The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-04-06
POSTAL SLEUTHS
KEPT VERY BUSY
Uncle Sans Post Office InspeC-
tors Must Have Ability, COur-
age and Tact.
their DUTIES ARE MANIFOLD
Called Upon to Do Many Things From
Finding Of Lost Letter to una
masking Of Million Dollar
Frauds.

FRAUDS.
John G. KOons, chief inspector OF
Uncle Sans post office department, is
busy man. So is every one Of the
hundreds Of inspectors working under
his Jurisdiction. Mr.. KOons is charged
with the preparation and issue Of all
cases for investigation; with all mat
tiers relating to depredatiOns upon the
mails and losses therein, and he is
custodian of all money and property
collected or received by inspectors and
the restoration thereof to the proper
parties or owners, and the cOnsidera-
tion and adjustment of accounts Of In
spectors for salary and expenses. To
his office are referred all complaints
of losses or Irregularities in the mails
and all reported violations Of the pos
tai laws.
Several hundred inspectors and 9th
er assistants scattered all over the
country are doing the outside work
for this branch Of the post office serv-
Ice. In some of the larger cities per-
manent offices are located, with chief
and assistants, who do the work in
/ specified districts. AS a rule these in
spectOrs are men well built, quiet
voiced, good hammered and entirely un-
assuming. While they do not call
themselves detectives, they probably
do more sleuthing work than is per-
formed by any other branch Of the fed
eral service. Added to this, they have
so many other duties t would be hard
to find buster men in the entire United
States. For on them falls completely
the work of making the wheels of the
post office run smoothly.
Does letter fail to reach its proper
destination? Report 1t to the inspec-
tors. In a concern suspected of hav-
ing made fraudulent use of the mails?
Have the inspector make an investi-
CATION. Is there systematic thieving
going on in some branch of the de-
partmcnt? The inspectors will find
out the guilty person. Added to this,
the department has to keep a general
supervision over the rural free deliv-
cry carriers and the railway postal
clerks; it must investigate all COM
plants of whatever sort that are re-
ported; it must look into cases of al
legged inefiiciency and make recon-
mendations for dismisSals from the
service; it has to make an inspection
of all the post offices and see that the
accounts, both of the departmental
funds and of the postal savings funds
are straight; it determines the valid
ity of all claims for additional help
In hundreds of offices and it is on the
Job all the time, day and night.
Men Of High Ability Required.
To handle such a variety of affairs
requires men of no mean ability. A
man to be successful in the work must
have much of the training of skilled
lawyer, tact, aggressiveness and su-
perior judgment, must be an expert
accountant, must have a thorough
knowledge of all the branches of the
postal service in all its ramificatiOns
and have detective instincts. He must
also have the personal courage to go
out and get his man when he has
finally got him spotted.
1t is the last work-the spotting-
that is really the most important.
There is probably no institution that
offers so many possibilities of thefts
and fraud both inside and out as does
the post Office. A clerk stands at the
same table day after day sorting let
ters. Inspectors say that if the pub
lie knew the large proportion of these
letters that contain money, securities
or valuables of one form or another
they would be dumfounded. Even in
the mail that is not registered many
bills are sent, instances having come
to the knowledge of the inspectors
where as much as $500 has been for
warded with no other protection than
that of a thin envelope. Il
In the registry department banks
are constantly forwarding securities
and sometimes currency. Witness the
shipping of 100000 by a Cuban bank
to its New York correspondent, some
few years ago, which was stolen be-
fore the package ever got into the
mail.
Schemes 70 Defraud Public.
The larger frauds against which the
inspectors are keeping up a constant
fight are the promoters of various
schemes for mulcting the public, who
find the mails a convenient means of
distributing their literature. In a sin
gle year various concerns succeeded
in profiting to the extent of $780,
100000 from a gullible public. Fully
half Of this was obtained by persons
operating in New York state. On the
inspectors falls the task of ferreting
out these men and bringing them to
Justice. How successful they are is
shown when arrests take place like
those in the case of the Burr Brothers
and the Continental Wireless COM
pany that, it is alleged, sold in five
years bogus stocks amounting to $780,
100000.
In such instances the securing of
evidence by an inspector is delicate
task. Pitted against him are some of
the brainiest rogues in the country. |