“THE BIG SCOUN= DRELS.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2734, 12 February 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

“THE BIG SCOUN= DRELS.”

ADVENTURES OF AN ENEMY OF THE SUGAR TRUST.

One of the most eagerly discussed characters in America to-day is Mr. Robert Parr, a Treasury official, who is known, as the “Nemesis of the Sugar Trust” (writes a New York correspondent). Under the statutes regulating the awards to be made to Customs officers and other persons who detect and seize goods in the act of being smuggled, Mr. Parr is claiming £200,000 reward —50 per cent of the £400,000 recovered by the Government from th e Sugar Trust, as the result of his investigations. Mr. Loeb, collector of the port of New York, has endorsed his claim, the granting of which now rests with the head of the Treasury Department. It is now several years since Mr. Parr, then a subordinate Customs employee, furnished Mr. Roosevt.it with dramatic account of the vast frauds

perpetrated by the Sugar Trust. Mr. Roosevelt instructed him to devote his

i-whole energies in gathering evidence Sufficient to convict the “big scoundrels” or “the men higher up.” When Mr. Roosevelt left the Presidential chair he secured the appointment of Mr. Loeb, his private secretary, as collector of the port of New York, believing that he was a man of iron will, fully capable of bringing the Customs defrauders to justice. The story of Mr. Parr’s investigations, before and after Mr. Loeb’s regime. reads more like a first-class detective romance than a chapter of real life. He fought the hostile influence of agents in the Customs service as well as of outsiders, and only succeeded in seizing falsified weighing machines by means of an audacious ruse. Since then

he has been subjected to amazing temptations. As much as £25,000 has been offered him by friends “if only he would consent to disappear.” Insidious temptations were placed in his path. Beautiful women sought his friendship and detectives haunted bis footsteps. He. (has been frequently denounced to the authorities as a spendthrift and as a man of gross life. In every instance he has proved his innocence. Now he is being inundated with, threatening letters menacing him with death. Recently the Government him a bodyguard, but he refused.

So far only a few minor officials have been convicted of participation in the frauds, by which the Government was deprived of millions. The latest to be indicted is Mr. Gerbracht, the former superintendent of the Havemeyer-Elder Refinery at Williamsburg. Mr. Gerbracht received a salary of £4OOO a year. He has entered a plea of not guilty