The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1903-05-15
PAYNE HAS LARGE
TASK ON HIS HANDS
He Must Make the Postofics
Department Self-Support-
ing Affair.
PUBLIC THIS
Not Until It Is Accomplished Vii
There Be Confidence That Ex-
travaganees of the Depart
ment Arc Ended.

lOL,. VAdy IL. - HOSCIlaSI6l
General Payne declined to receive the
newspaper correspondents this after.
noon. Promptly at A o'clock on each
afternoon h postmaster general haf
thrown open the doris and submitted te
the newspaper tnterrogatories. But the
forced leave of absence granted A. w
Machen, superintendent Of free deliy.
cries. has apparently disconnected the
postmaster general. Machen is home,
confined to his room. Bristow is not
permitted to talk for publication. All
the information which has been given
out has come from the postmaster gen.
eral. So long as the merry persif1age
IN which the postmaster general in
dulged While Gliding the newspaper
correspondents with their inability to
make good their charges OF irregular
tiles in his department. was the My
feature of the 4 o'clock meetings 1t was
a welcome hour to the head Of the de-
partment. Bristow alone kept his w
counsel and saw hat his inspectors
We're not idle. The Developments
have not been to General Payne's lik-
Ing. He secuted the idea of postoffce
Irregularities. He told his friends that
personal jealousies and disappointment
were at the bottom of all the charges
which hade been preferred. Today
General Payne is confronted with the
necessity of a complete reorganization
of the postoffice department. New men
must be put In control of the more i'm
portant bureaus, and new methods Of
t~ransacting the business Of the depart
ment must be introduced. Upon Gen
eral Payne will rest the responsibility
for making the p%ostoffice department
a self sustaining organization.
Four Important Removals.
Four important removals or suspen-
sions have already been forced. The
postal receipts of the country are in ex-
| cess of S130 000 000 rTha 1{xfo;ano 1xyo-
which George w. Beavers and August
w. Machen presided expended annually
ne-hal Of this sum-. Machen alone
had $40.000,O00 at his disposal. Beavers
resigned rather than face an investiga-
ton. His division purchased the post
office supplies. Machen announced when
the charges were preferred against him
that he would not resign under fire, but
would fight 1t out. His friends say that
for weeks he has been under such a
heavy strain that his collapse was
feared by his family. 1t is not believed
that up to this time General Bristow
has unearthed any scandals in Machen's
department upon which criminal prose-
cutions could be based. But it is an
open secret that his expenditures have.
been reckless. AS the business and
population of the country grew the
revenues of the postal service have in-l
creased at almost a geometrical ratio.
No matter how fast the money came In
1t was expended, and each congress has
been called upon to make larger appro-.
priations for a deficit. The public de-,
named an improved postal system and
congressman who stopped to bubble
over expenditures We're branded as.
mossbacks. There has been no ade-,
Quate system Of auditing accounts and
practically no checks have been i'm
posed on the head of any department
This year more than $3.50 100000 was
expected to n in and 1t is estimated.
that $40. 000. 900 would go out. The de-.
velopments prove that IN handling the
government stamps there has been
every Opportunity for fraud. If the
government has not been defrauded it.
has been solely because the officials
have been honest. There is not, ac-,
cording to the auditor for the %postofice
department, any plan In operation for
checking these accounts and never has
been. The Irregularities which have
been confessed by the resignation Of
Beavers and which are implied in the
temporary suspension of Machen deal
with the expenditures of the vast sums
of money at the disposal of the division
Of allowances and the free delivery di-
vision.
Could Save the Deficit.
The evidences Of waste and extrava-
gance in these departments a con-
WINGED those converSant with Develop
ments that correct business methods in
| all departments would have resulted in
a sufficient saving to have prevented
the p~ostoffice deficit. The increased
compensation of letter carriers for ru-
raj routes would not a been suffi :
cient to have caused a deficit had good
business management prevailed.
With the revelation regarding two
important divisions staring him in the
face the postmaster general a in
| creased the scope of General Brtstow's
Investigations to include all important
postofices in the country. An investi-
cation upon such a mammoth scale has
never been attempted in any depart
ment Of the government. n post
master general has followed another
and permitted the vast and increasing
revenues to be expended without effort
to evolve a comprehensive system OF
check accounts which would guarantee
protection to the government. This
work the present postmaster genera
or his successor will have to do. i
means for Postmaster General Payne
a sudden shift from politics to bust.
ness.
Although Machen, superintendent O.
free delivery, has been granted a '1eavt
of absence" pending investigation and
G.. A.. G. Christiancy, assistant attor'
ney to the assistant attorney general
is also out on a leave Of Absence" i
is accepted here that neither VIII re
turn to the duties Of his office. If NJ
evidence Of a more damaging characte
is forthcoming the proof Of extrava
gance in Machen's department vii
make his leave of absence" permanent
Beavers resignation was for all tim
and Tynor, the assistant attorney gen
eral, was removed. r
If the Safe Hadn't Been Robbed.
The probable separation of Chris
tiancy from the service is in nowis