The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-04-13
CORRUPTION IN THE NAVY.
ROBESON'S EXAMPLE FOLLOWED
BY HIS SUBORDINATES.
AN old ONtlawsd Claim That Isaiah
HanScOm Pit Through and Raised
from $1,000 $32 900 -PrgSta-
bic Brokerage,

WASHINGTON, March 29.-It seems that
general brokerage claim agency bust
ness has been done in the Navy Depart
ment, A short time ago one Wolf, clerk
in the Office of s. P, Brown & Co., testi-
fed that he had paid considerable sums
of money to clerks in the Navy Depart
ment to secure contracts for supplies and
favorable action on claims pending there.
1t has since been ascertained that Isaiah
Hanscom, Chief of the Bureau of Con-
struction, has been acting as a claim
agent, The proof is clear that he was in
strumental in putting an old outlawed
and adjusted claim through the Navy
Department in the summer 1854, which
equals any of Secor Robeson's operations
in that line The history of the claim is
as follows:
Tilton & Wheelwright, a pair OF Massa-
chusetts contractors, had a contract for
furnishing certain supplies to the Navy
Department at the beginning of the war.
The price Of everything went up enor-
mously in short time, and all the con-
tractors were subjected to heavy losses
thereby. There was an army of them
at Washington clamoring for relief and
wanted the Secretary of the Navy to do
something for them; but Secretary Welles
was a careful and exact man, who ad-
hered close to the letter of the law, and
he could not and would not allow them
a single cent above the contract price.
Hence they had to go to Congress for re-
lief and accordingly the act of March 3,
1868, was passed, which authorized the
adjustment of claims of this kind. 1t
provided that where contractors for navy
supplies had not furnished over one hun
dred per cent in quantity in excess of the
amount contracted for, they should be
settled with for the excess of the market
value over and above the contract price,
provided the claims were filed within six
months after the passage OF the act. They
were to be referred to the chief of the
bureau, for whose branch of the service
the supplies were furnished, and he was
to associate with him another chief of a
bureau, and between them they were to
determine the allowance to be made the
contractors; but their report was to be
subject to the final examination and re-
vision of the Secretary of the Navy him
self The case of Tilton & Wheelwright
was one of those named in the act, and
itsFas one Of the first passed upon and
adjusted by the Navy Department after
the passage of the act of March 3, 1868.
They were not allowed the full amount
of their claim, but $4,000 was rejected.
The case stood in this way until the
summer of 1874, when one Finley, acred-
itor of Tilton & Wheelwright, turned up
in Washington to see if he could not get
a further allowance en- their old claim,
out Of which he could realize something.
1t seems that he first put the thing in
motion, but the claimants afterward took
hold themselves, and Hanscom was their
particular friend He introduced them
to clerk in the department, and had
their case made special. This clerk,
Mr.. Handley, was before the Committee
on Expenditures in the Navy Depart
ment to-day, and testified that the claim
was put through under Hanscom's direc-
ton. 1t was the general understanding
about the department., he said, that Hans
com got 81, 900 for his interest in the job.
The remarkable part of the business is
that the claim was swelled from $4,000
under Hanscom's manipulation to $32,-
900, the amount that was allowed Tilton
& Wheelwright. Finley, the creditor,
who had put the case on its feet did not
get any of the proceeds of this job, and
he first put the committee on the track
of the fraud. Thus it appears that the
of Robson has demoralized the
entire Navy Department, and the rule of
division and silence is the only
one practised there, from the head down
to fourth-class clerks.