New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-18
THE sANBORN CONTRACTS.
COMPLETE COPIES OF THE CONTRACTS, coRRBsPoE
DENCE ETC. FINALLY SENT TO THE HOUSE,
SUSPICIOUS OF GIGANTIC JOB AT TIE BOTTOM


DENCE, ETC, FINALLY SENT TO THE HOUSE
SUSPICIOUS OF A GIGANTIC JOB AT TIE BOTTOM
OF TIE TRANSACTIONS.
lBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIBUEEl
WASHINGTON, Feb. Incomplete copies OF the
correspondence, schedules. orders, &c, relating to
the sO-called Sanborn contracts were sent TO the
House to-day. When the long lists of the firms,
corporations and private individuals are printed,
from whom Gen. Sanborn and the three other
contractors have collected hundreds of thousands
of dollars of revenue Oh shares, intelligent people
will wonder more than ever what influences in
duccd the Treasury Department to make such
bargain. A large portion of the amount collected
was obtained from railway companies as tax on div
idends and from the estates of deceased persons,
whose executors had omitted to pay the tax on lega-
cies and SUGGESTIONS.
1t is not easy to see why any extraordinary ma
chinery should have been required to collect such
taxes as these They lay right under the eyes of the
officials of the Internal Revenue Department, and
the fact that these officials overlooked them and for
some other reason failed to collect them appears to
show serious lack of efficiency in the service
that Mr. Commissioner Douglass ought to be called
upon to explain. Railway dividends not
declared secretly paid out IN corner. They are
advertised in the newspapers and there is other
kind of dues to which the Government is entitled
which the revenue officer can more readily put his
hands on. So with the tax on legacics and success
sions; when rich people die, the fact is widely
known, this property under the cognizance of
the probate courts and their wills are open to the
inspection of the agents of the revenue service.
There is no imaginable reason for believing that
Gen. SanbOrn had any better facilities for collecting
these taxes than the regular force of Collectors,
aided by the Supervisors, Whose sole business 1t Is to
discover frauds and conceaments. How, for ex-
ample, should SanbOm, being III Boston, know that
the Sioux City aud Pacific Railroad in Nebraska had
not paid its dividend tax when the Collector at
Sioux City had no knowledge of the fact, and why
should not the revenue officers living in the same
town with Cakes Ames, John b. Alley, or J. NJ. S.
Williams suspect that these gentlemen had not in
cuded their enormous Credit Mobilier profits in their
income returns as we'll as Sanbomf
The truth is the more light there is thrown upon
this transaction of farming the revenue for the col
lection for onehalf of the receipts the more ground
appears to exist for the suspicion that there is
gigantic Job at the bottom of it, set up by certain
keen-witted men of position and influence in Wash
ngton, who are never at loss for devices to get
their fingers in the Treasury. The Ways and Means
Committee ought now to push a searching inquiry
into the secret history Of the entire transaction,
from its first inception in Congress.
Nothing has been done by the Committee with ref
erence to the contracts yet and no action will be
taken until epapers received from the Department
to-day have been printed. 1t is said BIZ prominent
gentleman who has had much to do with the subject
of the contracts that Mr.. Sanborn and his compan-
IONS have what the detectives call spotted" about
S2000OO 900 of claims, and that the schedules show
where this amount can be obtained. The same
authority says there is already considerable lobby
here work to prevent the repeal of the section OF
the law under which the contracts are made. What
the Sanborn party most fear is repeal and they have
il Is said, withdrawn all interest in the publication
of the contracts and the pending Brooklyn suits.
SECRETARY RICHARDSON'S LETTER TRANSMITTING
THE CoNTRACTS-THE AMOUNTS COLLECTED AND
FEES PAID-A LIST OF DBIINQUENfs.
GENERAL PRESS DIsPArCHl
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-THE Secretary of the
Treasury to-day sent to the House of Representa-
tives the following communication inrelation to the
Sanborn contracts:
TREASURY DEPARTMENT. WASHINGTON, Feb. II, 1874.
Ihave the honor to inclose herewith in compliance
with the resolution Of the House Of Representatives OF
the 18th inst copies In full OF all contracts made under
the authority Treasury Department In pursuance
OF the provisions OF the first section OF the legislative
Executive and Judicial Appropriation bill, approved
May g. 1872 ALSO copies Of all correspondence and orders
schedules showing the entire amount OF
moneys collected under their contracts by Messrs
Malcolm Campbell, John o. sanborn and John Clark,
respectively and how said moneys have been disposed
Of No moneys ever been collected or paid by the
Treasury under the other contracts. The papers mere
with transmitted comprise copies OF all the contracts
schedules receipts certificates checks and other cor
rcspondence having any bearing upon reatons any
and all steps or action taken by the Treasury Depart
ment under the provisions OF the law referred to.
In Justice to persons whose names are included In
the lists accompanying the several contracts OF those
xno are claimed be indebted to the Government
of taxes or otherwise and who have not been
nroceeded against permit me to add that no evidence
whatever Of such indebtedness has been presented TO
,ha denartment All that known to the department
on the beet what appears on said lists which were
necessary TO be furnished in pursuance to the require
ment OF the first section of the act OF May 8, 1872
namely:
That no person shall he employed under the
| provisions of this clause who shall not have
,plv set forth in q written statement under oath.
10 the Secretary OF the Treasury the charac-
ter of the claim OF which he proposes TO recover or
assist in recovering moneys for the United States the
laws by the violation of which the same have been with
held and the name Of the person. rm or corporation
having withheld such moneys before the persons
| furnishing them could be employed.
have the honor to be, sr very respectfully, your
obedient servant wM A. RICHARDSON, Secretary.
The Hon JAMES G. BLAINE, Speaker of the House OF
| Representatives,
It appears from the large mass Of documents sub
united that the collections account of Sanborns
complaints amount in the aggregate to $4,000, OF
which there was paid to Sanborn $23,0Oo. the bal
ance being paid into the Treasury. The following
are the names of the persons where the amount col
lected exceeds $4,000.
7 H. Gossler OF Hamburg t10,s4s income tax; Daniel
| lanes. tiiss4, income tax; Thos H. Deyens, 1905
income tax; j. ii. Gossler, jr $780, income tax Bur