The Sunday globe., 1901-05-19
FREE FOR ALL!
The Investigation by the Senate Com
mittee of Republican Charges.
BRIGHT THE HEAVY VILLAIN.
How Mr.. A. ". Machsn as Superintendent Of
The Free Delivery, Dlshsd Up HIIl and Bright
to tho Senate COmmtee-Raoy Reading for
TapsIsrs and an Honest Public, Who Trust
these Servants Of the People.

ment afford greater facilities for gougng
than any other branch of the public
service. In the language OF an
official 'the thing is rotten" That
the readers of The Sunday Globe
may Judge for themselves the scope,
spread and ramifcations Of this ''rotten
ness" we give in this issue the first chap
ter of the investigation by the Senate
Committee. AS the investigation pro-
crosses the plot thickens, and sticks out
in every forced admission and reluctant
answer:
Extract from the testimony of Mr.. A.
w. Machen, Superintendent Free Deliv-
cry, Postoffice Department, before the
Senate Committee on Civil Service, Sen
ator Pritchard, Chairman. (Mr. Machen
is hold.Over Gold or Gilded Democrat.)
The Chairman. While you are on this
point, do you know why be (Mr. HID
was discharged2
Mr.. NJ. Yes sir.
The Chairman. We would like to have
it.
Mr.. NJ. Mr.. Hill was discharged for
conspiracy About that time COM
plants were coming to the department
about Hills conduct in the investigation
of overtime claims at various offices.
The Chairman. What was the nature
of the conspiracy
Mr. NJ. That is the point / am coming
to. He distracted documents secretly
from the Postotfice Department, pried
open drawers and one thing OF other,
and examined waste baskets, and was
doing other tricks, which is not uncom'
mon with men of his make, and when
called TO account q was in Chicago at
the time) he went to the First Assistant
Postmaster General and charged me with
disloyalty to the First Assistant. When
he was confronted by me before the First
Assistant, he threw it off on another
man, who was brought before him, and
he denied everything. We caught him
in several lies before the First Assistant
Postmaster General, and finally we be.
came suspicious of him all around, and
had a Postoflice Inspector, two regular
pOstofiice inspectors, come TO Washlng-
ton and run down the trio who mad
ioined together namely: Hill, Sullivan,
and Bright. Hill alleged to be Demo.
! crat. Sullivan was a Democrat ana
Bright was a Republican. After the de-
partment had satisfied itself through the
reports of these inspectors, both Of whom
were Republicans, of the undermined
work of Mr.. Hill, Postmaster General
Wilson promptly dismissed him from the
service.
The Chairman, Is that the time he
mentioned when be was being followed
by spes2
Mr.. NJ. Yes; he calls them spies. In
other words, he was telling
The Chairman. What is the nature OF
the work he was doingH
Mr.. NJ. That is what l am coming to
/ Mr. Hill charged, or there was a charge
made at the time, that had assessed the
secret agents employed in the service 500
apiece Mr.. Hill abstracted from the
| private desk of one of the clerks letter,
which he denied having, and which with
out explanation looks compromising
! Then he went around to different per-
sons and made all sorts Of statements
about Gen Jones and myself which we
were advised of. He went to some friends
of ours and told some trash and rot just
similar to what he was telling here two
weeks ago; for instance, about that draft
and about sending men over 70 do politi-
cal work and having himself been in.
structed to do political work, Now that
| brings me down to that alleged assess
ment. 1t was stated that | had assessed
! the agents. That is false. No man en-
ployed by me was ever assessed or soli-
cited to make a subscription. No letters
were written by me and no kilograms
sent, as Is alleged by Mr.. Hill, to the
agents or to any one representing the
agents. In the fall of 1895, or in August
or September | think, | had humber Of
men employed in Chicago. Some of
these men, quite a number of them, were
from Ohio. | am telling you now what
was reported to me; | was not there.
do not know anything about the exact
transactions, They got together and
mutually agreed among themselves to
donate or subscribe toward the cam
paign fund in Ohio--tOward Mr.. Camp
BELLS campaign. understand % of the
agents made subscriptions-22 out of the
so odd. As explained in my statement
here before, In order to conduct the work
throughout the country secretly, agents
were required not to communicate with
anybody, and even when they wrote
home they were required to send their
mail in stamped envelopes in the official
express packages, and these letters were
mailed at Washington, so that the car
riers would not know by the postmark
where the men were operating. Their
money, as / explained had to be paid
them in currency. They were working
at different places. They worked under
different names. OF course, to pay them
by draft or by registered letters or by
money orders was impossible, because
they could not be identified. II was the
custom Of these agents in paying their
bills or paying their wives or mothers,
or returning borrowed money, TO give
orders on Bellman to pay this or that or
the other thing, and this money was
taken out at Washington and paid as per
order.
The Chairman. The money was dis.
bursed by Mr.. Bellmani
Mr.. NJ. Yes, sir. These express pack
ages were opened by Bellman, and Mr..
Hill lays great stress on the fact that the
packages were opened and money taken
out. There is no question raised on that
point at all. He had to do that to henor
these orders. About this time Bellman
received orders to pay these fellows, on
account of this campaign, sending certain
orders amounting to some $50 apiece and
some $9j apiece Mr.. Bellman paid
these orders as he did all other