Show Star Route Troubles Philadelphia 21In the cases of the men arrested recently upon the charge of conspiring to defraud government gov-ernment in letting the star route mail outrages in Arizona Price on Wednesday of last week said he did not know Contractor Wiley and had signed the bond at the request of McDervitt He said he did own property in Clinton County on which he had become surity He said he knew Ensign who had also become bondsman and hoped there would be no trouble about the matter mat-ter and that he had made a trade for the land in question At this point Acting District Attorney Valentine produced certificates proving prov-ing that the property claimed by Price to be worth 35000 had been sold for taxes for 124 and was not redeemed since Ensign told the inspector that he owned four improved im-proved pity properties but it was shown that at the time of the existing bonds these properties were mortgaged beyond their assessed value Wiley who was principal or bidder was seen last week by the inspector and upon interrogation statea that Thomas A McDervitt had some time since visited him and requested him to bid for six star routes in Utah promising at the same time that he would furnish the sureties and obtain for Wiley an appointment as route agent Wiley was not to be bothered with contracts and was to be held blameless in the case of trouble Pour of these contracts bid for by Wiley were awarded to him but upon his failure to carry out their provisions they were raised some 70000 aud relet to other parties All communications communi-cations referring to contracts were received by Wiley and were turned over by him to McDervitt When Inspector Barrett reported this statement state-ment to McDervitt the latter said it I was all right but he acted in the matter only to befriend Wiley who was out of employment and who he thought could obtain work in this way Wiley has not been arrested ar-rested although the warrants have been out nearly a week The total amount of sureties entered on the four star route bonds by Ensign and Price were 24000 The certificate I of the Philadelphia postmaster which is signed by James TBing ham assisstant postmaster states that deligent and careful search has been made and in the opinion of the postmaster the sworn statements state-ments as to the responsibility made by Ensign to Price were correct |