The independent., 1903-06-18

could Mr.. Madden have committed
your administration to, than that If
suppressing the freedom of the
press?"
Again / am substantiated. In the
New York World of May 4, eighteen
months afterwards, | find the follow
ing:
FEAR EFFECT OF SCANDALS
orr 1904
Presidents Friends Are Greatly Wor-
ried by Revelations in Postoftice De-
partment. Baltimore Inquiry
Stopped by Officials. Serious
Irregularities Believed to Ex-
list There-NoW Likely That
Machen Will Be Removed
Special to The World.
Washington, May 3.-Many OF Pres
ident Roosevelt's close friends in the
senate and house are worried abort
the postoffice scandals. They fear
they will be serious handicap to Mr..
Roosevelt in 1904 unless they are rig
crously and quickly dealt with. Sena-
tor Lodge, who is here now, is one of
these. When Senators Aldrich, Spoon
er, Allison and Platt, of Connecticut,
get together at Virginia Hot Springs
rext esiay. ostensibiy to die ass Il
new financial measure, they will also
talk over the postoffice scandals, ANA
Senator Lodge is going down there to
tell them what he knows.
Meanwhile Postmaster General
Payne is waiting to hear from Charles
Emory Smith and the others to whom
he wrote On Friday for an explana-
ton of Tulloch's charges, and Tulloch
sits serenely at his home in Forest
Glen and insists he can prove every
thing he says, and more, too.
Postmaster General Payne has been
trying to keep the public knowledge
OF the scandals within bounds. His
attempts resemble those Of a man
fighting prairie fire. AS soon as he
gets one spot smothered the fir
breaks out somewhere else.
From the moment that Perry Heath
became first assistant postmas ter
general in 1897, to the present time
every investigation of any note that
has been started anywhere in the
postofiice department. has been
pl omptly stopped by orders from Off
cials higher up" There is reason to
suppose that the Baltimore postoffice
&C ctnceals scandals similar to those II
the Washington postoffice but when
an investigation was started there it
was promptly stopped by orders from
Washington. From time to time III
yestigations. have been held behind
closed doors, but the results have al
ways been whitewashed.
The men who do the actual investi-
cation, the experts, are skilled, con-
scientious men. They are all in the
civil service and they have nothing to
fear. However, when they begin to
find out things they are promptly
called off and they can do nothing but
obey.
Although no findings have been an
rounced, there is not the slightest
doubt that the great machinery of the
postoffice department has been used
unscrupulously to repay political obli-
cations and to favor needy politicians.
II has been grab-bag with plums
for all who had the proper standing,
and the men who have held the bag
have seen to it that they secured some
OF the choicest plums for themselves.
The present indications are that A.
W. Machen, the superintendent of the
division of free deliveries, will be re-
moved or allowed to resign. Now
that Tulloch has made his charges
public, the affairs of John r. Merritt,
postmaster for Washington, will, also
b. investigated The postmastership
at Washington is bit of political pa
tronage that does not go to the Dis
trict of Columbia Merritt is from
Lockport, N. Y. He is a supporter of
Representative James w. Wedsworth
OF Geneseo.
l have frequently intimated that
very possibly the politics of my paper
had something to do with it's exclu-
sion from the mails, but this was de-
MED by the postoffice officials. Today
we read the following confirmation in
the New York Mail and Express a re-
publican paper. presumably speaking
cp hahnlf IF tho or, IN;