Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-06-23

Richard Parr, the New York custom
house official who was chiefly instrument
tai in discovering the underweighing frauds
OF the sugar trust, has been awarded a
prize purse Of 10000 by the Treasury de-
partment. 1t was optional with the gov
eminent to reward Parr with any amount
up to one-half OF the sum OF money re-
covered from the sugar trust, S2,2SO,0oO. but
the amount decided upon by the secretary
OF the treasurer lie regarded as liberal
recognition OF official integrity and zeal
The sum named is Just what the sugar
| trust lntimated In the early stages OF the
crooked game Parr could have had IL he
would agree to go away off and forget
what he had discovered. The offer only
made him more determined TO do his duty,
and the result Of that determination is a
familiar story.
The crooked weighing was suspected by
Parr while employed as a sugar sampler
six years ago. He reported his suspicious
to the government at Washington, but for
some reason no attention was paid to him
until he reported the discovery of corset
steel springs used in depressing the scales.
No definite action was taken, however,
| until Collector Loeb took charge of the
New York custom house. There was some
thing doing then every hour OF the twenty
four.
The charge against the sugar trust Is
that 1t, through It's Officers had this fraud
perpetrated. hired checkers TO secretly use
these springs on it's scales. and thus short
weighted vast quantities Of the raw prod
uct unloaded from the ships and passed
4 over the scales on Its way to the refin-
| cry.
| That this fraud was actually worked on
| the government for six years il beyond
question. Already the estimated loss In
duty, &2.00O,O00, has been repaid, thereby
facility admitting that II was due.
| The means by which the fraud was made
effective was determined and the govern
| ment came into possession OF q complete
working manual Of the means by which
the sugar trust got out Of paying duty on
a considerable portion OF It's sugar importa-
| tons for six years.
| Along the whArves of the Havemeyer &
Elder plant are the seventeen big scales
owned by the company. The sugar IA
| 1t is unloaded from the ships passes over
these scales and is weighed in," In the
little glass fronted houses sit two men
| q government weigher and a company
checker. AS the sugar il placed on the
| weighing platform the government weiEher
handles the weights and announces the
result Both men put down the figures
in little note books and the scales are
ready to weigh another lot of sugar.
The company checker sits at the left
end of the scales near the post through
| iol tn ~
anism of the scales. This post in each
OF tho houses was placed near . wall in
a dark place. The government officers
once their attention was called to the
fraud, found that in each of these posts
o small hole had been bored and thin
steel spring inserted that reached down
to the levers controlling the pressure on
the Weighing apparatus. Every time a
load of sugar was placed on the scale the
company checker showed the steel spring
in with his left hand. furtively dropped
to the side OF the post at which he sat.
The scale registered less sugar than was
actually being weighed, and the company
got out of paying duty. At the same time
the shipper OF the raw sugar lost. A man
standing on the scale with the spring out
OF use weighed ITO pounds. With the
spring in action he weighed little more
than 100 In other words, the spring rob
bed the government OF the duty on about
8 per cent OF the imported sugar. Since
A this duty L. about one and one-half cents
A pound the loss seen amounted to a
great figure.
n PARIS salary as deputy surveyor is
$500 a year--less than $500 month-and
that is the largest salary he has ever re-
ceived. He 10 married ana in addition TO
his wife has u mother and an invalid sister
to support He Was As years old ths
nineteenth Of this month. Since boyhoOd
he has been q steady, hard worker always
on a meager salary and always with heavy
responsibilities on his shoulders. He IL a
oompactly built man OF middle height, ex-
tremely bald and with resolute, alert
manner.