The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-02-21

SANRORE.

The Washington dispatches tor the last
TWO or three weeks have had good deal to
say about the Sanborn contracts" without
being very explicit as to their exact charac.
! ter 1t was plain they involved some prettv
| heavy stealing, and that somehow Butler was
mixed up with them, but exactly WHY or in
what way was not so plain. There was also
noticeable singular unwillngness ON tbc
part of the Secretary of the Treasury Inv
whom the contracts" were made and ,,ho
should know all about them, to be comnuni
cativc On the subject. BY somewho. ,odi
Gus reading up of dispatches, letters, &C. on
the subject, we are able to CLEAN the fol- ow
ing information
In one Of the appropriation bills of CON.
gress III 1912 a clause was inserted pivny ,ho
Secretary of tie Treasury. power to make
contracts with" certain persons "to assist
the proper officers of the government in dis
covering and collecting any money belong
ing to the United States whenever tbe sama
shall be withheld by any person or como
ration"
Now when 1t is remembered that the whole
land at the time swarmed with internal rcvc
nue. assessors and collectors, with AN addi
'ional corps OF supervisors, inspectors and
detectives, whose combined and esnecial
business it was to discover and collectr oil
money belonging TO the United States and tn
see that none was Withheld" it is hard IN
tell what need there was for these additional
contractors" 1t appears, however, that
the Secretary had friend named Sanborn
who was estimated to be especially expert al
this business, and it was concluded to rive
him q job, as well as some others whom this
clause authorized the Secretary to appoint.
To make the job still better the internal reye-
nue. laws were so amended as to take from
the inspectors their moietcs or half of sums
under $1,000 which they had up to this time
received for discovering frauds on the reve
nue. and turn them over to the contractors.
Well, Sanborn went to work, and soon had
made up a list of claims to the amount of
100000 against different parties, of which
the Secretary contracted to pay him onehalf
for making the collections Three or four
other " contractors" had been appointed, who
were also collecting vast sums in the same
way and pocketing enormous moienes. In
fact, it leaked out, that these contractors"
and especially Sanborn, had marvelously
good thing" and that the goodness" was
immensely enhanced by certain very ques-
tionable practices, such as reporting certain
government taxes as roncolectable in the
regular way which were entirely good In
short, there got to be strong suspicious of
collision between the taxpayers and detec-
tives to manufacture bad claims and swell
the moietes.
So the House called on the Secretary for
information. The Secretary vouschafed to
inform the House who the contractors
were The House wanted to know how
much they were realizing and from whom
The Secretary told them how much the con-
tractors had made but failed to report from
whom. Then the House got mad and de-
manded the names of the victims, and finally
a list was sent in, including dozens of the
men of Boston, New York, &c,
whose failure to pay their taxes promptly to
the collectors is wholly unaccountablc. So
the matter stands at present.
Buffers suspicious connection with the
matter arises from the fact Of Sanborn being
one of his special strikers and pets, and a
man with whom Butler had heavy business
in North Carolina during the
war and with whom he is still dividing large
profits obtained from some quarter or other.