No. l, Paper" embraces Is items" the fret five Of
which are follows
Item l. 100 re,p. foopo satin hrish f.in;liu,d aud
trimmed, Of the very beet quality.
trimmed iSS 'Sia o the very very be.i f q'ay "ht ~
20 teans white cap payer mschnemade fsinlincd and
zTesn, esp pa er baesid hand made fsintued garden
pattern commonly known d'Ps'eh OF nsusr pai Of the
SO resm. auaO post white highly sl'zed s6d haidcoen
dsIed fainlin,d on thee sides aud L, very 4-i
49,, n- on.,,o mo-, rin,n,Ad. wL, uiniu faint.
lined on three sioe'' of the bet quality,
Now, il is to be remembered that in all ruch pro-
posas he contract s assigned to the bidder maAing the
lowest bid. Let US how II works IL the case OF
the above.
The honest bidder sits down and makes up lis bid
the basis Of profit Of 10 or Ii per cent, the
may be, upon all rbe articles called for, aud III tie
the amounts specified in this class But the bidder who
has been posted in advance by friend i'll the De-
partment, knows that i'll fact, not more than two or
three reams perhaps st ALL Of the kind Of PAPER
described under item l will be used, and lie biG-
this ct 80 cents per ream when rs market value IT, say
S. This makes his bid for that item only $50. OF
the second item" $50 reams, satin finish, will
be called for and he proposes for this at, will say,
81 per ream and for this " item his bid is ESQ But
of The kind described in the third item only twenty
reams are called Oi. This item reads the item
g except that, instead Of san finish, the words
chine-made are substituted. Every one knows that
there is no paper to be had in this country except
chine made andthe third item is thus identical with the
second This paper, described under the third item,
and Of which only twenty reams called for is really
the kind that will be used in large quantities. and
this the bidder who is in couson with the Stationery
Clerk or some other officer Of the Department, bids
six, seven, or eight dollars per ream.
Item calls for hand made paper, an article rs re-
marked above, Of which there is in the market,
nor has there been for years. The dishonest bidder
puts in for this again At merely nominal rate, aud
then furnishes the article Described except that 1t 10
machine made when called for, ut bis price, nas-
much handmade paper was contemplated in his
bid and of course for articles outsde Of the contract,
be may charge such price he pleasts, with limit
but bis own rapacty, the extent of the guilty
plicity Of the parties in the Department acting with
him. In items and q, there is the same as in
items 2 and 8, the paper Of which will be used
being called for in large quantity, while the following
item, which describes tie paper really used, il called
for only in small quantity. 1t is the all through
this class" item being made to net cover for
the fraud pracced in relation to another.
Now let us see how the bids on the items considered
will foot up on the part Of the honest bi ier pnl the
one acting in colusion with the Department, respect-
lively.
The latter bids on
Item !, 100 reaIn, at tsOc.........".........."s.0
Item ls0 ream. at y I''...'.'..'.'.'.....'''' iso
Iem 3. 10 reans At 7..........,.. '..........' l+o
And 30 on. The bidder acting in good faith, on the
contrary, BIDS We will say, a4 follows:
I'm, =
Item 2, $50 r-aIns f......................., to
Item ,, 20 r.ans at 4....................... 10
Making all aggregate Of IL lUo again.. Of f3iO.
This is no mere supposltous case. biaier for one
Of these contracts put i'll, short time sipce y bid
aggregatiDg between $1,000 and 5000; but com.
petitor whose aggregate bid something less than
81. 900, received the contract The following year,
the party first named put in bid for the same lir.
which amounted in the aggregate to only 81 400,
while his successful competitor Of tie year before
supposing that he had killed of all opposition, and de-
ternined to make still larger haul upon the Treasury
put in bid amounting To rome s OOO. The former Of
received the contract this time and made on 1t
$ll,OO0.
This is a sample Of the operations By which the
Treasury has been depleted during the rule of the
Democratic party This system OF Jobbery iS not con-
fined 10 the class Of contracts under consideration,
but extends into every Bureau, almost, fiom which
contracts are gwen. An illustration Of this occurred
time since in connection with the Navy-Yard at
Norfolk Proposals issued by the Bureau Of
Yards and Docks for the supplies OF bolts screws etc,
for that yard and among the items 100 tuns Of
railroad IRON" One bidder put in for this at s. per
tun when the article in question was worth $50 yer
tun. OF course he got the contract 1t happeued,
however, that 10 tuns Of railroad iron was actually