New-York tribune., 1881-12-26
THE PROSECUTIONS TO BE PUSHED.

Il
tvpou . RFoUtAR CORRESPONDENT or THE TTuDUNEo
WAspyGroN. Dee 25-The appointment OF ME-
brewster as Attorney General gives the strongest
possibe assurance if any were needed that INC
President is determined to push the Star Route
prosecutions forward by every means III MS power
The officials of the Post Office Department, In
charge of the collection of evidence speak WIN inc
utmost positiveneSs Ofthe convincing character an"
overwhelming quantity of the testimony they have
got together But the utmost vigilance OF PROS
ecution cannot insure honest jury or Always
nrevent the spiriting away Of witnesses. The GOV
ernmept can pay witness 81 90 day for teIhng
the trnth. some rich Star Route contractor or rln@
of contractors pay him $25.OOO 10 leaNe
tho country. The Star Route men have been tortl-
fying themselves here. They have bought OF CON
troll large proportion of the newspapers, ana inc
local atmosphere is favorable to them in the sense
that the local atmosphere of any capital IS always
impregnated with jobbery. The chances OF an hon
est jury in Washington are certainly smaller thah
they would be in a place free from corruDtlng IN
fnences The history of every attempt TO punlsh
Government thieves municipal, State or National
has shown that the Government Is always at as
advantage and it would be unreasonable TO expect
that the Star Route prosecution should prove an
exception to the rule.
Ii must not be supposed that this Is wall OF oe-
spai1 from the Government officers. The Post Of
nee O1lclaS see inc ualiBcIs dhO u 'NV ''iNJ 60
ing steadily on with their work, and are so well sat
isfed with their success in accumulating evidence
that they say it will not be the fault of the Post Of-
fire Department if the dishonest contractors are not
convicted The selection of Mr.. Brewster as At
torney-GeneTal is a promise that they are TO nave
the beartiest cooperation from the Department OF
Justice But if all the suits should fail. the fact
would still remain that the old system has been
broken up and can only be restored by new con-
spiracy between high officials in the Department
and dishonest contractors. and even then hardly DE-
fore several years have elapsed.
1t has so happened, Opportunely enough, that tho
mail contracts for almost the whole Pacific section
expire next June and are now being readvertised
They run four years. and owing to precautions,
which will be explained, it will be very difficult to
say the least for to reestabsh the old star
Route swindles during that period. This Pacific
section includes Colorado, Oregon, Nevada ana
California and the Territories Of Montana,
Wyoming, New Mexico Arizona, Utah, Idaho
and Washington. This is vast part OF the re-
gion which the Star Route consprators have
selected as the field of their operations. The
whole of the United States is divided for the pur-
nose of simplifying the work of letting mail con-
tracts into four great sections the contracts eXplr-
ing by sections year apart. taking Tour years 10
make the round of the country, just as 1t taxes SIX
wears by similar method of rotation to renew tho
membership of the Senate The contracts for the
Pacific section expire on June 80. 1882. They are
now being readvertised proposals to be received
until January aud the decisions to be announced
ON il before March 4. 1882. The contracts which
are formally executed later will run from
July 1, 1851, TO June 80, 1886. 1t
goes without saying that IL these
contracts can be closed on terms, and with rcStrlc-
tons that will protect the Government the benefit
of them will continue for four years and this is one
great resnIt for which the PostmasterGeneral and
his assistants have been laboring at the same time
they have been doing all in their power to secure
the conviction of the who have been robbins
the Government.
There were two methods IN the Star Route frauds,
both of which we're usually employed upon every
fraudulent contract and both of which presupposed
n conspiracy of officials in tho Department
with the contractors outside route say
from Rawlins, Wyoming, TO Meeker, Colo
rado upon which about three trips a
week were necessary to afford proper mail
facilities would be advertised for one trip week
only After the contract had been let petitions and
letters all probably procured by the contractors,
would begin to pour in calling for more frequent
mails Then the officers in the Department prcsum-
ably in the combination, would raise the number Of
trips to seven week The contract had been
originally let for ST. 700 year. The Department
would now add six times this amount for the six adj
ditional trips. making additional allowance Of
$1,000 annually for what is technically known as
Increased service" two-thiTds of which in this
case was unnecessary. The increased rate of pay it
need not be said would have been out
of proportion 20 the increased expenses,
even il the increased service had been
necessary This was the less hagrant branch of the
double fraud. The other consisted of extravagant
and fraudulent allowances for Expedition or
Fastening the speed of mails. Take this same con-
tract as an example: The length OF the route was
$50 miles and the running time called for III the
advertisement was l0S hours, making the rate OF
speed only little over a mile and half an hour.
A demand for expedition" would seem very
plausible underline circumstances; though, perhaps
the stage which was carrying the mails was already
carving them at a much faster rate for the sake of
its passengers But the running time expedited |
TO forty-fye hours, four miles an hour, and an |
allowance made by the Department for the !
additional expense incurred of S20,0Sl %. IL was |
under this head that the contractors and their ac
completes usually displayed the greatest ingenuity.
1t was in the discretion of the Department to decide
what the increased compensation should be. The |
contractor was ready of course, TO swear "S'help |
him Moses that it would take thousand mules /
more or less TO perform this expedited" service,
and that he would be subjected 10 other enormous
expenses. The allowance would be made to him on
the basis of his representations and II would
grayely be made TO appear that 1t was pr0pOruoned
10 the increase in his expenses. 1t may bc that the
contract mentioned above not subject to all the
influences just described but it went through the
changes named and the increase in the total figures
entite IL to rank in the class of fraudulent con-
tracts. The increase from 81, 700 annually to
S31, ,951 25.
Now, honesty and good government being among
the simplest things in the world the remedy for all
4bis was "a plain as ABC Ii was 10 advertise