Daily Republican., 1881-04-27
The Star Route SwindIe.

ment that needs radical llEu'ihS ~
that i what is known as the Postal star
Route Service.
The Government has been SWindIed
ont of immense sums of money every
vear for unite a number of years by TINS
Star Route Service. There is no use ue-
nving thar. The list of nlnety-three
mail routes upon which Second Assls-
TAM Post Master Brady has increased
the prices for carrying the mails rom
S-o7 11Q per annum to S2,S02.2l4, bears
upon its face the strongest presumptlNe
evidence Of fraud. Second Assistant
Post Master Brady has the letting OF
contracts on all the mail routes and al
ter having let these ninety-three routes
for S727. .1l9 a year for three years, and
having after the letting increased the
nominal services until the expenditures
ran up to s., ,SO2, pa is responsible for
the corruption which no doubt exists,
and which has eliminated in shameful
scandal. and the more scandalous be-
cause from all the light now thrown
upon the transactions, are apparently
true.
The average length of time for which
the increased pay runs is three years,
therefore the contractors through the
kindly regards of Second Assistant
Brady will pocket S6,27j,000. This is
nearly twice as much as the whole def
cheney of the Postoffice Department
annually, and shows that if honesty
and economy were the rule in the letting
of mail contracts the Postotfice Depart
mpnt instead of running over 50, 900, 600
behind annually would run that much
ahead. What makes the apparent
swindle look still more like swindle,
is the fact that this enormous increase
of S2,9O2, pa is only on ninety-three
routes. The whole remaining number
of 9, l32 routes only receive S3,09I.1S all
told. 1t happens that these ninety
three routes where there has been such a
lavish and criminal expenditure Of
money all lie west of the Mississippi
river. They are all out on the frontiers Of
civilization, where the settlements are
thin, and, there is no organized public
opinion to detect raSoality and protect
the interests of the Government, 1t
seems TO have been only in that part of
the country where the mails needed in.
the common parlance of the day, sex
pediting" 1t is singular that none OF
this cxpediting business Involving
large additional compensation from the
Governmeu, was, TIeehed in the States
east o oItfe Mississippi.
The only refuge behind which: the
Second Assistant Brady can hide is that
O utter incompetency. No simple de
nial of corruption will avail him any
thing. He must admit if he wants to
tSltblINl4 MS i'I'NNl'AtibIl 10 an liplltNl
man that he lad no knowledge Of what
was going in his department and hence
he was an imbccilc not qualified for his
position and just the man to become Il
tool in the hands Of sharp contractors
and corrupt and scheming politicians.
1t was his business to know what ser
vice was needed before fixing its fire.
quency and speed of the carriers time
and making a bargain with the con-
tractor.
A Government official who thinks
that SIS, 600 sufficient, as Brady did for
mail service between Prescott and
Santa Fr and makes bargain at that
figure, aud then few weeks attcrward
concludes that the contractor ought to
have $685. must be either a fool or
kuave. Take another route for in
stancc-that between Red River Land
ingand Shreveport, Louisiana, through a
country sparsely settled and which has
increased but little within the last
thirty years, Brady let the route for
$Il.7OO year and Il short time after
wards increased the pay to S5l ,961.
One or two other examples will suffice
TO show either the Incompetence" or
rascality, or both of Brady. The Cald-
well and Fort Sill route in the Indian
Territory was increased from $1,000 to
S34. 600. the Bozeman and Fort Keogh
route in Montana from $4,000 TO Ssh
7GJ and the Willow Ranch and Reno
route in California from $3, 425 to S47,-
$50.
No other branch of the Government
has been managed as this has been.
The Second Assistant POstmastcr-Gcn-
eral has been permitted to make awards
Of compensation for Star route services
which in the total aggregate, amounted
TO SG.2IJ, ~. without single check.
1t is not creditable to the Government
that such looScneSs should have been
permitted, but the reasons are Obvious
why many Congressman refuse to see
that so much power Confded in one
man was dangerous. OF course there
are other men behind screens as bad as
Brady is but they constitute the usua'
horde of hangers on and buShwhacker.
always ready for good thing when on,
appears. They may be the mos
adroit rascalS thai walk the earth anc
adopts in villainy but that is no shield
for Brady.
But thank fortune the back Of tn
corrupt conspiracy to defraud the Gov
ernment has been broken. Let the vii
lains whoever they are be punished
and sent to the pcnitentiary. 1t matter
not whether CongresSman, contractors