Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-11-24
STAR ROUTE RASCALITY

Result of Six Months Investigation-Pre-
hminary Report of Special Attorney Glib
son-The Gradual Growth of She Brady
System of Stealing-How Evidence Has
| Been Obtained, Etc.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23.-Aeting Attorney
general makes public the reports submitted
| by A. M. Gibson, special attorney for the
United States in the star service Investigation,
who says: "For manifest reasons it would not
| be prudent to disclose all the facts discovered
| by the investigation, pursued by the represen-
tatives of the two departments or to indicate
tithe of the evidence which must be received
for courts of Justice" The document never
theless would fill about twenty ordinary news
paper columns, exclusive of accompanying
Exhibits" dealing chiefly with the admins
ton of the contract Office, during the term of
| Gen. Brady.
Gibson in the report says: SIN one of the
most profligate years of Buchanan's admin
istration while maladministratIon of the
postofice department became almost syn
nonymous time for public thefts, 1 find one
case of expedition allowance made to George
G. Happening. Coming down to recent
times, it is asserted that there were only SIX
cases of expedition, involving total of
,23S, in the fiscal year 1872, and only
seven amounting to some $61 900 during
the fiscal years of 1875 and 1876, when
Gen. Tyner was in charge OF
cases the orders making the allowances state
| that they are less than pro rata. This ancient
custom, in accordance with the true construc-
| ton of the law, was observed"
The report continues: "Twenty-three days
after the beginning of the fiscal year 1877,
Thos. Brady qualified as second assistant post
master general. During that fiscal year find
in his orders the allowances for the expedition
of mail service on sixteen routes. The contract
prices of these sixteen routes aggregated
SIS4, ,5A per annum; allowances for expedition
increased the pay on these routes S19, ,946,
and made the total pay 1885,, 800 year, and in
each one of these cases the law was stretched
to its utmost in favor of the contracts, and
instructions given that the law be disregarded,
as likewise the time-honored custom of the
department requiring contractors to furnish
verified and detailed data, whereby 'the exact
proportion between the original pay and COM
pensation for additional service required could
be accurately determined During this
same fiscal year Qs7O Brady made
orders granting additional allowances
to contractors for trips added and speed in.
creased on $50 routes, amounting in the ag-
gregate to s6O4, 1886. The original pay on
these routes was S1,O90,62O, so that the in
crease was about 5SS per cent, while the ad-
the aggregate only about 3S7 per cent.
Gibson charges that Gen. Brady thereafter
deliberately advertised for star service on such
schedules as to leave room for premeditated
increases of pay by means of allowances for
expedition, etc, and said that in almost every
instance he violated the letter and spirit of the
law, In making orders for additional
allowances by which a few contractors had
been receiving more than two millions and
one-quarter Of dollars It is still further
charged that during the fiscal years 1879 and
1850 there were forty-fOur orders on which
allowances were made and Immediately paid,
which were retroactive and in direct violation
of law. According to this report there were
during Gen. Brady's incumbency seventy four
orders made in violation of law. Gibson
says: Gan inspection of every case, examined
by experienced and impartial men whose in
structions were TO ascertain the truth and re-
port it, was ordered. Nearly all their reports
have been received. A number of men
have been employed in this work,
since May last. They have examined hun
dreds of witnesses who had personal knowl-
edge of the facts. The statements of those
witnesses were written down and verified by
their oaths. Subcontractors, superintend-
ents, drivers, agents and other employees of
contractors have been interrogated and their
dispositions taken. The result is mass of
evidence accompanied by explanatory reports
of the inspectors, which fill several thousand
pages Of legal cap paper,
In addition to ell this, the record evidence
in the department has been investigated and
critically examined, dgesied and collated.
To do this great work has required months
of most arduous WORK of the post inspector,
P. Il. Woodward, myself and officers and
clerks of the postoff1ce department assigned to
this duty. l have examined all this evidence
and weighed it carefully, and in many instances
heard and read oral and written statements of
contractors or their attorneys, and I cannot
resist the conviction that in almost every
case the allowance for the expedition was
fraudulently conceived and corruptly OBJ
talned"
Gibson finishes as follows: 'That there
has been inef1ciency, deerliction of duty and
still graver official shortcomings in the ad-
mlnistration of the Sixth anditor's office; that
gross abuses and manifest corruptions in the
conduct of the contract Office of the postofice
department in the past would have been i'm.
possible had the auditor of the treasury for
the postofice department vigorously exc
cuted the law with the honest purpose to cor
rect glaring wrongs and bring to justice no.
torious wrong doers.'