New-York tribune., 1910-01-17
WEIGHTS DISPUTED
SUGAR BACK DUTIES.
Government UncoUerS Fraud
as to Other Commodities.


this port. the National and the Federal.
are considering claims for back duties
on differences in weight between the fig
ures of the government weighers and the
city weighers. Secretary of the Treas
ury MacVeagh has expressed deter
mination to push the investigation of
weighing for custom duties in other
cities. and at the same time said that
he had put the automatic scale test at
Boston up to his Standardization bu-
reau.
The claims against the National Sugar
Refining Company are for about $3.50
600 and against the Federal 100000.
The directors and officers of these COM
panes, with the aid of their counsel. are
considering whether they will settle or
fight. Each company insists that the
difference in weight was due to the loose
weighing OF city weighers, who were
paid according to the work done
The National Sugar Refining Company
has had, through its counsel, several
conferences with the government prose-
cutors, but these havesbeen unproductive
Of results. The latter are giving the
companies plenty of time to make up
their minds. 1t was said yesterday that
the counsel for the government were
we'll fortified in their position of demand
ing a settlement.
OTHER INDICTMENTS NEAR.
There was confession last week of
one of the men indicted in connection
with the Arbuckle Brothers settlement.
and there was a report that this would
enable the prosecutors to indict other
persons in the near future. The counsel
for the government have several confess
sions now as aids in their court proceed
ings. These concern the sugar short
weighing frauds throughout this port,
and 1T was said yesterday that in one
particular this fact gives added signfi-
canoe to Secretary MacVeagh's deter
mination to make Investigations at other
ports.
Counsel for the government have found
q similarity of method in the schemes
to underweigh imported sugar and other
commodities, but not in the form of a
device like the steel spring used on the
Havemeyer & Elder docks. Wholesale
bribery, given in the form of perquisites,
was the means employed. An inquiry at
other ports, it is believed, might dis
close that the practice was widespread
and if such a discovery should be made
the result would be great increase in
the amount of duty collected by the gov
crnment.
Boston and New Orleans are likely to
be the first ports to receive attention
S,;I So I'LL 7 a.
inquiry will be in harmony with the
governments investigation of the sugar
companies now making to discover
whether there is or was a trade agree
ment in violation of the Sherman act
An inquiry will mean an examination
of the books of the several companies,
and will thus place at the disposal of
the government any evidence that may
bear upon the probe for a trade agree
ment
The reference of the test of the new
automatic scale TO the standardization
bureau, which was foretold exclusively
in The Tribune, is awaited with much
interest by the sugar companies. it was
learned yesterday. Their practical men
do not believe that it will be success
American Sugar Refining Company in
charge of the Williamsburg refinery,
said that they had automatic scales
there to weigh the refined sugar, but
that he did not believe a similar scale
to weigh the raw imported sugar could
be used successfully.
GARRISON FAVORS SCALES.
Surveyor Clarkson, who for years has
been making efforts to have automatic
scales installed on the docks, said re-
Gently that if the scales contracted for
are constructed according to the speci-
fications furnished by the inventor they
should answer the government purpose
in every particular. While only twenty
are included in the contract, it is in
tended, if they are successful, to order
many more for use throughout the coun-
trW to weigh imported commodities.
The trial of Charles r. Heike, Ernest
Gerbracht, James F. Bendernagel and
the other indicted men. either employees
or formerly in the employ of the Ameri-
can Sugar Refining Company, will not
take place until March, it was said yes
terday. If Richard Parr, the principal
witness for the government. goes to
Cuba-and he has received orders to that
| effect-the trial will have to wait on his
return. The programme laid out for
him, according to the dispatches from
Washington, may detain him in the ISL
and for fully six weeks. and perhaps two
months.
A sugar broker said yesterday that
there was little TO learn to the advan-
tage of the government from the grow
ers of the sugar cane, the producers of
the raw sugar, unless some of the COM
panes were interested in the plantations
They have denied this, but it was learned
that persons interested In some of the
companies owned fully 60 per cent of
the producing capacity Of the island.
This man said that an exhaustive probe
down there would result in interesting