The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-03-31
John D. Sanborn Before the Ways
and Means Committee,

Revelations BY Treasury sPses-TAs hi
for the Aboiitasa sf the Msieties
r.a tsas system-rAs Currency
! Questiou. 14 s4E 4.3 F
F'5f ,t.t ael65
from the New York World.l ss =
WARRINGTON, March 24.-The Ways IN,
Means Committee had the celebrated JohI
u. SanbOFn and his gang of subordinates be
f0re 1t to-day, and acquired . good deal o
interesting and startling information. Whel
the hearing opened, Mr.. Sanborn stated tina
he wished to appear by counsel, and he in
trOduced to the committee ex-Reprosentativ,
Woodbridge, of Vermont. He also requested
that his sub0rdinates might be examined
| first. The committee informed Mr.. Sanbs,rl
that they intended to deal with him person
ally, but h:.d no objection to the presence o
his LAWYER -
| MIR. Coughlin, member of the New YOrl
Legislature and an ex assessor in the Intern
al Revenue Office in New York city, was
first examined. He turned Oui to be just the
person the committee WANTED to see, hav
ing collected some $4,000 for Mr.. SanbOrr
| in New York City on a sub-cOntract which
gave him LIZ per cent, or One-fOurth OF
| what Mr.. SanbOrn was laid by Messrs. Bout
| well and Richardson. The Committee in
quired particularly OF, Mr.. Conghlin how hi
came to be employed by Mr.. Sanborn, and
how the arrangement came to be made. Mr.
Coughlin could not clearly explain this, but
said they "gravitated together" He made
a show of explaining how the collections
were made, and alleged that the 50 pei
cent. which Mr.. Sanborn received was
only far compensation for the work he
did. 1t transpired that Mr.. COughlin was
the man who made who made the collection
Of the tax on the Phelps estate by which the
Government was swindled out of some
$1,000
Mr.. Coughlin asserted that he never told
Mr.. Phelps that he was officially connected
with the Revenue Departme MT, although be.
could not prove that Mr. Phelps did not be-
lieve that he was 50 connected. When the
examination was nearly finished the printed
documents giving the list Of contracts and
offers of contracts which the Secretary of
the Treasury had refused to accept reached
the cOmmittee-rOOm and was placed in the
hands Of members. Mr.. Coughlin was then
asked whether he had ever made an offer to
the Treasury to collect taxes for percent
age. On this point his memory was very de-
fective, but upon turning over the dOcu-
ments it was found that he made formal
offer last year te collect the same taxes for
had received fifty per cent. for collecting.
This is the most damaging fact that has
been elected so far, since it convicts the
Treasury Department Of having shown a
reckless favOritism to SanbOrn.
The committee next examined Mr.. Bel
sterling, of Philadelphia, Mr.. SanbOrn's re-
preventative in that city. Mr.. Belsterling
had similar arrangement to that Of Cough
lin, but never succeeded in collecting much
money. The Committee inquired particu-
larly as to how the lists of names which
Sanborn inserted in his contrasts were OBJ
tanned. Mr.. Belster!ing said they were in
possession Of the revenue officers, but were
not part Of the records, as they could not
be SO until the taxes were collected. This
puzzled the Committee very much, and the
members did not accept his explanation.
They extracted from Mr.. Belsterling the tes-
timOny that the reason why he did not make
more collections was that the Supervisor was
80 efficient, and that if Supervisor Hawley in
New York and Simmons in Boston had been
as efficient as Mr.. Sutton, SanbOrn could
not have got much money in their depart
ments.
Two more of Sanborn's subordinates are
to he examined tomorrow before the "chief"
goes on the stand. 1t has been ascertained
that SanbOrn himself was a special agent of
contracts, and the committee intend to find
out when his commission as special agent
expired. The revelations Of to-day reflect
most severely upon the Treasury Depart
ment, end Supervisors Hawley and Sim
mons. Members of the Committee on Ways
and Means say that the evidence is clear
that the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
is SanbOrn's man in the Treasury Depart
ment, and that he has bamboozled Secretary
Richardson from the beginning. The con-
victi0n is becoming general among members
that both Richardson and Sawyer ought to
be turned ont for their completely in the
Sanborn business, if for nothing else.
ABOLITION OF NOTIFIES.
The Subcommittee Of the Ways and
Means have nearly perfected the bid for the
abolition of mOieties, which will be con-
sidered in the Committee and perfected. 1t
ia now understood that the Ways and Means
intend to print all the evidence and speeches
made during the investigation on this sub
iect and simply present them to the House
without any comments whatever. The bill
itself will be the comment. The chief points
of the bill are the abolition Of mOieties to
high officials, only One-fifth rs moiety to
bo allowed to customs officials who are the
direct informers. Great restrictions is made
AZ t. the seizures Of bOoks aud papers, which
nearly makes the actual seizure q de4d letter,
and limitation is fixed of two years in
which merchants invoices can be seized in
stead of as now five years. 9th mo4iifica-
tions NAV. however, be added to the bill. It
is expected that it will be reported next
week, if possible, whom general debate
thereon will be in order.
THE FINANCIAL QUESTION.
Tho Senate made no progress to-day with
the financial question. The House bill,
passed yesterday, fixing the legal tender
circulation 1t $4OO, 900, 900, was received in
the Senate, and will lie on tho table for the
p.esent. The bill under discussion was that
reported yesterday from tho Finance Com
mittee fixing the legal-tender limit at $3s2,
OOO, 900 and providing for free banking, with
. feature looking to contraction year
hence. This measure was admitted by the
Chairman Of the Finance Committee to be
Of various clements, ard was
not strengthened much by the long speech
which he made in its favor. It is generally
conceded to be crude bill. Mr.. Thurman
closed the days debate in speech OF re-
markable vigor on the question in general,
and on Mr.. Ferry, Of Michigan, in particular,