Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-05-28

~ ~. s,s * * ~ ~ * iS ~, ~, ~ ~ -
board Air Line in March, 1896, says
the inspectors report
"About 500 Sacks
of 100 pounds or more each of dOcu-
ments, franked by United States Sena-
tor j. B. Gordon, of Georgia, and
Representative A. G. Latimer, of South
Carolina, were sent to the various
agents of this company in Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina. and
Georgia. Two, three, four, or five of
these sacks, each weighing 100 to 125
pounds, were sent to an agent, who in
railroad mail, received envelopes con-
tanning slips paper or labels, franked
by Senator Gordon and addressed to
various offices in Georgia and South
Carolina, a large portion of the adj
dresses being to railroad employees or
postmasters.
THE division superintendent and
road masters gave oral instructions to
the agents under them as to FASTING on
labels or writing addresses on the books
which were not previously addressed.
The books were then remailed
And Again Transported
over the route of this company, to be
again weighed. Fifteen sacks were de-
livered at Portsmouth, Virginia. adj
dressed in bulk to General Superinten-
dent V. f. McBee. That night the
books were addressed in the railroad
building by his secretary Williams,
and division superintendent Wish
nant) and remailed the following morn.
ing to various addresses along their
route"
This padding of the mails having
been detected. the Postal Department
ordered another weighing in April.
THE railroad then resorted to
A New Scheme
by contracting with publishers for a
large number of papers to be sent daily
over their line to addresses furnished
by the company.
AT Portsmouth, Va, General Super
intendent McBee arranged with the
Star to send $500 copies daily for ten
days, and after that 2,400 daily, in bun
dies of - to each address, to parties in
South Carolina and Georgia on the Sea-
board Air line. At Raleigh, n. c., the
private secretary of McBee arranged to
have 5000 copies the first week.
5000 Copies Week
afterwards, of the North Carolinian'
sent in bundles OF Is to each address,
over the Seaboard Air line to stations
in South Carolina, Georgia, and few
in North Caroliua. At Atlanta. Ga,
the private secretary of Division Super
intendent Berkeley arranged with the
Atlanta Journal for 1000 copies daily,
10 be sent over the Seaboard Air Line
Railroad to Norfolk and Portsmouth,
Va, 1000 addressed as TO regular sub
scribers. the other 1000 as sample
copies. The Atlanta Constitution was
TO send
5000 OF Each Sunday Issue
toaddresses in Norfolk and Portsmouth,
Va, this amount to be divided up and
500 copies to be sent each day, 100 by
morning and 100 by night train. a
copy of Sundays paper weighs a little
over half pound. Norfolk and Ports
mouth directories were furnished the
Journal and the Constitution to print
labels for mailing papers to parties in
those cities
The total weight of the public docu-
ments sent over the Seaboard Air Line
by the direction of its officials. and il Is
believed, without the collision of
Senator Gordon or Congressman Lati-
mer, was
Sixteen Tons,
and the weight of newspapers sent dur
ing the second attempt to defraud the
Postal Department was
Ten Tons.
This amount to be the standard for
the next four years. For the ~ months
in these four years sixteen tons per
month would make l,536,000 pounds for
which the railroad would receive Sl22. s.
$50. Gov. Larrabee of Iowa rightly
terms this
Highway Robbery"
Even here. however, the scandal did
not end. "When the Postmaster-Gen-
eral complained says Senator Petit
grew, of South Dakota, 'they asked
him what he was going to do about IT.,
and MIR. McBee, the manager of the