The morning times., 1896-01-25

county pent entihry, Tor winch he
pays three and IA quarter cents apiece,
making complete.
JAMES TAYLOR.
The foregoing telegram was published in
The Evening Times OF yesterday, and is
complete answer TO the question propounded
by Gen. Nelson, the Second Assistant Post
master General. 10 The Times challenging
the correctness of the statement made by it
that the mail bags were made in a peni-
tentiary.
In his last annual report, and during
The continuance of the McNulty contract.
Gen. Nelson says that he paid for jute
sacks. No. 1. 40 cents a piece, and for jute
sacks. No. 2, IL cents piece. 1t there
fore appears that on the first named
class the contractor gets fourteen times
as much from the government as he pays
for them, and for the second class about
eleven times as much as he pays for them.
This. on its face, looks ike pretty fair
contract with a politician contractor and
Il member Of the State senate of New York.
ANOTHER Law VIOLATED.
The Times has been asked what becomes
OF the condemned sacks which are sold by
the authorities of the mailbag repair shop.
Investigation shows that they are sold at
auction Ia front of the shop, a sale having
taken place a few weeks ago. 1t was
also icurned that the price paid for them
is about eighty cents per hundred pounds.
1t is stated in The annual report OF Gen.
Nelson that for the year ending June 80,
1895. there were sold 97,604 condemned
sacks, and the prospect is that the amount
OF condcmnations will bc largely in excess
OF those figures this year. This viii be
evident from the following extract from the
report:
y committee WIS ppointed, consisting OF
the chief clerk of the Railway Mail Service,
division superintendent and assistant SUI
perintendent, superintendent OF mails in the
Washington postoffice. superintendent or
the maii-bag < repair shop, division Inspector.
and canvass worker, to determine whether
the repairs were made in u proper and
economical manner.
The result OF their Investigation which
was very thorough and complete, satisfied
the department that too much repairing was
being done, and that IT was necessary that
Il certain amount OF modification should
be made both in The extent OF repairing and
the ma Dncr i'll which new Material was at
tached to Old material. The practice of re-
pairing pouches that were not sufficiently
away with. The custom of using new
material on old material was done away
with, and a system OF using Old material
for patches on old equipment was adopted.
This committee also suggested additional
inspectors, which were put on, SO as to
make the inspection more complete and ef-
fective and insure a judicious amount of
repairing only. +~l-i
The action of this committee naturally
threw out of the service Il large amount of
equipment that, while practically useless,
would have performed some service, though
in very expensive way, by being repaired
often. This renders ii necessary to make
additional purchases the next year that were
not contemplated before.
ONE QUEER OMISSION.
In the statistical ami financial tables OF
the report there appears everything in con-
nection with the running OF the shop ex-
cept the wages paid the employees, who
do the sewing and darning and also the
disposition of the moneys realized on the
sale of the condemned bags. The sales
are made to local buyers, 1t is understood
who again sell them to paper manufactures.
This method of disposing of the waste is
stated by one of the contractors for gov
ernment waste to be an exception to the
rule that 1t shall be sold as in all the other
departments by yearly contract. General
Nelson has, however, stated that he runs
the shop in the best interests of the govern
ment and he figures as the only law in the
case.
One of the New York Congressman said.
speaking of the sale OF penitentiary goods,
that it is the law of that State that such
goods should be marked as coming from a
penal institution. 1t was learned last night
that the bags which come under the Nc
Nulty contract are not SO marked, and no
explanation could be offered for that cir
cumstance. 1t is perhaps, reasonable TO
suppose that If the bags were so marked
it would have been impossible to deny the
truth OF the statement that they were
manufactured by convict labor.
VOICE OF PRAISE.
The publicity which The Times has given
the conduct of affairs at the repair shop
has been q source of fruitful comment
since the publications have been COM
menced. The Woman's Tribune of this
city has commented editorially on the facts
as given to the public. as follows:
The attempt to cut down the wages OF
the women employed in repairing the
mail sacks aroused storm of Indignation
as soon as the facts were known. These
women have the most unwholesome, re-
pulsive and ill-paid work that Uncle Sam
has to dispanse. 1t Is as much as a
person accustomed to breathe pure air can
do TO perform an errand at the back part
of the POstoffice where these filthy mail
sacks are in use. But women work over
them at piece work. and can earn but from
90 to 80 cents a day. Yet when there
is an attempt to reduce the price,
women complaining. are told by the au-
thorities that if they do not care to work
at the price. they need not; as there are
plenty of others who would be glad of the
opportunity" Fortunately. the champion
ship of The Times has compelled public
attention to the case, and Senator Call in.
troduced on Tuesday, q resolution to put