The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-09-30
|HARRISON'S
FINE METHODS.
As Practiced 10 Baltimore.
Criminals Sheltered by Little Ben"
Because They Helped the Party.
They Boast Of Their Cheating and
Feel Perfectly Secure.

more accurately show the attitude of the
administration toward morality in the
public service than the simple story of
the Baltimore incident, to be here re-
lated.
1T reveals, first, the administrations
complete contempt for the civil-service
law, and its refusal to enforce the stat
utes against administration workers.
even in a case where those statutes had
been criminally violated by acts punish
able by a fine of 5000 and by three
years imprisonment.
1t reveals. secondly, an absolute disre-
gard OF ordinary standards of morality
on the part of the administration In the
selection and retention of men as public
servants-an entire willingness to retain
in the service, and to protect by every
shifty device, men who had not only com
mitted crimes denounced by the civil
service law but who had testified falsely
and were self-accused of cheating in cleo
tons, ballot-box stutfing, the destruction
OF ballot-boxes, false counting and other
offenses possible only to men too desti-
tute of moral sense to be safely trusted
in any position of responsibility.
1t reveals, thirdly, the methods by
which the administration has moulded
the civil service into a compact cohort of
workers for the denomination and re-elec-
ton of President Harrison.
The story does not rest upon the testi-
mony of any one hostile to the admins
tratlon or to the republican party. 1t is
told by Theodore Roosevelt, a republican
civil service commissioner, upon the ties.
tlmony of his own observation in part,
and in other part upon that of the men
implicated in the rascalities. 1t is in
dorsed by the entire civil service COM
mission as an official report to the presi-
dent.
The republican party in Baltimore is
divided into W. factions. One of these
Is called the johnson Airey faction
after the postmaster, johnson. and the
United States marshal, Airy, who are
its organizers and leaders. 1t represents
the federal Officeholders IN Baltimore.
The other is called the Henderson or the
Henderson Stone faction, after its lead
ers, who are disappointed applicants for
the offices of postmaster and marshal.
In the spring Of 1891 4 republican pri-
mary election was held which involved
the question of dominance between the
W factions. The contest WAS one of
great bitterness, and was attended by
extraordinary racalities and some vio-
lence. Ihe employees of the government,
particularly those IN the postoffice. were
the most active participants in il. the
authors OF the violence and the insti-
gators and perpetrators Of the frauds.
Complaint was made to the civil SER
vice commission that the law was being
violated; that assessments were levied
and collected for a political purpose
among government employees. by govern
ment officers and in government build
ings, o%tfenses specifically forbidden by
the law under heavy penalties of fine and
Imprisonment.
Commissioner Roosevelt was sent to
Baltimore to investigate. He witnessed
the election. and afterwards diligently
questioned the men who had been guilty
OF the transgressions of the law.
He found, by the mems own confes-
slOns, that money in considerable sums
had been raised for factional purposes in
the government buildings by assessments
upon government employees; that govern
ment officers had eyacted these contri-
buttons and had received the money-in
short, that the law on this subject had
been tiagrantly violated in every possible
way and the service debauched in an en-
~traordinary degree. He found that the
men who had criminally levied and the
men who had criminally paid the assess
ments, instead of attending to their du-
ties or March 30. devoted themselves to
the work of carrying the primaries for
their faction chiefs though this is spe-
officially forbidden by the postal r.gula-
tions.
Incidentally he discovered the immoral
methods they employed in doing this.
and he tells OF these things in his report.
He tells us that there was cheating of
every kind; that pudding ballots-six
or seven ballots folded together and cast
as one-were freely used; that ballot
boxes were broken open; that the judges
OF election themselves perpetrated the
boldest frauds with brutal Openness; that
it was perfectly understood that which
ever side happened to have two of the
certain to win there. He tells us that
where cheating failed violence and
brawls were resorted to; that Marshal
Airey himself tried to control re
suits by dragging a Judge from the
window; that at another precinct a Gus
tom house employe pulled down the
window at which the votes were received
and tried to stop the election; that the
faction fighters stood in with the
police to avoid arrest themselves and to
secure the arrest Of their opponents;
that bribery, repeating and illegal voting
were everywhere employed.
All this was freely confessed to Mr..
upon the witness stand by the
government employees concerned. With
some OF them it was the practice in Civ
ing testimony for each to accuse the
side OF these offenses, and the com
missioner remarks:
l Am inclined to believe that in this respect
there is much reason TO regard the testimony Of