The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1908-02-13
Postal Frauds.
Allegations Brought Against George Fred
Terry, Head of Sawyer Publishing Co.
of Wateville, and Clerk IN the
Waterville Post Office.

Waterville Post Office
> The United States grand jury nov
sitting reported an indictment Satur-
day against George Fred Terry and
Henry w Boshan, both Of Water
vile, for conspiracy to defraud tho
government by the Justification Of
second class mail matter and the
false statements as TO weights Of mail
matter of the second class sent out
from the Waterville post office
Terry is the president OF the Sawyer
Publishing Co, and Bosnian is a clerk
In the post Office. The indictments
deal wholly with the publication
known AZ Sawyer's Monthly and other
publications issued by the same com
panY are not mentioned 1t is under
stood that Hon. George f. Bird Of
this city and Hon. Warren {. Phil
brook OF Waterville will be counsel
for the two men, and that their trial is
expected to commence Wednesday.
The name Of G. Fred Terry has a
familiar sound in connection with
cases involving the uses of the United
States mails, as it was just about nine
years ago May. 1899 TO be exact. that
he was in trouble in the same court
III connection with noted sWindle
known as the Fairfield Floral Com
pany. In this case Terry was held to
blame and was fined $500 and sent
eneed to one day in Jail. 1t has al
ways been maintained that in this
case there were others much "higher
up than Terry, who might have
figured in the dock with him. but he
was the only one who finally suffered
for the affair, as number OF others
who were generally supposed to have
been indicted appare ntly, found it
out before the indictments were made
public and departed 10 parts I'M
known.
The Fairfield Floral Company ad
vertlsed in many publications that it
would give home employment to Wo-
men by means of which they could
earn from $40 to $50 a week in their
own homes. The applicants wee
asked to send twenty five cents for
materials and instructions, the
amount named being stated to be to
cover the expenses of postage and the
actual cost of the materials used.
The applicant was then told that
the Fairfield Floral Company which
had large plant at Fairfield, was en-
gagged in manufacturing paper flowers.
That the demand for its goods was
SO great that it could not begin to
manufacture all that were require d
in its own plant, and needed outside
help. If the applicant could make the
kind of flowers the company wanted,
there would be open for them large
and profitable field of employment.
They were told to make the flowers
and submit the samples for approval.
The samples submitted never met the
approval Of the company, but the APP
plicants were given to understand
that they showed signs of meeting
the requirements of the company. If
they would send fifty cents more or
dollar or some like sum to cover the
cost of additional materials, instruc-
tions would be sent. Usually the
Fairfield Floral Company got the ad-
ditional money required, but the sec
ond lot Of samples would not prove
satisfactory, and SO the game was
carried on until the applicant got
tired of sending money. In this way
it was claimed at the time the Fair
field Company obtained a great deal
of money from poor people. Terry
was convicted on the charge of being
party to this fraudulent transaction
and paid the penalty for it.
This present case is OF a very diff
ferent character in that the alleged
swindling is all against the govern
ment, and that by indirection, as ii
were.
1t is charged by the post office au-
thorities that he defrauded the gov
eminent and conspired to defraud the
government by making false entries
as to classification of his papers, and
by making false statements as TO the
amount of mail matter he was turn
ing into the Wateryille post office.
In addition, the clerk in the Water
vile office, II. W. Bosnian, also is
charged with conspiring with Mr..
Terry to defraud the government of
postage on these publications.
Altogether the government officials
claim that the government has been
defrauded in various ways of at least
$50, 900 year and how long this has
been going on the officers do not
know or say but they believe that it
has been going on for quite a number
of years.
In the first place it is charged that
Mr.. Terry has conspired with II. W.
Bosnian, clerk in the Waterville
post office to defraud the government
by mailing as second class matter
papers which should not have come
under that head. The law allows or
did allow until recently that the pub
Usher of any regular periodical could
mail sample copy of his paper or
publication for each regular subscri-
Der he had. That is, if he claimed to
have and actually did have 1,25O,O 900
subscribers he could mail that number
of sample copies each month and pay
for them as second class mail matter
at the rate of one cent pound. But
for each copy he mailed over the 90
percent allowed by law for sample
copies, he should pay at the rate of
one cent tor four ounces.
One of the charges against Mr.. Ter
~ is that he exceeded the number
of sample copies allowed him by law
inasmuch as he did not have the
number of regular subscribers he
claimed to have and that he mailed a
great many more sample copies even
than he did claim to have at the rate
of one cent for a pound. In this way
the government officials charge that
he defrauded the post office depart
ment of large sums of money.
But the more serious charge per
haps, is that he conspired with the
most Office clerk to falslfV the weight