Omaha daily bee., 1909-05-22
TRICKS OF TIE SUGAR TRUST
Money Penalty Paid for Cheating the
Government.
CASE OF THE SEVENTEEN HOLES
Bow the weIshinG Scales Were Ma
~nipuIatsd By EmpIoyes-The DIE
eovery, Prosecution snd
Result.

The sugar trust has paid into the national
Treasury a total Of s2.134.Oo In settlement
Of Judgment obtained In the New York
federal court and the financial penalty m
posed for fraudulent Weighing Of sugar.
by means Of which the government was
cheated for years past Following the set
tIement OF the money penalty comes the
announcement that the government Will
at once institute criminal proceedings.
against the company and It's agents.
The manner In which the government
was cheated in the weighing of sugar Is
set out with Illuminating detail by Harold
J. owlan In the outlook. under the fetch.
ing title Of THE Case Of the Seventeen
Holes a number corresponding with the
number Of scales manipulated by the com
pany's men. These scales stretch along
the company's dock on the water front of
BROOKLYN. and are used to weigh sugar as
It comes from the vessels. The writer
says. in part:
LAS the sugar comes over the side of the
ship Il Is weighed by the customs officers,
and TO that end there are seventeen big
Fairbanks scales placed at intervals along
the docks. Each scale has a platform
eight or ten feet square. its surface flush
with tbs surface of the dock, like the
scales that you have seen so often outside
a coal dealers or a feed store. The brass
bar o. tile scale. where the weight is read,
IL within a little house fronted with glass,
so thai the weigher can see the platform
and what Is on It as he adjusts the poise.
These scales, it should be remembered, be-
long to the company. and its representa-
tive5 keep the keys Of the scale-houses
and are supposed to lock them every night.
Effect oil the Joker.
A few week, as / sood upon the plat
form Of U6a u these scales, looking
through ne e,ass side Of the scale-hoase.
Bchiad Ca. clustering bar, facing ms,
two men sat. each with a small blank
book on the ledge before him. The man
or my left pushed the poise along the
beam till It balanced, and read off my
weight. 'one hundred and seventy pounds. d"
Both men recorded the figures In their
books. Then the other man leaned over
to the left and dropped his hand into the
dark corner under the ledge. once more
the weigher adjusted the polse-but now
the beam balanced at leo pounds. In two
minutes | had, without knowing how,
been robbed OF eight pounds of weight.
II was a little masquerade that we en-
acted. l represented a truck bearing four
bags of raw sugar. The man on my lef;
inpersonated the customs officer charged
with Weighing the sugar and recording the
weight for the collection of the duties.
He is known as the government weigher.
The man on my rieA1 took the place Of
an employee of the refinery, whose duty
II was to check the operations of the gov
eminent welgher and keep a record for
the COMPANY. He is known as the com
may checker The tpoIfnua NJ bad ;mst
gone through were a dramatic Illustration
OF The practice by which for six years the
Sugar Refining company had been stealing
from the government.
Stepping from the scale platform, / went
around into the scale-house. Taking the
seat In the corner, | ran my hand down
where my companions had been a moment
before. As l sat where a company checker
had sat every day for years, Just by my
left knee was q thick post supporting one
end of the shelf beneath the scale bar.
Under the shelf was a system of levers
and joints which formed the connection be-
tween the registering beam and the rod
leading to the platform outside. Between
the POST and the end wall of the scale
house was a space perhaps a foot wide,
as dark as a pocket. Running my hand
down the post. / touched a thin strip of
iron protruding from the post. its outer
end bent into a ring. The strip worked
loosely in a hole in the post. and as ]
pushed II through. its inner end ran over
a joint of the scale mechanism. II was
easy to see how the spring Of the steel
would exert force upon the levers and
make the registering beam drop.
We've found said my companion,
"that a pressure of one ounce just at that
point is good for a loss of forty-eigh,
ounces on the platform outside. You see
now where those eight pounds went to
that you lost so miraoulously."
Inspecting the Hole.
Lghting a match. we drew out the STRIP
and Inspected the hole in which II had
been. II was perhaps a quarter of an inch
In diameter. and its edges were worn and
rounded. Just above 1t was a cleat; and
beneath the cleat horizontal scratches con,
verged into a veritable groove as they ap
preached the hole itself. II required little
imagination to picture the bit of stee
spring. held in some hand (whose In the
world but the mans who sat in that chair
day after dayD in the gloom OF that mar
row corner scratching across the post
saided by the edge OF the cleat. in search
Of the hole into which il fitted. On th'
timer side OF the post the hole was worr
much larger.
Regularly spaced along the dock stanc
the seventeen scale-houses; and in tn
obscurity OF each one farther corner
sturdy post Is pierced by a hole like this
Some we're worn more. some less; for no
all the scales are used at once. AS eacl
ship unioads. It's cargo is weighed at tn
seale-houses nearest its berth. and in tn,
natural course of events some berths arr
mora continuously occupied than others
It was proved at the trial that nineteenth