Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-04-10

John W. Polk.
This, Polk is from Tennessee, and
what relation he sustains to the man
who was once president, we know not,
but he has evidently not reflected
honor upon the name. He has had
an investigating committee of his own
party friends sitting in his case for a
long time, and they have compiled a
huge mass of testimony that would
take a person a week in an ordinary
way to read. This committee have
made a long report, too, and we want
our readers to read and learn little
what his friends have been obliged to
say about this reformer. Here is an
extract from the report:
'That during the extra session of
this Congress the said doorkeeper did
employ or permit to act as messengers,
pages and laborers, in and about the
House of Representatives, in excess
of the number authorized by law, and
over and above the so-called cloak
room who clean this hall, sixty odd
persons. His manner of making ap-
pOintments was such that he did not
know the number employed or who
had claims for services; the result
whereof was that the sum of money
voted by the House proved insufficient
to pay all who had claims under him
for services rendered, and they were
forced to submit to a reduction of 20
per cent. from the pay they supposed
themselves entitled to. In extenua-
ton Mr.. Polk pleaded the necessity
of an increased force, the practice UNI
der former Congresses, and specifical-
ly under the Forty-fourth Congress,
and the pressure brought to bear upon
him by members of Congress. That
up to a late day in this session he has
authorized or permitted persons to
perform services who at the time were
borne on no roll, and continued others
in service after striking them from the
rolls; promising or suggesting that
they would be paid under resolution,
or that they should be placed on roll
when his force should be increased.
That he employed on the floor of the
House during the session in Decem-
Der fifty-six pages, just double as
many as the law warrants. He made
a fictitious payroll, placing thereon
twenty-eight pages as serving from
the LIST to the 18th, and the other
twenty-eight as serving from the 10th
to the 3lst; the first twenty-eight be-
ing paid $3.50 each, and the last
twenty-eight being paid $40 each. In
|extenuation Mr.. Polk pleads the pow
erty of the boys, the urgent appeals
of parents and friends, the consent of
the pages to their being so paid, and
that it was a work of charity That
he has continuously employed one
mail and two riding pages over and
above the number authorized by law,
stating that they We're indispensable,
and that the gentleman who framed
that law 1.-THE one fixing pages, prob.
ably knew nothing about the man.
agement of pages of the House or the
necessities Of the case.' That the door.
keeper placed upon the soldiers roll
men who had never been in the army
one of them, "a boy put on the roll
for January, in order to give him his
pay and because there was "a vacan
cy on that roll for that month"; and
yOU ohC oOhulCAS SCINAues COutlAuOuSAsS
from December l, got no pay for the
first half of January; and another
was dropped on the 18th, and another
was dropped on the 10th, and the
name was replaced on the payroll the
last of the month, to enable him tx
draw the pay, which he did, and OF
the request of Mr.. Polk paid it ovel
to the man who had taken his place
but who was not qualified for the roll
That the doorkeeper did receive mon
ey from two of his employees to bt
paid over to third who had beer
promised one or the other of theil
places, for the purpose of making hi!
salary equal to the one promised
That while complaining of the insult
ficiency of the labor force, he detailed
some of his laborers to do other thar
laborer's service; and permitted sew
eral of them to hire substitutes to per
form their entire work, they drawing
the full salaries and paying their sub
stitutes about one-fifth thereof. Tha
he created an Office at a high salary
without precedent, on the doorkeep
er's rolls, for the purpose of making {
place for gentleman who could MOI
accept 81 200 place, for lit would moi
support him."