The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-07
SUGAR FRAUDS WERE
 DUE ID POLITICS Assistant Attorney General
 Caustic CORRUPT OFFICERS
OFFICERS
CORRUPT
Has no Idea That Officials Were Bribed-PoIitical Conditions Made II Necessary for Them
 to Keen Silent

Baltlnfore. Mo January 6 -fddtess'' ling a meeting held here this evening under the auspices of the women s aux hilary of the Maryland Civil Service Reform association, Winifred T. Deni- son, assistant United States attorney general, asserted that the sugar frauds in the customs service at New York and Philadelphia were due to politics.
 Mir. Denison also declared that the political appointment made in 1902 to the office of surveyor at the port Of New York "perpetrated those frauds Cat New York) and cost the government over one million on sugar alone"
 In further reference to this loss he said, That cannot have been more than d fraction of the total financial loss on all classes of importations."
 MT Denison was, however emphatic in saying that he did not believe the surveyor in question was corrupt.
 "There was not a scintilla of reason to suppose and l do not believe for moment that the surveyor in question was corrupt. Let us have no doubt on that point" he said
 In support of his statements the as- sistant attorney general cited the fol- lowing points;
 q. The confession made to Collector Loeb by the New York deputy surveyor in charge of the weighing division that the sugar frauds were due to politics
 "2. The fact that political appoint ment made in 1902 to the office Of sur veyor at the port of New York, and which at the time was bitterly opposed by the civil service reformers, perpe- trated those frauds untrammeled and cost the government over one million dollars on sugar alone.
 8. The Philadelphia sugar frauds have just been reported by the special federal grand jury there as having been due to politics"
 When Collector Loeb began his cus tom house cleaning in pursuance of Secretary McVeagh's policy, consequert on the revelations in the sugar cases" the assistant attorney general contin- ued, he called in the deputy surveyor in charge of the weighing division and asked why he should not be dismissed.
 "The officer protested that he had been honest and had never taken q cent.
 Collector Loeb asked how 1t was pos- sible that all of those frauds should have gone on for all those years without his taking an effective step to stop them or at least to report them to his superiors. " Well, Mr. Cofector,' said the. officer. l I was helpless. If 1 had taken any steps to stop those frauds the politicians would 1 have had me removed and 1 would have been without any means to support my l family. Suppose, for example, one of the sugar superintendents called me up on I th. telephone and told me that a govern ment assistant weigher was unsatisfac- l tory. If I refused to transfer him he would go to his political organization and the orders would come around through | the surveyor to detail some other man 1 to that position It will be on some plea that the weigher objected to was too slow i or tfat the new man lived nearby and wanted the detail. In that way the sugar. people could get whatever they needed.
 ''The experience of the effect of the practical politics was not by any means ] limited to New York. At Philadelphia as ! we'll as at New York that has been de- te, mined officially
 .The special federal grand jury which 1 has just made it's report of the frauds resulting in loss of revenue to this govern ment says they had been unrestraned there in Philadelphia at the Mccain Su- gar refinery ever since 1894, at the Frank lin refinery during it's operation from 1895 10 1897 and at the Spreckles refinery up 1 to 1905, but not since.
 They found no instances of bribery or attempted bribefy In their formal re- port they directly stated that the patron | age system and the violations and eva l sions of the civil service laws were the real causes of the governments loss.
 'For years. says the grand jury, tho