The Sunday globe., 1901-05-19
STEEL OR STEAL?
The Michigan Steel Company and its
Inside Snap.
MACHEN'S BROTHER-IN-LAW.
His Extraordinary Guess on The Design and
Material Of The Rural Free Delivery BOHes-A
Problem for the Postmaster General 10 Solve,
and Tho New Houses Being Erected and 10 be
Put Up Later On.

The daily press recently announced
the contract by the Postohice Depart
ment with the Michigan Steel Box Com
pany, located at Adrian, Mich, for
5000 boxes at $3.50, 1915, S425, and 1925,
according to size.
An investigation started by The Globe
on reading this simple but suspicious
looking item has led us into new and
fresh fields of exploration, where the
sensatio ions are thicker than the leaves
on the trees IN the vale of Valambrossa.
Superintendent Machen, who figures in
another column OF this paper, i'm the
Senate investigating committee, is the
chief manager ofthis steel box business.
Eight years ago Mr.. Machen was APP
pointed as a Democrat superintendent OF
the free delivery department, 1t was a
job that was much sought after because
of its possibilities some Of which are
now developing beautifully.
Mr. Machen is a Republican now, we
believe, and gracefully holds down his
job. Mr.. Machen is growing rich, and
| The Globe has made a critical examina-
tion of some Of the houses he is building
| on his meagre salary.
By the requirements i'm the Rural Free
Delivery law every farmer desiring to
take advantage of the beneficent steal,
enacted by Congress for the exclusive
benefit of the Adrian Steel Company,
must supply himself with an iron box.
The manufacturers throughout the coun-
| try competed for the iron boxes on cedar
] 81, 81,
equally as cheap as the Michigan Steel
! Company, but after the thing was started
the fine Italian hand of Superintendent
Machen became manifest in the game
| and it was suddenly discovered that the
boxes must be of steell And right here
| The Globe can not refrain from calling
| attention to the remark BILE coincidence
that "steep and "steal" are pronounced
phonetically, as it were, alike. But to
proceed;
1t is hardly necessary to state that
Superinte ndent Machen is from Michi-
gan and that he knows the Adrian con-
| Germ, but If it is important to give this
! information The Globe kindly furnishes
it to an unsophistocated public.
Now, Mr.. Machen has a brother-in-
law, like all other regular members OF
the family of benediets, and this brother
in-law, resident of Michigan, concluded
to erect a plant for the manufacture OF
steel boxes of a certain design.
| By one of those other remarkable CO.
medicines which will happen where one
has brothcr-in-law i'm the public SER
vice the gentleman in Michigan, known
as the Adrian Steel Company, hit upon
the very design which Superintendent
| Machen had decided upon as the best
and most serviceable for the Govern
ment of his country. Hence advertise
ments were suddenly sprung on the pub
lie and the unprepared manufacturers
! of the country that bids would be re-
ceived at a certain time for the contract
of those boxes. The other manufactu-
rers after reading the descriptions of the
| boxes required scratched their heads and
| acknowledged silently TO the night that
they never could get up in time factory
and machinery to make those boxes. Not
suspecting, however, that any body had
already guessed the design and had
everything "hXed" to manufacture them
by putting in bids with a view to the
extra expense they would have to incur
to manufacture the boxes. The Michigan
or Adrian Steel Company, however, of
Superintendent Machen's brother-in-law
was all ready for "biz," and he underbid
the whole outfit, hands down.
No other firm, however, could put up a
plant and deliver the boxes at the time
specified in the advertisement, so it is
fortunate for the rural free delivery
service that Superintendent Machen had
brother-in-law in Michigan who coul d
take time by the torelock and annihilate
space. 1t was an actual inspiration of
this brOther-in-law guessing the peculiar
kind of box required, and IL was a mas
terlY piece OF enterprise to have every
thing ready for their manufacture when
the advertisement appeared.
The estimate of Is, 200 boxes per aunum
is entirely too low, and Superintendent
Machen knows il. Twenty-Five thousand
to start the thing will come nearer the
mark, but we will say 10000, and call it
even. These 10000 boxes will cost over
$4,000 or $4,000, very fair start for the
Michigan Steel Company. But this is
not all. Superintendent Machen has the
machine well in hand. 1t depends on his
department TO increase the necessity for
more steel boxes, as he is head clerk and
bottle washer of the rural free delivery
system, Therefore we will naturally
look for large annual increase in the
number of boxes required, and in the
course of time we have no boubt that
every farmer will have one all to him
self, if the rural free delivery people can
induce him to accept one; and The Globe
thinks the superintendent is equal TO the
task.
Take the numberof boxes which will
be put out of service annually, both by
accident and design and the places which
must be supplied With new ones from
the Michigan Stee Company and any
mathematician can easily calculate for
himselfthe number of new houses which
will go up in Washington in the next
few years. Calculus has many problems
harder of solution than this one, this
simple example:
suppose Superintendent Machen's
brother-in-law, tie Michigan Steel Com
pany, sells 10000 10 10000 steel boxes an
nually 10 the Riral Free Delivery De-
partment, how many houses will Super
intendant Machen build in Washington
on his presentsalary in given timeYj
The Globe, b its youth, worked out, as
stated, more difficult problems In calcu-
lus than the one 1t now gives its read ers,
and ii respectfully offers IS to the Post