American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-05-28
plundering the People.

AS the facts are brought TO light the
more and more does the infamy OF the
''Starroute" steal appear. 7 he plumber
ing of the whisky ring in Grants time
was rs nothing compared with the thiev-
ing that has been done by this new ring
of Republican rascals. And only the
surface has yet been uncovered. Ii the
investigation goes on and the hand of
Postmaster-GeneralJ James is not STAYED
until the thieves are brought to Justice,
it is hard to say how many patriots of
the God and morality party will be re-
moved from their present sphere of po-
litical usefulness to do some honest Ia
Dor within penitentiary walls.
What is known as the ''Star- route ring
is one of the most colossal conspiracies
ever formed to rob the Government.
The ''pure and immaculate' Admin
istration of Mr.. Hayes festered with
corruption. Thomas j. Brady, the
lately deposed Second Assistant Post
master General, was the head and front
of the combination, but the ramifica
tions of the ring extended almost every
where. The contractors, lobbyists, SUBJ
sidized Congressman and beneficaries
of one sort or another were to be found
in every State in the Union, and a col
fusion between the Post-oflicc and
Treasury Departments was essential to
the success of the audacious scheme to
plumber the Government.
1t has supported lobby on the floor
of Congress unequaled in effrontery
and persistence. If ever the doings of
that lobby and its records are brought
to the light the slaughter among Con-
gressional regulations will be fright.ul.
1t would be tedious to go over in detail
all the damaging facts brought out in
the investigation already, nor is it to
the present purpose. The most start
ling revelations of instances of this
corruption have from time to time ap-
peared in the public press, and the
country knows and has known for a
long time the enormity of the rascali-
ty with which Brady's bureau has for
years been honey-combed. Brady has
grown wealthy out of this steal. A
few years ago. at salary of four
thousand five hundred dollars year,
he is to-day said to be worth five mill
ion dollars. A well-known Pennsylva-
nian, who was here lobbying for the
Deficiency bill referred to. when it
was pending before Congress, said he
was interested to the extent of seventy
thousand dollars, and yet he was not
a contractor. Steph. Dorsey, who
manipulated the Republican campaign
in Indiana last fall with "Star-route
money, is one of the chiefs of the
ring and is to-day rich man, although
a few years ago a scalawag of a
carpet-bagger in Arkansas, which
State he misrepresented for six years in
the Senate. He made his stake out of
the " Star-routes." But these individual
instances of the rapid accumulation of
wealth fail to give an adequate idea of
the vast corruption that radiated from
beneficent Administration of the
"goody" "goody" Hayes. 1t is saying
a great deal, but it is doubtful if any OF
the villainous rings that brought Grants
Administration into disgrace was on
half SO stupendous a scale as the one
built up by Brady and maintained for
four years to the enrichment of the
hundreds who were partakers in the
plumber filched from the public Golfers
in the most open and brazen manner.
One of the principal swindlers is ex-
Senator Dorsey, Secretary of the Re-
publican National Executive Committee
in the Presidential campaign, and the
man who took charge of the corruption
fund by which Indiana was carried for
Garfield. The frauds began when he
was Senator from Arkansas. He was
interested in contracts at that time and
narrowly escaped investigation.
Within month after Dorsey's tine
expired as Senator, on the 4th of
March, 1879-the contracts taking
effect June 80, 1879--he himself took
sub contracts in a large number of the
most profitable of the routes the syndi-
cate had obtained. He sublet the routes
to b ,rlow, Sanderson & Co. and other
contractors. Before service began on
many of them. and before any of them
were six months old, they had been
raised by Second Assistant Postmaster
General Brady till they--the one hum
dred and odd routes-cost the Govern
ment $553.O00 a year more than the
original contract called for.
The ramifications of the ''Star-route"
rings are widely and deeply extended.
As matter of necessity it has and
must have had the service of leading
managers and officials. 1t
looks now as if its dal were numbered
Those who started the rad some two
years since are not to be set up as para
CONS, for in the main their initiative was
disappointment at not being let in. The
whole thing illustrates the old adage,
that when rogues fall out honest men
get their dues. 1t may be in this case
it will be far more interesting to the
public to know that the rogues shall get
their proper deserts. Washington Cor. |
Plain Dealer.