The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1909-11-19
MANY OFFICIALS
ARE IMPLICATED IN
SUGAR FRAUDS
TWENTY-FIVE EMPLOYEES or NEW
YORK CUSTOM HOUSE ARE
INVOLVED.
THEIR GUILT is ESTABLISHED
Civil Service Commission Denies That
The Sugar Trust Dictated Any Of
The Appointments-Taft Consider
ing the Case.


two assistant weighers in the New
York Customhouse are known to have
been implicated or are under suspicion
ol : .ositive character in the so-called
sugar trust frauds.
This is set forth in a public state
ment issued tonight by Chairman John
c. Black and Messrs. McIlhenny and
Washburn, of the Civil Service Com
mission, in answer to charges that
the appointments and removals in the
New York Customhouse were at the
dictum of the trust
The statement of the Commissioners
is designed to show the care which is
taken in the preparation and rating of
examination papers; how, by reason
of the methods in vogue, it is practi-
cally impossible for the Commissions
eXaminationers in Washington to show
favoritism in rating; the authority
given appointing officers to examine
thoroughly into the antecedents of
eligibles and the power of removal en-
joyed by them if they had, or believed
they had, grounds for such course
| Answering in detail the charges the |
Commissioners say they have been of
the most general character and no
name and no person has been men
toned in connection with them who |
is of the Commission sforce. The
information regarding the twenty-five
assistant weighers came from the New
York Customhouse. Two of the as
sistant weighers were appointed with
out certification by the Commission,
the remaining twenty having been APP
pointed by certification from 1885 to
1907. There are now employed at
New York 1926 assistant weighers.
The Commission sets out how care
full it has been in ascertaining the
personal character of applicants for
assistant weighers' positions, requir-
ing information which embodied sub
sequently a history of their past ca
reers and vouchers certifying to their
worth
Appointing officers were authorized
to file objections to eligibles, were
given ample time to confer with appli-
cants and to make any Investigations
deemed desirable into their anteced-
ents.
The statement of the commission
concludes What the commission
desires to emphasize to the press is
that it has used not only all precau-
tons possible in the selection of it's :
but it has left in the depart
ment, unimpaired, the power of sift-
ing such appointments, when once
made to the bottom and exercising
he power of removal at any time that
he interest of the public service re-
luires 1t interposes no objection to :,
emoval for cause, and its processes,
instead of impairing the right of an
appointing officer to make inquiry into
moral fitness, have supplemented
hem to the fullest extent that ordi- :.
ary vigilance can exercise"
No one of the nine members of the
]abinet who attended today the first !,
leeting of the Presidents official fam
y since the adjournment of the spe- .
ial session of Congress would discuss
n any way this afternoon what action
ad been taken upon any of the mat =,
9rs talked about with the President. -,
With regards to the sugar trust
'auds at New York, it was said by -.
ne member of the Cabinet that there
as no necessity for the Cabinet as a
hole to consider the situation. At 90.
,rney General Wickersham and Sec
9tary of the Treasury McVeagh are
ltrusted with the work of investigat-
g the frauds and prosecuting such -,
the officers and directors as can be
,ached. and 1t was said today that the
tuation is being handled to the en- ~
9''''''o''oi - ~ "i'' e"Uo' Gig
" " .u',i0','i'0' 'ne li".'ei 70 o"e ed.
it'll which these two Cabine officers :
i'd the President alone have to deal -,
Id it will be the subject of further ~,
differences between them. ,
From remarks let fall by Congress 49,
onal callers at the White House to- 49,,
" there seems little doubt that a H.,
committee will be ap- a..
tinted to investigate the whole sub III,
ct of the sugar frauds and custom -
use corruption in New York III