The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-10-21
N Ntscel1nenms
THE MOTH swINDLE.
"MOths, Mold and mildew."
Washington, D. c., Sept. II.

Washington, D, c., Sept. IL, 80.
Under this head the Capital Of last
Sunday contains most singular artic e
from the pen of it's senior editor, Colonel
Dom Piatt. For better understanding
Of the same we reiterate the facts in the
case.
In 1872 Dom Piatt obtained from the
War Department contract for Messrs
Cowles, Brega & Co. to destroy moths in
the quartermaster's department. Accord
ing to the sworn statement of Mr.. FAINT
banker in Washington, who drew the
money and distributed it between tho e
interested in the contract, the Govern.
ment paid them from Febr'y or March,
1872 to July or August, 1874, the sum Of
$4O3 875, of which amount, according to
the sworn testimony of FAINT, $500 600
were divided as profit, Dom Piatt him.
selfreCeiving as his share $22 934 35. that
being ten per cent. on the gross amount
received by Cowles and Brega individ
uaily. Before the Congressional inves
tigating committee Piatt swore:
"After we got into these larger con-
tracts the Messrs Cowles took in Brega,
and the two agreed to increase my com.
pensation from five to fifteen per cent"
1t seems, however, that, according to
the testimony Of Mr.. FAINT, the contrac
tors paid Piatt only ten per cent. instead
of fifteen per cent. WeCopy from Fant's
testimony:
THAT was in the summer of 1874. Col.
P att called at my residence, and in con.
versation he informed me that his agree
ment with these gentlemen, Cowles &
Co., was that he was to receive fifteen
per cent and regarding him as entitled
to any information l had, told him l
thought there was mistake about il;
aud that they were paying him ten per
cent. upon the amount received by Geo
A Cowles and George W Brega individ.
ually; and he seemed to De somewhat
incensed at it, and said he would call
upon them for an account"
Piatt then went to the Secretary of
War ard demanded that, as Cowes &
Brega refused to pay the five per cent,
more, t. e., one half of the $22 934 So, in
addition to what he had received al
ready, the contract should be stopped
Meeting with some difficulties, he ap-
piled to his friend Garfield, who imme.
diately sent the following dispatch:
Little Mountain, Ohio, |
August 7, 1887. !
Hon. W. W. Belknap, Secretary OF
War: 1 hope you will stand firmly by
your orders suspending further work by
Cowes & Brega ]. A. GARFIELD.
Later Mr.. Garfield wrote letter to
Belknap, and the consequences was that
the payment was stopped for time.
Whether the contractors settled or
not, so much is certain, that Belknap af
terwards paid them $4,000 more, as ap
pears from the following letter to Gen.
eral Garfield, dated Sept. 8, 1874, in
which he says:
"The order of the Goth of July direct.
ing 'th It no more money be paid from
old or new appropriations on account oil
what is known as the Cowles process fOI
preservation of cloth, ETC., until further
nrders,' is hereby revoked, and the
quartermaster general is directed to Sc
leCt three officers of his department, tc
comprise board for the purpose of in.
speCting all the materials at the SChuyl
kill arsenal which have been treated by
the process above named report to be
made as to the condition of such mate
rials, and whether the benefits claimed
for this process have been fu filled with
respect thereto. No further payments
TO be made or work done L. the variout
preserving processes until the results o
the report of the board are made known
These papers to be returned as soon a
practicable.
But now comes Piatt and maintain
that he only had $4,000 year from tina
contract. In the Capital of August q
last, he says:
1--WE were in receipt of FIVE thousanC
a year."
In last Sundays Capital he asserts:
We threw up an income of FIVE thous
and year from that process for the bet
ter preservation of textiles from moth
etc."
AS Dom Piatt has received, according
to the sworn statement of FAINT $22 994
35, or $40 600 a year, the question arises
who drew the other half2 Was it hi
friend GaIfeld2 Will our coleagu