Evening star., 1939-03-05

States dlStrlcC aCLOrney, lava "A.
Pine, are their native Washing
tonians, and that they are rejecting
great credit upon their home town,
no one will doubt, which suggests
that 1t would not be bad idea to
appoint more native District of Co.
lumbia residents to. local high
Offices.
The star route trials that closely
parallel the recent mistrial and al
legged jury fixing, with which many
are quite familiar by this time, had
for their background alleged crimes
committed as far back as 1878, dur
ing the administration of President
Hayes, and for the happening OF
the unexpected, for high lights and
for real thrills would outclass some
of the best of the motion pictures
of the present day.
Source of Name.
This case took its name from what
were then known as star routes or
postal routes, marked with an
asterisk or star; the star indicating
that the mail over a particular route
to which 1t referred could not be
carried by railroad or steamboat.
In such cases the mail was carried
by private parties under contract
with the Government, for which
they were paid by the trip.
It was claimed these routes were
controlled by combination, con-
sisting OF John w. Dorsey, John M.
Peck and John r. Miner, who had
originally made the bids and OBJ
tained the contracts; Harvey M.
Vale, a subcontractor, to whom the
contracts were afterward trans
ferred; Stephen w. Dorsey. who
was accused of having directed the
course of the contractors and who
aided them as well with his influence
as q Senator; M. C. Rerdell, S. w.
Dorsey's secretary, who was accused
Of being an agent and manager for
the combination in Washington;
Thomas J. Brady, Second Assistant
Postmaster General, whose official
duties placed him in control of the
star route service, and w. H. Turner,
who was a clerk in the contract
Office, with control of the territorial
routes under Gen. Brady. When
the indictment was brought in j. L.
Sanderson was also included.
In all, the so-called combination
is said to have controlled 1874 routes,
upon which the contract service
price was $143,169. 1t was claimed,
in short, that the trips on these
routes were purposely increased and
expedited by increasing the num-
ber OF trips week and by shorten
ing the time for each trip, for which
they were paid an excess of $622,-
808. In addition to being indicted
for this. some the defendants were
charged with furnishing fraudulent
bonds to accompany bids for mail
service, as well as with becoming
surety on such bonds without pos
sessing the necessary qualifications
Legal Proceeding.
The first proceeding in the case
was by way of information" and
was read in court on September 30,
1881. This course was new method
Of procedure in this jurisdiction,
and was adopted to avoid the ap-
plication Of the statute of limita-
tions, since the grand jury had
adjourned for a month and it was
feared the statute would operate
against some of the stronger cases
before formal indictments could be
later presented.
Col. William A. Cook, well-known
Washington lawyer, as special as
sistant attorney for the United
States, together with COL George
Bliss Of New York, B. H. Webster
Of Philadelphia and Col. George B.
Corkhill, the district attorney, at
this time appeared for the Govern
ment, and the interests of the de-
PENDANTS were taken care of by
Bob" Ingersoll, Samuel Shella-
barHor, Mr.. Chandler, j. Hale
6ypher, Jeremiah M. Wilson and
Enoch Totten.
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