Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-12
THH STGN4L SERVICIg.


ence for Gen. Bill Hazen, the United States
CLERK of the weather" otherwise and per-
haps more politely, the chief of the signal
service. fortunately or unfortunately
Gen. Hazen is an Ohio man. He was born
on farm in Portage county, not
very far from Hiram, the early
home of the late President Garfield.
Hazen's father was an old-fashioned,
silver gray Wing, and when his son had
gotten old enough to be tired of the farm
and its circumscribed prospects, Hazen
pere sought the editor of the county print
ing at his shire town, and through him
young William was appointed to cadet
ship at West Point. The boy seemed to
be born for luck. After graduating he
was sent out to the frontier. During the late
war it happened that he rose to positions
of prominence through influential trends,
rather than because of his fighting record.
He has always been on the lookout for
ease and good pay, and finally he prevailed
upon Garfield, the neighbor of his good old
father, to secure him the position he now
occupies. and he enjoys the luxury of hav
ing nothing to do, and being well paid for
it. In recent number of the Congressional
Record appears the speech of
Mr.. Beethoven, in the course
of which he proves that Hazen
sent bright and seductive Lieutenant on
tour of the principle cities to boom the
signal service. The object of this was to
get big appropriation from congress.
The following letter sent by Hazen shows
one of the methods of working up the
boom:
confidential cIapp: Get word to Powell
to work up our friends in the four large cities of
New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore
without regard to 5tory's expected visit.
HAzEN.
''Powell' is the Lieutenant that Hazen
borrowed from the army to work up
''our friends Somehow Mr.. Beltzhoover
got possession of a file of
letters written by Powell, which are rich.
The following extracts show up the scheme
of the boomers. The following was writ
ten by Powell from Chicago:
Papers will, at time of converting of congress,
publish ditorials. have left word for the
| editorials TO be sent to you, and thought after
we got them all in you could have copies
printed and sent to each member of congress-
| \ X Enclosed are slips cut from the Inter
| Ocean, one of which is an editorial. Other pa
/ pers will follow example. l have had copies of
the editorials printed here and will use them at
other stations. All papers have published the
tables sent me. Everything on the subject will
| be sent you.
The Lieutenant writes from Buffalo:
| Iinclose an editorial cut from a Toledo paper
which has been sent me by Sergt Buell. Perhaps
| the general would like to see it. Tomorrow |
have got to go down and have talk with an edi-
| tor of paper here who intends pushing Us in an
unfavorable way. l have succeeded thus far
with some OF these hard-headed fellows in chang
| ing their tune in our behalf, and hope 10 have
the same success with this fellow.
At Toledo he was vigorous:
| have left nothing undone to put our case in
the best light. 1t is somewhat of a job to over
| haul every one, and in some cases argue for an
hour or more as to the wisdom OF keeping the
service under military control.
His report from Erie, Pa, was good
one, and Pennsylvania Dutch took some
of the zeal out of him." At Buffalo he
was working night and day" and succeed
ed in changing the tune of hard-headsd
editor, who intended pushing them little
in an unfavorable way" A little later he
writes again from Buffalo:
The resolutions which are being pass ed at
| various places have 'too much shop in them.
| This should be stopped, he thinks. He says:
| E'My aim has been to make these resolutions
appear as the spontaneous acGon OF business
| men,"
Visiting Rochester, he saw:
The editor of the Express, ''who had intend
ed to go for the service,' but S'after long con-
versation bound him to our interests" The
''other papers he had no trouble with" He
says: ''We have certainly reached the delega-
lions from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio
Pennsylvania, and New York.
| At Boston, Jan. 16, 1882, Powell saw ''Tom,
Dick and Harry, and also that there was little
feeling here against offering anything before
| the board relative to the bureau" He
| says: ''They got themselves into box with
Howgate and are a little timid.'' He inclosed
Hazen ''sOme real good editorials which with my
his usual good luck l was able to wheedle out
! of the papers," The browning letter of the lot
| is from Lieut.. Swift, whose loyalty has been
doubted. He writes to Hazen from Fort Mer-
Ger, Feb. 7, 1882. Swift is only a second lieu
tenant but he says: 81 can pull pretty heavy
| oar in both the senate and the house," He names
a large number of prominent senators and
representatives whom he holds in hand, and sew
eral congressional delegations. He not only
has the Rhode Island senators, but says Il can
pull their solid constituents
The whole Beltzhoover speech is studded
with such gems as these, and is mighty
interesting reading. We are not hostile
to the signal service, but rather the
contrary, but it has long been apparent
to US that the chief of the service is not
the man for the place. If the service has
need of such blooming" as Hazen and
Powell seem to be masters of, it is a poor
thing and huInbugs the public instead ben
citing them. It may be supposed, howev-
er, that congress will do nothing to render
the service what It ought to be,
efficient and accurate. Under the
Hazen regime the signal service
had but little value to the public-still we
suppose it will be maintained, and the
newspapers will advocate its Importance,
all because Mr.. Powell is an industrious
servant to his employer and chief. There
is one way to get rid of Hazen, cut off
the lavish appropriations, remove from
him the temptation of emoIuments which