The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-18

Washington. D. C., June l7.-tspecial.) J. Charges to the effect that the present contract with the Bundy Time Clock Company of Binghamton, New York, was executed without legal authority have been filed with Postmaster General Payne and while the inspectors are busy in New York and elsewhere looking into the methods by which 1t Is alleged clerks and carriers combined to fraudulently register their time, Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Bristow Is trying to find out why four year contract with the Bundy Company was suddenly executed in March, 1903, in the face of favorable re- port on the Dey Time Register made in Syracuse, New York, when. up to that date, the Department had simply extended its contract with the Bundy Company from year to year.
 He would also like to know If 1t Is true as has been stated, that Bundy clocks were sold to private firms in this city for much less than the price charged the Postoffice Department It is rumored that as a result of this investigation Mir Bristow will recommend that the depart
 ment dispense with the use of the clock altogether.
 The Bundy clock is operated by means of keys, the time being recorded on a long piece of tape. It is said the keys cost 50 cents apiece and each carrier is
 required to have three or four of them which have to be replaced frequently as the metal is so soft they easily wear out The time is assembled by time clerks. The Dey Register is operated by a lever and the clock assemblies the time mechani- cally.
 Postmaster General Payne has referred
 to Fourth Assistant Postmaster General
 Bristow letter from N. H. Baker, rep
 resenting the Dey Time Register Com
 pany. in which Mr. Baker does not mince
 terms in referring to George w. Beavers,
 late Superintendent of Salaries and Allow
 ances. or to John Masten. formerly chief
 clerk to the First Assistant Postmaster
 General. It is said that Beavers secured
 Masten his place as chief clerk because
 the two had become very intimate in the
 Brooklyn, ". r., postoffice, when they
 were employed there, but that they had
 disagreement and their relations were
 months of Mir. Masten's incumbency. First
 Assistant Postmaster General Wynne had Masten transferred from his position as
 chief clerk as soon as he assumed office and Beavers resigned at the commence
 ment of the investigation which is now going on.
 In his letter to the Postmaster General
 Mir. Baker alleges that Robert B. Brown Jr., who is associated with the law firm
 of former Senator John M. Thurston
 brought one of the Dey clocks to Wash ington in September, 1901. and that Mir.
 Masten directed Postmaster Merritt of Washington to give 1t trial. He did so and he, the chief time keeper, and the
 Superintendent of the delivery made a highly favorable report. MT. Baker says
 that MT. Beavers informed him that Mas ten had ordered the report to be filed away and no answer made. Up to this time the contract had been simply ex- | tended from year to year, but when the report on the Dey clock was received the | situation changed and while Maston was | acting First Assistant Postmaster Gen | eral in the absence of then First Assistant Postmaster General Johnson, he executed