Sunday Washington globe., 1902-02-16

Office in which are invo yed men women,
and bahies--yet 10 come II is a compli-
Gated scandal and official row between
Major Bell, Superintendent of Delivery,
superintendent Of Letter Carriers Baker,
August Machen, Bob Brown real estate
broker, the city postmaster, and the Super
intendent of the Division of Salaries aud
Allowance In this complicated drama,
divorce, letter carriers uniforms, Rural
free-delvery, and the National Guard al.
ternate with few grass widows and mar
ried lady department clerks thrown in as
supernumeraries. etc. In the FIRST place, Mr..
Baker Of Indiana, plays the role Of heavy
villain, and as in the legitimate melo drama
he has so far gotten the hot end Of It, He
has resigned as superintendent of letter car
riers, and his wife has sued him for divorce
naming as correspondent the lady III whose
house he rooms. Mr.. Baker has room
with another gentleman in the lady's house,
and this damuing fact is against him. He
ought 10 have rented an unfurnished room
by himself-espeCially when he had the
experience Of living with a jealous wife.
His enemies knew she was of that nature,
and the rest was easy. For while he was
fighting them fairly, foot to foot in front
they executed flank attack on him. and
wrote 10 his absent wife that he was room
ing in a house pre- iided over by a divorced
woman II made no difference to Mrs.
Baker that another gentleman roomed with
her husband. The green-eyed monster saw
only the landlady and so the divorce and
the correspondent figure in the Post.ofice
Department fight
To go back to the beginning and chrome
logically II we're, lay the facts before the
public il is necessary TO state that the heavy
villain, Mr.. Baker, President of the Indiana
Republican Association, is an aggressive
individual He is, besides, fearless jaw
smith, that is to say he speaks his mind
When he came to Washington aud was
placed in charge of the letter carriers he
made up his mind to be boss in his own de-
partment. This did not suit Major Bell and
other individuals connected with the post
office But Baker IS an energetic cuss and
he soon won out and secured the approval
Of the City Postmaster, who, by the way, is
a RARA avis in the matter Of official honesty,
fairness and impartiality, Now Post
master Merritt recognized the ability Of Mr..
Baker and sustained him in his many fights
with Major Bell and others. The culmina-
tion Of these fights led to Mr. Bakers
voluntary resignation, as Machen, Bell &
I NJ WEAE AQU iAukA ADA nlAA anu ne kOk out
He has, however been notified by Post
master Merritt of his reinstatement as
bookkeeper al 81 600 per annum but the
clique propose to keep him out. II might
just as well be stated that Mr.. Baker cares
nothing for the job and will in all proba-
bility resign after Reinstatement, as he is
at present making over SIoo per week The
City Postmaster does not want book
keeper, but he does want superintendent
of special delivery. 1t is to this position
he designs assigning Mr. Baker, but Bell
& Co. propose to head him off by assigning
one of the clerks in the pecial delivery to
take charge without any advance in pay,
etc. This is within the power OF Bell as
superintendent and, Of course, precludes
the assignment of Mr. Baker to the lob.
and as he is not wanted as bookkeeper the
chances are the gang will keep him out
Thus far in our successful entry into the
bowels" of this affair Mr.. Baker, as stated.
has earned the enmity of the gang in his
determined efforts to prevent the robbery
of the letter carriers in the matter Of uni
forms. One Mr.. Eckels has had the snap
Of this business, and no matter what frm
Mr. Eckels works for he secures the con
tract for the letter carriers uniforms. How
this has been manipulated Mr. Baker pro-
poses to inform the powers that be and
secure the dismissal Of certain high officials
in the rake of. The hardest working Gov
eminent employees and the poorest paid are
Uncle Sans letter carriers. Nevertheless
certain high and overpaid officials have
been enjoying rake off by reason of throw
ing the contract for their uniforms to Mr..
Eckels. This Baker resisted and inspired
the letter carriers with resistance to being
robbed Mr. Eckels offered Mr.. Baker S2oo
to let upl This was cold blooded bribery
Bat Mr.. Eckels went further and offered
Mr.. Gordon SIoo to throw him the contract
Mr.. Baker received by express a SIS over
coat, but Mr.. Baker promptly sent II back
and thus the merry war Of bribery went on.
Meanwhile the poor letter carriers, in heat
aud cold, went their weary rounds while
Baker was defending them from being
robbed, and the other fellers" were de-
termined to have their rake of or Bakers
scalp.
August w. Machen was friendly to Baker
but he dsprOved Of his sterling honesty and
he allowed him to be sacrificed Neverthe-
less August filed up the Ruralfreedelivery
service with clerks. and applicants recon-
mended by the gang. Mrs. Mosher and Mrs.
Adams, both of whose husbands hold down
fat jobs, Mrs. Mosher's inferior half being
81 600 clerk in the Patent Office and of
very mild meek and lowly disposition,
which exactly suits Mrs. Mosher Indeed
Mr.. Baker impressively told Mrs Mosher
his real, inside opinion Of her and requested
her to send her husband to him for a con
tiuuation Of the information. Up to present
writing Mr.. Mosher has not called. presum-
ably because Mrs. Mosher neglected to
deliver Mr.. Bakers message.
Bob Brown was slated (in his mind) for
an important position where he would be
Of service to August W. Machen ef a. Now
whether Bob knew he could not and would
not reach is immaterial. He worked the
proposed position he was (not) to get for
all it was worth and he succeeded in landing
some fifty or sixty men and women--priu-
cipally women-in Machen's Ruralfreede.
livery just in time 70 get them In the perma-
nent service by the Presidents Civil Ser
vice classification. Bob did a rushing bust
ness besides in selling lots in various parts
Of the city strictly to government emploves
and, of course, Bob stood IN with Machen
81 nj Il ia fttNa =.