Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-09-17

| wear. he would have to have 81, 7OO, OOO more.
| He explained thst he had spent in the nrs.
three months of the year 1854 lH LOT VIVA,
| is known as temporary service; he naa
started out at the beginning OF tne yeai
With the idea of building up the star serV,
Zee so as 10 make il equal to the railroad
1 !. ryice of the country. As is usual, Con
! gress had at the preceding session created
| lsrpe number of new postal routes. brauy
| made up his mind to put service on as
| many of these routes as possible, ana ~ Tue
same time to
| Increase she Service
| ON some of the long routes then existing
| in the West. He told the investigating
committee that every Congressman VINO
| asked for it got temporary service on tne
new routes in his district from Jnly 10
| October /, 1879. Contracts for this service
were let without advertisement, anu. as
was his custom, Brady took the word OF the
contractor for its cost October l he put
regular service on these new routes, ior
which he paid S434 900. He had also in
creased the number of trips on old routes,
so as to involve the payment by the GOV
eminent of $543 900, and had expedited the
time within which service was to be per-
formed, so as to involve the payment oy
| the Government of S334,OOO. He admitted
that. if the service as ordered, was con.
tinued until the END of the fiscal year, and
Congress did not give him the money nec-
essery to pay for it, there would be, at
the end of the fiscal year, a
Deficiency on this Account,
of between 81, zoe, 900 and S2,0O0,0OO. But
he said he did not propose there should be
sny such deficiency. He proposed to keep
within the law, which forbids the head OF a
department to exceed an appropriation
made by Congress, by suddenly cutting off
the increased service which had been put
on. He did not think that he would have
to do this, because he expected Congress to
give him the money that he needed to keep
The service I'D. But he had made all his
arrangements to stop the new service In
April il Congress refused to give him the
money he asked for, and would thus be able
at the end of the year to
SHOW a Clean Balance sheet,
or at the worst, a very small deficiency.
Under Mr.. Hawley's skilful cross-examina-
ton, he was obliged TO admit that, If Con-
gress did not give him the appropriation
that he asked for, he would find himself,
even il he did cut down service on many OF
the star routes in the East as we'll. This
necessity would arise largely from the fact
that under the terms of all star route con-
tracts, the government must pay the con-
tractor one months extra pay when serv-
ice is cut off before the expiration of the
contract The investigators who were set to
work by Postmaster James brought out
facts in the course of their investigation
which proved that behind the big star route
deficiency was
Something Darker and Graver
than mere abuse of discretion, The inspec-
tors in the department dug out of the rec
ords the bids made by contractors for star
route service the contracts; the advertise
ments; in short, the official history OF each
of the great star routes, from the first petit
ton for service on the route down TO the
last allowance for service performed. The
inspector in the field went over the routes;
they talked with the postmasters at the sta,
tons, with the people along the routes, and
with the men who actually carried the
mails Then the results of their labors as
to any particular route were put togetherit
was found that the action Of the Second AS
sistant Postmaster General in putting OH
new or increased or expedited service was
the result of fraudulent combination be-
tween himself and the contractors, by which
he was alleged to have protited very largely.
The Evidence Gathered.
Later on the postal inspectors got
a good deal of information on the
same subject, From their reports.
together with other evidence gath
cred by the prosecution, has been evolved
what all the world knows as the star route
ring" This star route ring was composed
of Brady who MS Second Assistant Post
master-General, had the power to put new
service on the star routes and to increase
and expedite service on old star routes;
some OF his subordinates accessory to his
acts and the contractors, big and little, for
service on star routes. 1t was the business
of the contractors to bring to Brady petit
e;npal nv nann1a LIVING for danNl
along the route and to swear that to per-
form the new service would cost a certain
sum, always enough to give the contrac-
torsa
Profit and Brady n Percentage.
1t was Brady's business to order the new
service, or the increase or expedition of old
service, as the case might be. All that
| Brady had before him in any case was the
| petition and the affidavit filed by the con-
| tractors for the service on the route. He
had nothing before him showing that ne
cessity for the service existed, nor did he
| employ the inspectors at his command in
| finding out whether the service he had or
| dered, and which the government had paid
| for, was performed. On one route, in one
year Brady ordered temporary service"
| Tor three months a. exorbitant rates, then
| regular service for the year at contractors
| rates, and then increased and expedited
service also at contractors rates.
In the case of the route between Prescott
| and Santa Fe in New Mexico, the con-
| tractor having been declared delinquent,
| the contract was given to the sub-con-
| tractor who had
Actually Performed the Delinquent
Service,
| and who at the time owed the Postoffice
| Department $4,000 ON another account.
| Walsh, this sub-contractor, became con.
tractor, was . member OF the ring and SER
vice on his route was promptly increased
and expedited, so that what had been
losing contract by several thousand dollars
a wear for his predecessor, paid him very
| handsome profit. The inspectors knew, as
soon as they had travelled over the routes
where the ser, ice was supposed to be, that
that money had never been turned into
service on Star routes. They found routes
upon which no service at all had been per-
formed. They found routes the costliness
of whose service had been attributed to
the dread of Indian depredations, not only
far from any Indian, but
Far From Any Human Being OF Any
Race.
They found routes where the same service
was performed as had been performed be-
fore increase or expedition had occurred.
They found routes where the new service
had been performed for "a few miles out
from the respective terminal, great gap
covering hundreds of miles being left in
the middle of the route. They found routes
upon which the new service had been half
performed; or tried for awhile and then
dropped. They found routes where moth
ing but an empty mail bag was carried for
weeks and months, and Others where the
contractors did not make even the pretenee.
| Again and again they found routes like
that from Canon City to Camp McDermot,
where the outgo for year and the income
for a year were to one another as $50. l66. 10
is to Sos. So; tie $50, i66 sc being the
amount to which the contract price had
been raised by terse
500 This Brady"
on successive orders for increase and e1pe.
iitioR from s., $50. Piled on the shelves OF
several strong rooms of the Pnstotfiee De-
partment are hundreds of bulky bundles OF
Iapers neatly tied with red tape and
n arkrd With the number and name Of some
of the Star Routes, of whose needs Brady
| ea;ped sudden sppreciAtion in 1879 These