The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-09
A PROSPECTIVE ROW.
Promise of Interesting Developments in
the Heyden-Bright Affair.

A Promise of Interesting Developments in
the Heyden- Bright Affair.
Washington Correspondence New York Sun.
Mr.. H. S. Heyden, late chief engineer of
the Senate heating department, has had his
eyes opened recently to the fact that it is not
always safe to mix politics with business,
Mr.. Heyden has just been discharged from
his Office by Sergeant-at-Arms Bright, and if
there isn't fuss made about it next winter
it will be because Senator Logan doesn't
know how to make one. Out of it all is
likely to come an exposure of the manner in
which the names of public men are used to
float business schemes. 1t seems that Ser
geantat- Arms Bright some time ago became
interested in patent fuel company A ma
chine had been invented that promised, they
said, to revolutionize the method of gener-
ating steam by the use of petroleum. Sena-
tors were interested money was obtained,
and factory was built in Alexa ndria.
Stock was foated and those on the
ground floor saw riches in their grasp.
Somehow OF other the patent machine
did not work well, and Mr.. Bright turned
in his extremity to Mr. .Heyden. who is
perimented, devised better machine pat
ented his device and sold the patents to Mr.
Brights company. That was the time when
Mr.. Bright and his subordinate were the
warmest of friends. 1t looked like go for
the new company. Somebody in Boston put
$50, 600 into the company, and the senators
were gladdened. But Mr.. Heyden did not
stn fhora Ha 4n
at last invented machine that was pro-
nounced perfect This he had patented. He
also is understood to have organized COM
pany, and to have let Senator Logan, Senator
Morgan and two or three other senators in
on the ground floor. Then he ran against
snag. Sergeant-at-Arms Bright's company
demanded the new patents of Mr.. Heyden,
SO Mr.. Heyden's friends say. He declined to
give them up. They said he was acting un-
fairly, was treacherous, and was trying to
get the better of the company to which he
owed his allegiance He said that he had
given the old company all it asked for and
had been paid for it, and there it ended.
Meanwhile some of the machines of Mr..
Heyden's new company had been set up,
and were found so it is said, to be far supe-
rior to the machines of Mr.. Bright's COM
pany. The stock of Mr.. Brights company
got a setback, and many predicted that Mr..
Heyden's new company would drive Mr..
Brights old company to the wall. The up
shot of it was that Mr.. Bright discharged Mr.
Heyden from his place as chief engineer of
the Senate department, and Mr.. Heyden now
thinks that if a politician goes into a bust
ness arrangement with another politician
be tn should stand on equal ground polit-
ically. Senator Logan has been appealed to,
and he writes back that this thing will be at
tended to next winter.
Some of Mr.. Brights friends say that Sena-
tor Logan and the other senators never put
any money into Mr.. Heyden's patents, as
they were not asked to- Their names were
worth more than their dollars to the incor-
porators of the company. The Sergeant-at-
arms has been complimented for his devotion
to civil-service reform in that he promoted
the assistant engineer to Mr.. Heyden's place.
Mr.. Heyden's friends say that the sort of
civil-seryice reform that permits the dis
charge of a competent officer because his
superior has business difficulty with him
will have to be defended by Mr.. Brght's
friends on the floor of the Senate.