Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-05-13
ill. In December, 1880, the

Postmaster General, in his annu.
al report to Congress, made nc
allusion whatever to possible de.
ficiency for the star route mail ser.
vice. At the time he wrote his re-
port he knew that there must be for
that fiscal year (1S7S-SO) a defcien-
cy in that service for more than 81,
100000. Congress had not been in
session two weeks before Postmas-
ter General Key, inclosing a letter
from his Second Assistant, General
Brady, sent letter to the Senate
and the House asking for an appro-
priation of $2,000,O00 to meet de-
ficiency in the Star mail service.
Thereupon the House referred the
letter to the Committee of Appro.
priations. That Committee consid-
cred the matter, and unanimously
agreed to ask the House for authori-
ty to inquire into the whole subject.
That power was granted by the
House without a dissent.
The investigation began. Second
Assistant tmaster-General Brady
was called upon to account for He
money he had expended. The hp-
preparation made by Congress for
the star mail service for the fisc al
year 1S79.S0 was 5000, ,OOO-every
dollar the department estimated
would be required, and every dollar
asked of Congress. He had spent
the whole OF this sum in the first
three-quarters of the fiscal year.
This had been done by increasing
the pay of contractors. 1t was the
old system. Contractors bid low for
the service. The department bad
prepared the way for this by adver-
Using for service less frequently than
it was required, and at a lower speed
thai the mails had been carried the
previous contract term. Then the
contractors having obtained the con-
tracts at low bids, got up petitions
along the, routes asking for more
frequent deliveries of the mails and
quicker time. On these petitions
the increased speed and additional
deliveries were ordered.
To show how this business was
managed we will instance one case.
Senator Stephen w. Dorsey while
he was still in the United States
Senate entered into a combination
with his brother, John w. Dorsey,
his brother-in-law John nj. Peck,
and John r. Miner, to obtain as
large "a number OF star contracts as
possible. They employed on ex-post
Office clerk named Redell, who was
familiar with the routine of the busi-
ness in the department. He pre-
pared the bids, drew up the bonds,
which must be signed by the bidders,
with the amount ef the bids inserted,
and then some postmaster must GER
tify that he is well acquainted with
the bondsmen; that he saw them ex-
ecute the bonds and that he knows
that they are good for the amount
thereof. Senate Dorsey sent these
bonds, without being signed by the
bidders, without having the amount
of the bids inserted, to the postmas-
ter at Little Rock, Ark. a creature
of his, who had them executed, with
ole or two sureties, and returned
them to Dorsey at the Senate cham
Der. The whole thing was farce
and fraud from the beginning. 1t
was SO proved before the committee
on post-offices and post roads OF the
forty-fifth Congress in March, 1878.
SO complete was the proof that MIR.
Cannon, q Republican member of
the committee, insisted that the
Postmaster General, should be noti-
fed of tho facts, so that he might
reject the fraudulent bids. The
notice was given; Dorsey himself
come before the committee and SOL
emnlv swore that he had no interest,
and expected to have none in any
contracts which might be obtained
on these bids. The Postmaster-Gen-
eral Mr.. Key, in spite of the notiiica-
ton he had received of the character
of the bids made by Dorsey's syndi-
cate, accepted them, and awarded
more than 100 contracts to the men,
bers of the ring.
Within q month. after Dorsey's
time expired as Senator, on the 4th
of March, 1S79-the contract taking
effect June 30, 1S79--he himself
took sub-contracts in large num-
Der of the most profitable OF the
routes the syndicate had obtained.
He sub-let the routes to Barlow,
Sanderson & Co., and other con-
tractors. Before service began on
any of them and before any of them
were six months old they had been
raised by Second Assistant Postmas-
ter-General Brady till they-the one
hundred and odd routes-cost the
Government 1858, 900 year more
than tba ORIGINAL contract called for.