The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-27

Oh MS service grew the whole story of
dueged irregularity which takes I'M
".te-quarter of the inspectors report.
eAcept as 1t involves a few items of his
expense account
Nhen the charges of irregularity
We're made, my duty was main. II
was TO have them examined and If
mere were irregularities, to have them
corrected. This is exactly what was
uoIle. The explanations were reported
as lhey appear in Exhibit c. and to
me most OF them seemed satisfactory.
l was the moro assured in this iudg-
lI nv from the fact that the Controller
a. ~ lue treasury, who made "a search
ing investigation at the time and thor
oughly examined all the vouchers. al
owed all except $3.50 in total amount.
AS 10 these points of the explanation
"nlch were not satisfactory to NE I
sad in my letter of May o., and can
only repeat:
- should not be altogether cam
ala II L did not say that in some cases
L was not convinced of the necessity
or propriety of the transactions These
questionable transactions consisted for
the most part of placing on the roll
rev persons the need of whose serv-
ices was not clearly shown When
these facts developed the proper Off
GERS were instructed that every pro-
oeeuius Whlch could not be justified
should be remedied and stopped.
Inc same report of the inspector
made in 1899 states at the conclusi On
that during the course of the inspec-
tloh, ne, Beavers, requested the in
spector to inform the inspector-in-
charge that when he struck the names
OF the char-women off the stations it
would be well not to mention them in
ms report as they were personal ap-
pointmnts of the Postmaster General
Il do not know whether this state
ment was made or not, but the fact
is that of all the appointments re-
ierred to in the report [ had personal
knowledge of and personal interest in
only one. That was the case of a most
estimable newspaper woman, long a
| successful Washington correspondent.
whom 1 had known for twenty-five
years, and who, through misfortune,
was in much distress. Knowing her need
and being able to help her, / should
have been a brute if 1 had failed to
do so. AS she was not on the roll of
ellgibleS, she could not be made a
clerk, and l requested that a place
should be found for her on the roll Of
laborers. Months afterwards L learn
| ed, to my surprise, that she was en-
rolled as cleaner, and, though a re
| fined lady of education, had conscien-
~.
Immediately l sought to find a place
more suitable to her position and an
| tecedents and happily succeeded. That
was absolutely the only case of all IN
volved in which 1 had any personal
part. If anybody thinks the Postmas-
ter General should know the number
| of cleaners and whether they were all
at work, l have nothing to say.
Gen. Bristow is entirely right in
saving that ha Snnlxa n af tIo i,,ao
about the inspectors report. His state
ment would have been complete if he
| had added what / stated in my letter
of May q, as follows:
about the same time Fourth AS
| sistant Postmaster General Bristow
informed me that inspectors had found
the same apparent or actual irregular
tiles in the Washington office. 1 adj
vised him, according to my recollec-
ton, of the investigation which the
controller of the treasury had made,
and of the steps which were being
! taken TO rectify any wrong
Il wish to accept the largest measure
of responsibility which belongs to me
in connection with all these matters,
but it seems due to fairness to state
certain facts. The war against Spain,
declared three or four days later was
dated back to April 81, 1898. That was
as Postmaster General. My first duty,
before even familiarizing myself with
the department. was to make imme-
diate provision for the letters of the
scattered army of $500 men which
was promptly raised, followed by pro-
vision for the full mail of the islands.
The administration had been installed
for more than a year. The department
force had been organized, and, of
course, it was properly accepted as it
was found. When the immediate duty
in hand was taken up, it was discover
ed, curiously enough, that there were
absolutely no records of the military
postal service in the Civil War. There
were no known presidents. We had
nothing to guide us. We had to make
our own plans The determination of
the general plan and policy devolved
on the Postmaster General. The ex-
ecution of the details devolved on the
first assistants bureau. We had at
first no special appropriation and so
had to meet the requirements out of
the regular appropriation. Afterwards
when the special appropriation became
available we had to recoup the gen.
eral appropriation in order that the
regular service might not suffer. These
things were effected in part through
the Washington office, and orders were
given which subordinate officials
neither did nor were required to UNDER
stand, and out of it has grown vast
deal of unnecessary misunderstand-