Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-02-20
ROBESON.
How a Cabinet officer Gets Rich.
Some Startling Developments.
Official SWindling Extraordinary
Secretary RObeSOn'S Financial
Exploits.

NEW YORK, Feb. 18.-George NJ. Robe
sons sudden rise from poverty to affiuence,
since he became nominal Secretary of the
Navy, is accounted for by the Sun. The
receAt transfer by E. G. Cattell, of Phila-
delphia, of $4,000 worth of Washington
city property to Robson, was the Suns
first clue. Going behind it, the San finds
| that Cattell is a Philadelphia ship chandler,
and brother of ex-senator Cattell, of New
! Jersey, himself big contractor; and that
! E. G.. Cattell, of Philadelphia, supplies the
navy-yards at Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and
Mare Island with everything consumed
| there, under contracts awarded him without
competition and without proposal. Robson
would have given him the Washington
navy-yard on the same terms, but Sam
Brown was an incumbent that he could not
! dispossess. He has been bought off by a
! sWindling live-oak contract of 100000 in
Louisiana, and probably after this month
! Cattell's sway will include that yard. Some
of the contracts made by Ca;tell on behalf
! of the Navy Department show how he be-
came able to transfer Washington city pro-
perty to Robson.
Manipulating the Tennessee.
/ The Tennessee,of San Domingo memory,
/ laid up as worthless since that, her first
service, was built in 1864, in the Brooklyn
yard, and cost S1,5O0,000 there. Then
/ Porter expended another quarter Of mil
| lion on her. Her hull was condemned as
Unseaworthy six months ago. Robson
and Cattell secretly, and without proposals,
! contracted with John Roach &c Sons, of
/ this city, to build an entire new set of ell
! gines and machinery for the rotte n steamer
Tennessee, Robson and Cattell agreeing to
pay seven hundred thousand dollars for the
/ job. No board of survey ever condemned
/ her present machinery, and not an engine
/ builder in the country, save ROach & Sons,
! knew that the Navy Department contem-
plated such repairs; and engine-huilders are
unanimous in the opinion that there is a
profit of at least three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars on the job.
TOrpedOes with Money I'm EN-.
Last winter Congress appropriated half a
! million for the building Of two iron torpedo
boats. The contract for supplying the iron
plates for these boats has been given by
| Cattell to a Grant-shriel1er of Philadelphia,
named Pennock. The price to be paid is
| 1924 per ton. Any honest iron-dealeT
would gladly furnish the plates at $3.50 a
! ton. 1t will take fifteen hundred tons for
each boat, and Pennock will make three
! thousand times the difference between 1921
and $50, less his divvy with Cattell, Robe
son * Co., who are known to be his part
ners.
Another Soft Thing
Is found in the shipping to California from
| Philadelphia Of $4,000 brick for a store
house in the Mare-island navy-yard. The
appropriation is 100000. The bricks were
sent to New York by canal boat, and
thence by ship around Cape Horn, with Z
| freightage equal to the original cost. When
the vessel arrived at its destination she had
a cargo Of brick dust, not more than Z
/ thousand bricks remaining whole. The
| bricks could have been bought in California
at an advance on the invoice cost in Phila
! delphia Of not more than ten per cent; but
| if they had been so bought in California
! Cattell & Co. could not have raked in theil
divVy.
Tho Last Job
put up by the Caftell-Robeson ring takes
! Shape in the bill introduced into the House
by MIR. Towsend for the bidding of twenty
! iron-clad slOops-of-war on the broadsidt
principle. In this job RobesOn, Cattell &
! Co. expect to realize a fortune for each o.
the firm of Roach IL Sons, namely, Johr
Roach, of New York; E. G. Cattell, o.
Philadelphia; A. G. CattelI, ex-senator
George NJ. Rebeson, Secretary of the Navy
| Tom Florence and Sam Archibald, late o.
the old firm. This enterprising firm pur
chased the Chester Iron and Steel Works
! Just previous to the introduction of Town.
sends bill for twenty iron-clacs to cost forty
millions. Robson, who was poor man
when practicing law in New Jersey, is like
ly to be a very rich man before he quits his
| lucrative office in Washington.