The herald., 1898-10-29

! STUffING THE MAILS !.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

The political campaign nearing its closing
hours, in which so much enters which vitality
concerns the state, will not have been in
vain if the people gain information from
wheat they read, and act with intelligence
when they come to vote. One OF the stock
arguments among a number OF JOURNALISTIC
lightweights in their efforts to traduce Hon.
c. A. Barlow and compass his defeat is the
old, oft-repeated but stale charge that ne
engaged, while a member OF congress III
stufflng the mails for the benefit OF the
Southern Pacific company.
Mails are weighed on all railroad lines IN
the country for a period of thirty or thirty,
five days, and the average weights OBTAINED
constitute the basis Of transportation con
tract for four years. If the mails can De
padded out during the time of weighing, OF
course the railroad company would be greatly
benefited as the rate of compensation is
fixed per pound and the price is at the
highest notch. That mail stutfing is a IA
miliar industry in behalf Of big corporations,
where the requisite influences can be eN-
erted to officially secure it, is fact so well
known that it needs only to be stated to be
assented to by every one at all familiar with
the railway mail service, and the matter IS
rarely laid to the door of member OF con-
gress. Those in authority in the service
might tell tale if they would.
MI. bdTlOW has Stdtcu luily anu
his knowledge and connection with the
stuffing last spring and his explanation
ought to satisfy any reasonable man even
in the heat of an exciting campaign.
This is as good an opportunity as any to
state some things about mail weighing and
the periodical stuffing to increase weight and
compensation to the railways. The general
public has no means of knowing how it may
be done and to what extent it is carried. 1t
is business grown venerable with age. 1t
is put into practice whenever necessary. In
some instances in late years it has assumed
such proportions as to attract public at
tenton A year or two ago the New York
Sun and World and few other papers took
the postoffice department severely to task
for such scandaous acts and arraigned the
authorities in unmeasured terms.
On the Southern Pacific this stuffing
commenced about as soon as the road was
opened and has been practiced ever since.
1t can he accomplished in many ways. 1t
is of record that, for some days before the
weighing was to begin, much of the mail
destined for all of California south of Fresno
would be diverted from the Central Pacific
and sent over the southern line, and turned
back again when the weighing was con
cluded. A large portion of the Australian
mail, tits transportation on the Central Pa
cic being paid for by Great Britain and
Australia). has on several occasions been
diverted from that road and forwarded over
the Southern Pacific to San Francisco and
weighed as United States mail. the Austria
Ian steamers being held some hours await
ing its arrival
This could not have been wholly an acct
dent or mlssent mail. and postal clerks could
not send 1t Ill this manner II they wanted
to- 1t could only be done by those who had
.,..a +lN,,, -,l al -
that kind come from Washington.
10 add to this amount OF dead weight,
which carried with it enormous compensa-
ton tor four-year period, the blankets,
lunch hampers, working kits and all things
winch went tor the necessities and comfort
OF postal clerks and weighers on long runs,
were weighed in and out, the same as letters,
registers and papers, and rated as mail mat
ter. These items added several hundred
pounds to the legitimate weight. Why the
clerk was not also weighed no one knows.
lie certainly was male matter.
Four years ago two postal clerks found a
large amount OF mail matter-several heavy
sacks OF old public documents in on
the Southern Pacific from New Orleans,
destined for railroad officials in San Fran
cisco, thus making the journey the whole
length of the line. Some OF the sacks were
sent back again to railroad officials. This
was IN weighing time. 1t had d rather raw
look and the clerks preferred charges against
a high official in the service before the
proper authorities in Washington. The
Chronicle took hold of the matter and
tipped 1t up thoroughly.
The charges failed, as the DIVISION super
intendent OF the mails conciusively
showed that he had nothing to do
with the affair." but the young
men were dishonorably discharged from
the railway mail service, and will probably
never be able to get back again, even if they
wanted to. They made the mistake in
thinking the department would sustain them
in exposing 50 palpable fraud.
Another scheme has been worked on other
roads, that of buying up unsold newspapers
from the office of publication, paying tie
postage on them at publishers pound rates
and sending them to every person on the
line of the road whose name could be OBJ
tanned, thus increasing weight for the thirty
day period.
This mail stutfing has been the rule every
four years, commencing long beto"e Hon. e..
A. Barlow had the opportunity or the ambi-
| ton to get of the farm and into public life,
much less to congress. 1t will ind )ubtedlt'
be continued indefinitely, to the great profit
| OF the railway companies, unless some power
| infuses a little care and common honesty
| into some divisions OF the postal depart
ment. The shaking up the transportation
section OF the postal department has had
| in the past four or five Years ought to reach
| the cong esslonal ear by and by ana bring
out an investigation, and if the stories are
| true-and proof can be had-It ought to
materially reduce the sum of So ,0000OD NOW
annually paid to railway companies trans
porting mails and punish the men conniving
at it at least by exposure.
| The mail-stuffing scandal became so open
ana notorious that special agent came out
from the east during the late weighing to
supervise matters and look out for irregu-
larities. Some may have been found, fol
certain it is that two periods OF ten days
each of the first thirty-five days were can
celed and the time extended to cover the
required period.
| 1t should be remembered in this connec
ton that all the mail from the city Of Wash
ngton and the east destined for all Of South
| California comes via the Santa Fe and none
whatever by the Southern Pacific. Even il
! Mr.. Barlow had desired ever 80 much to hell
the struggling Southern Pacific, he had alb
solutely no means of getting scrap Of paper
away from the Santa Fe, let alone yettin2
hundred, of pounds of old musty document:
on the Southern Pacific at New Orleans
That diversion could only come by an agency
within the postal department itself in The
cIt5 Of Washington.
The esteemed journals which have so in
dustr;ou,ly condemned Mr.. Blrlow for what
they deem his connection with mail stuifins
will probably not publish much of theil
story, for if they did the editors thereo
| p1ah In he 1,rc,