Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1903-05-13
FROM WASHINGTON
The POStOf1Ce Department
Investigation.
MACHEE SUSPENDED FROM OFFICE
The Deeper the Investigation Goes, the More
ROttenneSS Is Unearthed.
MACHEN SUSPENDED FROM OFFICE
special correspssdence Of the cormrn.
Washington, May ~.

United States is loudly inveighing
against corruption in public and
private life in his speeches at the
dedication of the Worlds Fair
buildings at St. Louis, the corrup-
ton in the Post Office Department
under his own administration which
is being daily unearthed by the
investigation now proceeding smell
To high heaven. 1t Is the express
sed opinion of many officials of
the government here that it would
be the policy of consistency for
the President to return here at
once and see to it that the inveSti-
CATION is made thorough and that
no guilty man escapes the punish
ment which is his Just due. The
truth of the matter is that this in
vestigation in the Post Office
Department is digging up more
snakes than the administration can
conveniently kill, and the admins
tration would like nothing better
than to kill the investigation.
When Postmaster General Payne
returned here from his trip among
the West Indies islands with Sec
rotary Moody and others. he was
amezed and terrified at what he
found. When he left here and
told First Assistant Postmaster
General Wynne To go ahead with
the investigation he supposed moth
ing would be unearthcd beyond a
few irregularities which could be
fixed by the suspension or dis
charge of a few scapegoatS.
What he found was that n num-
Der of the divisions of his depart
ment were rotten TO the core and
that several of the heads of those
divisions had already resigned I'M
der fire, and that several more
would have To resign or bc kicked
out. The investigation was either
unearthing more serious charges
against these men every day or
else he was receiving from
other sources serious charges.
One of the men who already had
resigned had his wife go To his old
Office in the Post Office Depart
ment and rife safe of papers
that would, presumably, incrim-
mate him and perhaps others in
his division of the Department.
Now comes a man named Seymour
Tulloch, who had been cashier of
the Washington City post office
for over twenty years, and was
fired by Postmaster Merritt at the
dictation of Perry Heath, who was
the First Assistant Postmaster
General, because Tulloch refused
TO pay people who were carried on
the rolls of the city post Office in a
fraudulent manner. Tulloch
charges that some men were on
the pay rolls three times under
different names and were drawing
three salaries; that a certain news
paper man was on the roll as the
physician to the city post Office,
and that he knew no more about
the practise of medicine than a
hog knows about navigating a ship,
vet he was receiving salary OF
S1.7OO year. He says these
frauds and irregularities have beer
going on ever since Perry Heath
who now is the Secretary of the
Republican National Committee
was installed as First Assistant
Postmaster General; that he ha:
the papers in his possession t.
prove all his charges and only ask.
the opportunity to do SO. From
the way things look now he pro
badly will not get chance 10 prove
his charges. Mr.. Payne is making
bluff at investigating thes'
charges made by Tulloch, but from
his motions he hardly will give
Mr.. Tulloch an opportunity to 81
on the witness stand. He see
what the whole thing is leading t
and is doing his best to squelc
any further investigation. He
shrewd politician, was placed L
the cabinet as Roosevelt's politI
cal guide and counsellor, and
evidently is his belief that cor
tinuance of the investigation WI
result in serious consequences
the administration. senate
Henry Cabot Lodge, Of Massach'
sets, who is the spokesman f'
Roosevelt on the floor of the Sci