The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-05-20
P O Department Official Says
 Charges Are Absurd
OFFICERS ARE NOT JUDGES
It Is Not Their Place to Pass on the Necessity or Extravagance of EM pendltures-Tulloeh Re-
 piles to Payne.

Washington. May 1s-Captain Henry A. Castle, auditor of the postoffice depart ment, today gave out statement in re- ply to charges made against his office by former Cashier s. w Tulloch of the Washington city postoffice. Captain Cas- tie says: 'I have not yet received the postmaster generals letter transmitting abstracts of MT. Tulloch's complaint re- ferring to this office. I have had special | satisfaction in tho record of this bureau in settling the accounts of the Spanish Ear period. We now have six hundred i employees, of whom more than 400 are ], themselves auditors, settling an average of moro than two thousand accounts every working day. I seldom sec any of | these accounts, but did carefully review l their work which involved the Spanish war episodes, and I assumed the respon- sibility for the settlements as finally made. Under decision of the Supreme court of the United States the accounting officers are not judges of the necessity or the extravaganza of any expenditure. They are only concerned with It's legality under some available appropriation and the suf- ficiency of the vouchers. Some of MT. Tullochs statements are reckless and others absurdly false. The comptroller never dlsallowed s4O00O that had been ap- proved by this office. Myrecollection now Is that less than 5000 was finally dis approved"
 Payne Will Write to Heath.
 Postmaster General Payne today said that he had not communicated with for mer Assistant Postmaster General Heath, but that he would do so later on. In connection with the charges of violations of the civil service law, MT. Payne called attention to the appropriation of $S0O.- 900 made by congress for the fiscal year ending June 90, 1900. By its items he said the expenditure Of that appeopgiab tion for mail service of Various kiAds necessitated by the acquisition of insular possessions was wasted in the discretion of the postmaster general without regard to the civil service law.
 Ex-Cashier Tulloch was in Washington today and In an interview said:
 T notice Mir. Payne c'serves that could know nothing more about the pos tai service in Porto Rico than about the postal service in Chicago Perhaps Mir. agl ID tiOt dMdI6 lildl, db tdSuleE OI the Washington city postofhce, no postmas- ter there could even secure a box of matches that l did not pay for.
 Money for the salaries of the postmas ters clerks, carriers route men and oth- CT employees for every office in the island passed through my hands and the post master of Washington city was respon- sble on his bond for the proper disburse- ment of 1t.
 Not only was I the cashier for every postoffice in Porto Rico but I was also auditor of the accounts, which l had to watch carefully, least some employa double ID on me. I was required to look out that there were no double payments. either of services or materials; that not more than one building In any town or city was rented for a postoffce, and scores of other things. Often these vouchers were not in satisfactory shape and had to be returned not once or twice but thrice and corrected.
 Acted in Third Capacity.
 "I acted likewise in a third capacity In keeping accounts for the supplies sent to every office In Porto Rico. postmaster for instance, whose bond was S25O0, might be furnished S2500 worth of stamps and oth- CT postal matter and materials on going to the island. This sum of money was turned over and over again. He would send me cash, which he had realized on these ma terias or vouchers for expenditures, as the case might be, and had to send him still further supplies, always watching out that the amount entrusted to his care did not exceed the amount of his boEd.
 'If I did not know more about Porto Rican postal affairs than about the postal affairs in Chicago I was not 1t to be cashier. That's all there is to it."
 Touching the question of expenses foI individuals. which auditing officers re- fused to pass, MT. Tulloch said:
 'I know fin some cases where these men came fin with expenses without the ac- counting the treasury would pass, very ingenious scheme was devised to helr them out. By direction of First Assistant Postmaster General Heath the names of these employees would be ordered kept on the pay rolls for a time-long enough to make sufficient money In salary to equal the tabooed accounts. I know in one case a man had come back to Washington and his name had been dropped from the rolls. He had been drawing pay at the rate of s120O, but it was found that somt of his expenses would not pass the audit. ing offices. Forthwith an order came te me to put him on the rolls at $140O. He performed no additional work but was paid a salary till the deficiency was made up. In other words, the government was made to pay itself.'
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