(4 of 5)
a pound less than
the Government was paying; that the Postmaster General forced him to
sell out to American Airways—which he did at a $500,000 profit.
¶Hainer Hinshaw, onetime American Airways lobbyist, said Postmaster
Brown had induced his company to agree not to bid on the proposed
Savannah-Atlanta-Memphis-Tulsa route, since the Postoffice wanted to
"take care of" Robertson Air Lines, which had been crudely
frozen out of a St. Louis-New Orleans contract by one of the American
Airways extensions.
¶Daniel Miller Sheaffer, executive of
Pennsylvania Railroad and T. A. T., had an uncomfortable time with the
committee. He admitted that Postmaster Brown had promised a
transcontinental mail contract if T. A. T. would merge with Western
Air Express. Result: the merged company, Transcontinental &
Western Air, now flies the mail. After a noon recess Mr. Sheaffer
returned with amended testimony. Chairman Black shot at him:
"Where'd you go for lunch?" The witness flushed, stammered,
admitted he had lunched with officials involved in the transaction
under investigation. Later Mr. Sheaffer had to resort frequently to a
briefcase full of papers to refresh his memory. Chairman Black in
terrupted: "Suppose you let us take a look at those records. Mr.
Sheaffer. Just hand them up here. All of them." Aghast, the
witness obeyed. A committee investigator ruffled through the papers,
finally-handed one to the chairman. In a few minutes press wires were
burning with a startling fact which was, however, wholly irrelevant to
the investigation. The fact: Charles A. Lindbergh received 25,000
shares of T. A. T. stock (worth $250,000), plus an option on 25,000
more at the same price, plus his $10,000-a-year salary, upon becoming
chairman of T. A. T.'s technical committee in 1928. A letter of
transmittal from Clement Melville Keys, then T. A. T. president,
advised Colonel Lindbergh to sell part of his stock but not to handle
much of it in his own name. The stock rose after Lindbergh's
association with the company was publicized.*
¶But biggest, most
insinuating headlines were made by a Postoffice stenographer named
James Maher. He testified that he had burned 24 drawers of
"General" Brown's correspondence in the Post Office Building
furnace a few days before the Postmaster General went out of office. He
said he had been ordered to do so by Mr. Brown's secretary, Kenneth
MacPherson, and that some of the files related to mail
contracts.†
Miami Meet
Despite its high-sounding
title Miami's All-American Air Races rarely break important world
records. But the City of Miami and its archangel Henry Doherty see that
visiting pilots have fun, and they, in turn, receive a good show and
good publicity. Last week's meet, the sixth annual, ran true to form,
except that for once the weather was wholly good.
