Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-11-30


years over $4,000 has been paid for
letter boxes on rural routes. Machen
and Scheble were indicted by the fed
eral grand jury in the District of Co
! lumbia Sept. s, 1903, for conspiracy
and fraud"
| A congressman from Brooklyn,
whose name is not given, is connected
with the introduction of the Brandt
Automatic cashiers for which the
government paid $4,000. These
machines We're sent out to post
masters all over the country and they
We're compelled to pay $3.50 each for
them, though no requisition had been
made for them in many instances
and quite often protests were made
that they could not be used. At
Chicago, for instance, the postmas-
ter notified the department that he
could not use but one. Nevertheless
he was given ten and his Office was
charged with them at the usual
price. \ bride of $4,000, the report
says. was paid to Congressman Ed
mund II. briggs TO secure the order
for $50 of the useless machines.
The brief concludes with the fol-
lowing summary:
Summary Findings.
For the purpose of this report,
the investigation ordered by you on
March Z has been completed. In the
preparation of cases for trial where
indictments have been found, infor-
nation may be secured which will
necessitate further investigation and
possibly involve persons not now
implicated.
More than 40 inspectors have been
employed upon this work, some of
them continuously every day since
the investigation began. The records
of 1000 postoffices have been exam
med. and the files of many divisions
of the department, covering period
of from six to ten years, scrutinized.
THE system of organized corrup-
ton that has been disclosed began in
1898 and continued until stopped by
this investigation. The amount of
money secured by the corrupt OF
ficials and their confederates is small
as compared to the total loss to the
government To illustrate: There
is no evidence that Louis received any
compensation from Ault d Wiborg,
yet during the first year Of his adj
ADMINISTRATION the expenditures for
canceling inks increased over $4,000.
II does not appear that Kempner re-
ceived money from the manifold com
pany, yet the cost of manifold sup
plies increased more than $4,000 a
year. Barrett received but $4,000
from Arnold, yet that company de-
frauded the people out of over $4,000
goo. Machen probably did not receive
more than $4,000 from the Croft
fastener. Yet the government has
paid Approximately 100000 for that
device, which represents u net loss,
since the department continued, by
the terms of the contract for letter
boxes. to pay for the original fasten-
ers Beavers and his associates re-
ceived less than $4,000 from the au-
tomato cashier. Yet the department
expended $74.275 for this wholly UNI
necessary machine.
''The total amount that the perpe-
traitors of these frauds themselves re-
ceived cannot be definitely learned,
but it will aggregate between 100000
and 100000. while the loss to the
sary supplies that have been pur-
chased and the inferior quality of
those furnished by fraudulent con-
tractors. can not be estimated with
any degree Of accuracy.
AS the gross abuses have been
brought to light they have been
promptly corrected by the proper de-
partmental officers. Contracts where
fraud has been discovered have been
annulled. As a result of the investi-
gation four officers and employees of
the department have resigned and 13
have been removed. Fortyfour indict-
ments have been found, involving 81
persons, 10 of whom have been con-
nected with the postal service
THE result of the investigation
demonstrate that all travelling agents
of the department-such as assistant
SIperintpndpptS Of Salnrip and n How