Sunday Washington globe., 1902-02-09
Charged With Crookedness by
an Old Treasury Clerk.
FORTY YEARS OF SERVICE
And an HoueraOle Record in the
Scales Against Two OF Mark
Hanna's Henchmen-C Congress Must
Investigate the Charges and Cannot
Ignore or Turn Down Mr.. O'Connell
at the Bidding of the Ohio Boss.

the Government harness for almost forty
years did not know any better than to sup
pose his chief was amenable to the same
laws as himself is one of the most fasci-
natingly marvellous occurrences which has,
so far, come within our ken
MIR. ]. ID. O'Connell, uamesake of the
great Irish liberator, Tor rather Of his
brother) is the unsophisticated individual
who has been in the Treasury Department
since 1866 and who had the hallucination
that the chief Of the division in which he
worked was supposed to observe the coui-
mon law of honesty in rendering to Caesar
the things that we're Caesars. In other
words, give the Government the services
for which it paid. Messrs. Allies and Aus
tin, the former Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury and the latter (Mark Hanna's)
Chief of the Bureau of Statistics are the
names and titles Of the two officials Mr.
O'Counell butted his official head against
aud lost it, Mr.. O'Connell has not visited the
GLOBE Office, as we expected he would, to
give US the details, or at least a copy of the
charges he preferred against Allies and
Austin, and the charges they preferred
against him upon which Mr.. Gage bounced
him last week Nevertheless we have a
fairly correct idea of the imbroglio, aud for
the benefit of the public it is given here
with with this addenda or proviso that the
GLOBES columns are open to Mr.. O'Connell
for any ampli6catiou the facts in his pos
session will warrant
To commence then, Mr. o. p. Austin is
Mark Hanna's Ohio appointee as Chief of
the Bureau of Statistics. His principal
duties consist in compiling Republican
statistical documents for campaign pur-
poses. At this he is an expert. We recall
seeing him previous to the late Presidential
camoaigu "pauhandling NewsDapef Row
and supplying doctored and cooked-up stuff
of this kind He was under salary from the
Democratic as well as the Republican tax
payers, but Mr.. Austin works only for the
latter. AS a Republican statistical compiler
he is, Of course, notorious official liar for
the G. o. P. And because of this fact his
value as a department official is enhanced
and he therefore practically does as he
pleases. Now il has pleased Mr.. Austin to
make money on the side with his brilliant
pen. Mr. Austin sold these efforts to the
highest private bidder But Mr.. Austin did
not do the work himself He compelled
his clerks to do the drudgery while he
gobbled the usufruct Bear in mind,
gentle reader that the Government paid
the piper both ways. That is to say, it fur
nished the statistics paid the salaries of
the clerks who compiled them aud paid Mr..
Austin as Chief of the Bureau to superin-
tend the same, while Mr.. Austin in addition
secured additional compensation from pri-
vate parties for furnishing the matter thus
paid for by the Government A snapl Well
yes, but Mr.. Austin takes s(ch)naps as a
matter of course.
During campaigns he is at the beck and
call of Mark Hanna, National Chairman of
the G. o. P. In fact Mr. Austin recognizes
no boss but Hanna. With him as with
Vanderbilt, the public (service) be d."
Before proceeding further we epitomise
the status Of the case as narrated by the
hunky daily press of Washington, whose
representatives by the scores are holding
down fat jobs in ali the departments Here
1t is.
Mr.. J. D. O'Counell, the financial clerk
of the Treasury Bureau of Statistics, who
has been there since 1866, was dismissed
from the service under instructions given
by Secretary Gage.
His dismissal it is stated at the Tieas-
ury Department, is based on malicious and
slanderous reports which Mr.. O'Connell is
alleged TO have spread attacking the in
tegrity of Mr. Allies, Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury, and Mr. o. p Austin Chief
of the Bureau of Statistics When requested
by Secretary Gage to substantate his
charges, Mr. O'Connell, it is alleged, with
drew them, but later made additional
charges.
Secretary Gage ordered a full investiga.
tiou aud found out it is alleged, that Mr..
O'Connell was not competent to fill salts
factorily the position he held at the statis-
tical bureau. Mr.. Austin, the chief of the
bureau, thereupon ordered that Mr.. O'Con.
nell be transferred to a less responsible
position. 1t is charged that by this act be
incurred the disfavor of Mr. O'Connell.
who it is alleged, brought a number of
charges against Mr. Allies and Mr. Austin
The main charge made by Mr.. O'Con-
nell against Mr.. Austin. il is alleged, was
that information gathered by the bureau at
the Governments expense was sold to pu-
vate parties at Mr.. Austin's profit
Mr.. O'Connell says that ia making his
charges he was actuated by a sense of
humiliation at the treatment he had re-
ceived at Mr.. Austin's hands. He 6led
with Chairman Cannon, Of the appropria-
tions committee, a memorandum of Mr.
Austin's alleged misdoings, and this was
later filed with the Secretary of the Treas
ury
Mr. OCounell says he was granted no
hearing, although this was recommended
by President Roosevelt, to whom Mr.. O'Con-
nell stated his case last Friday when pre-
sented by Senator Mason. of Illinois
Mr.. O'Counell has many friends in
Washington aud throughout the United
States who will indOrse his proposed ap-
peal for investigation of his charges"
The number of 1T is allegeds" in the
quoted article is less than usual in such
cases showing couclusively that Alr.
O'Connell is pretty well fortified with facts
against Allies and Austin. The GLOBE could
wish for the benefit Of its readers and the
public IN general that Mr.. O'Conuell had
furnished US with a copy Of his charges
against Allies and Austin. AS il is, however,
we are able to make out that Mr.. O'Connell
was either bought off or choked off on his
first charges aud that on mis- transfer he
amplifed them and made new or additional
ones. Congress should by all means inves-
tigate thoroughly the charges filed against
these two Ohio pets Of Marcus A. Hanna.
The latter does not own the administration
and he is no longer the big burly Pooh Bah