The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-11-30
LON(IOOKEDFOR REPORT Of fourth
ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL
CONTINUED Prom Page -


! jury in the District of Columbia Tor
i conspiracy to dofraud.
/ Crawford Contraction June 90 1902,
{ the contract with Stern expired and a
new contract was entered into for
4 period Of four years from that date
with the Postal Device & Lock compa-
4 NY of New York, represented by wiz
/ liam q. Crawford of Washington, J..
/ c.. Crawford was the deputy auditor for
/ the postOhice department under the last
/ Cleveland administration.
Before the bids were opened Crawford
/ enlisted the services of CeOrge E Lor-
+ enz of Toledo, Ohio to aid him in Sc
curing the contract. An agreement
was entered into between LOrenz and
q Crawford whereby Lorenz was TO re-
ceive a specific amount on each satchel
I as his share of the profits. and ne was
1 10 furnish the straps. An analysis OF
/ the accounts shows that the money
which was paid TO LOrenz by Crawford
( was subdivtded between Lorenz, Ma
/ chen and crawford. Machen and LOr-
1 enz received 81 IL per cent and CraW-
1 ford % per cent. The straps which Lor-
7 enz agreed 20 provide were not fur
nished by him, but by Machen, and
: Paid for by the department.
/ This was probably the most skilltul
/ and complex scheme invented by any
of the postal grafters." 1t consisted
1 of a double conspiracy: First, LOrenZ
/
! to defraud the government out Of the
( price Of the straps; then Crawford con-
spiTed with Machen and LOrenz 20 de-
fraud mis- own company out Of the
| profits on the manufacture of the sat
chefs. while on the side was Long and
Z Machen receiving a graft on straps
from Lamb.
on July 81. 1903 Machen. Crawford,
] George z. LOrenz. and Martha J. LOT-
enz were indicted by the federal grand
jury in the District of Columbia for
conspiracy to defraud.
Croft Fasteners.
The Croft fastener is a patented de-
vice for attaching street letter boxes
to posts. No contract was ever exc
cuted for these fasteners. They were
bought by Machen direct. This method
of attaching letter boxes was not A
necessity, and in many places post
masters did not consider it satisfactory.
The cost Of the manufacture of the
patent fastener was % cents each. For
many years the department paid $3.50
but the price was afterwards reduced
to S125.
OF the S12S,6 51.25 that during eight
Fyears has been paid the GrOffs by the
department Machen and Lorenz have
Heceived about $51.460.
The Grohs, Machen and Mr.. and Mrs.
Lorenz were indicted by the federal
y
on June 5. and % 1903. for conspiracy
to defraud and the offering resolving
to defraUd and the Offering and re-
Ceiving of brides
Painting of Street Letter Boxes
In 1897 Machen made verbal ar
rangement with John T. Cupper Of
LOckhaven, Pa, to paint all the letter
boxes in the United States. allowing
him % cents each on the posts, 90
oh . T-AA .
for the pakage boxes; if the work was
done by local painter Cupper was to
furnish the material and receive IS
cents for each letter box and IS cents
for each package box.
On July a. 1900, the postmaster at
Springfield, Mass, submitted a propo~
sal from local painter to furnish the
material and paint the boxes in that
city for 10 cents per letter box and .
cents per package box. costing in all
1925. On July p, three days after
wards. he was informed by Machen
that John T. Cupper, the contractor,
had been instructed 10 arrange inn
lmediately for painting the boxes. After
Cupper had completed the work the
postmaster was directed to pay him
$100.50, more than three times as much
as asked by the local painter.
In May, 1902, the postmaster at San
Francisco, Cal, asked permission to
eXpend $3.50 for material to paint letter
boxes. In answer to this request he
was advised that John T. C,upper Of
Lockhaven, Pa, had been instructed to
send him sufficient material for paint
ing the boxes, and on Sept. 10, he was
directed to pay Cupper SS11.48 for ma
terial which he had ninety DAYS pre-
IviOusly notified the department he could
secure for $3.50.
The manufacturers of letter boxes by
the terms Of the contract were required
to paint the boxes at the factory. but,
regardless Of this provision Cupper
was ordered in July, 1900. to paint ali
the letter boxes at the factory where
they were made. and he was paid S16,-
227.50 for this work
Inquiry from about 500 free-delivery
offices shows that the expense Of paint
ing letter boxes for the six years prior
to Macnen's agreement with Cupper
was % II cents each. Since Machen's
removal the boxes have been painted
at thirty-eight cities. the average cost
per letter box being 28.7 cents, package
boxes 81 cents, and posts cents each.
Cupper, when first iuterroga tea de-
MED that he had ever paid anyone n
part OF the money he received for paint
ing letter boxes. Later when he was
confronted with drafts he had paid to
w. c. Long, he admitted that ne had
paid him 10 cents per box on every box
painted or about $50. 900 during the last
u
been traced to Machen
Machen, Cupper and Long were in
dicted by the federal grand jury on
July.3l, 1903, for conspiracy to defraud.
Carriers Leather Cases.
When the system OF carrier registra-
ton was adopted, Machen conceived
the idea that the carriers needed q
small case in which to carry the regis
tratiOn book He bought a small case
from Maurice Runkle Of New York and
Charles +. Smith of Baltimore, Nd,
without competitive bids. Those pur-
chased from Runkle were said to be for
the rural delivery service. On Oct SO,
1902, 1000 had been ordered, though al
that time there were but II 600 rura
carriers in the service
Runke was not a leather manufact-
urer, but dealer in clothing. He re-
ceived from the department 80 cents
each for the cases and had them made
by leather manufacturers, paying from
p 10 Is cents each. The 21,0O0 cases
cost Runkle $5.S31.9 while the govern
ment paid him SlS.906.3O making him a
profit of Sl3.074.35. Runkle paid Machen
2.450 for worthless mining stock ana
also gave McGresOr, a clerk in Ma
chen's Office. certain sums of money.
Machen, Runkle and 1IcGregor were
indicted by the federal grand jury IN
the District Of Columbia. on july 81.
1903. for conspiring to defraud
Charles j.. Smith Cause.-The cases al
legged to be for city delivery were
bought Of Charles r. Smith Of Balti-
more, Nd. They were exactly the same
az the Runkle cases in construction.
+. Ellsworth Upton. an employee under
McGregOr in the free-delivery division.
Z took uu with Smith the r17affar of