Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-15
rnE EALLEeEp ENVELOPE FRAUDS

DVVfndIe From a Mountain to a MOle-
 hI1I-The Results of Postmaster Gem
 eral Greshamss InquIry-A Complete
 Vimdfcatfon of MT. Sperrv.
 Especial Dispatch to the JOURNAL. CoURIER.l
 HARTFORD, Conn.,, Aug. 14.-Postmaster
 General Gresham, Third Assistant Hagen,
 Mir. Bradshaw, chief of the stamped envel-
 opes department, Assistant Clerk O. W.
 Bingham and Stenographer P. c. Hendricks
 reached this city by the fast express yester-
 day afternoon, and after dinner at the Allyn
 House proceeded to the government envelope
 works, where they spent the afternoon in
 investigating the charge that the envelopes
 furnished for the official use of the depart
 ment were not up to the required standard
 The original charge as telegraphed from
 Washington was to the effect that light weight
 official envelopes had been furnished
 by the contractors for the past eight years,
 thereby defrauding the government to large
 amount. The charge is now narrowed down
 to the envelopes furnished during part of
 the last fiscal year and the money amount of the loss to the government if any would be very small, as the total amount of this part of the contract will pro bably not exceed $25, 900 and the amount of the alleged fraud would be simply the difference in value be- tween the staddard paper and the paper fur nished The discrepancy was discovered by means of new testing machine and nearly all the envelopes have already been used in official correspondence. None of the envel- opes in question are furnished to the public. The contractors in question are the Pimpton Manufacturing company of this city and the
 Morgan envelope works of Springfield. Their principal contract is for stamped en- velopes and newspaper wrappers of which they furnish over 300, ,O00, 900 year. They have held the contract for ten years and their
 envelopes have always been up to the stand ard. Up to the 1st of. July last they also held the contract for registered letter en- yeIopes and the official envelopes of the Post office department. No complaint is made as to the registered envelopes, which have always been up to the standard. Some few months ago they changed the paper for the official envelopes, obtaining it from the Seymour
 Paper company of Windsor Locks county of Holyoke. It is alleged that this ! last paper was deficient in strength as shown by the new government testing machine. The contractors are said to have admitted that the envelopes were not up to the stand ard, but claimed that they were unaware of the fact and were ready to make good to the government whatever is deemed to be the amount due for the difference in the quality of the paper. Since the first of July, the con tract for official and registered envelopes has
 been sold by F. P. Kellogg 6 Co.,, of Spring field, who have also furnished inferior quality
 envelopes. When called to account for the 2 deficiency the Kellogg company produced the samples given them for standard, and it was then found that the official envelopes < furnished 1atter1y by the government works were not up to the standard. General \ Gresham in conversation with Courant re- porter last evening said that there was noth- | ing in the case which reflected in the slightest \ degree upon the integrity of MT. H. T. Sper- \ ", who for the past ten years has been the special agent of the department at the works in this city