The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1903-09-10
THE FIRST POST OFFICE SCANDAL.
Grave Investigation of the Department by the Fathers Of the
Republic.
By CAPT. HENRY A. CASTLE.
Republic.

tanceS.
The investigating committee seems to
have agreed with him, for his action was
sustained and his process was subsequent
ly legaiized.
EXPEDITING SLOW MAIL.
Postmaster-General Meigs's answer to
the second charge was perhaps even more
significant as u revelation of the day of
small things. He admitted that he had
increased the compensation of contract
tors for carrying the mails, but justified
his action by the pressure of an imperi-
GUS necessity.
The case as he explained it was this:
His predecessor in office had, about the
year 1913, let contract to certain parties
for transporting mail from the seat of
Government at Washington to Fredeicks-
burg, Va, distance of 10 miles. This
great trunk line, as it would now be
styled, carried substantially the entire
mail for the five States of Virginia, Ten
nessee, North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia. The contract provided that
these mails should be carried by stage
coach in Summer, and, as the roads were
impossible for coaches in Winter, they
were to be carried ON horseback. But by
the increased popular interest in the War
of 1872, correspondence was greatly slim
ulated and the circulation of the public
journals was enormously increased. Con
sequently, the Postmaster General says
that it was found impracticable to trans
port all this heavy mail for five States
on horseback from Washington to Fred
ericksburg; the contractors were author
lied to place a sulky or curricle service
thereon, and the remuneration was in
creased accordingly.
This explanation was apparently sat
isfactory to the honorable committee of
the House of Representatives. 1t certain
ly appears very reasonable on its face,
and will appeal to our sense of justice
even in this exacting era, although the con-
cession had no direct authority of law.
The final action of Congress is not con-
| tanned in our records, but it was no doubt
exculpatory, since, as shown above, Post
master-General Meigs continued to retain
his office and wrestle with these vexed
problems of Juvenile mail service FIVE or
six years longer.
AN EX-EMPLoYE WITH A GRIEVANCE.
incidentally there was brought out dur
ing these proceedings the fact, which has
since been many times reproduced IN Off
cial experience that the discharged de-
partmental employe, harboring an alleged
grievance and loaded to the muzzle with
Interior motive founded thereon, is usual
ly the inspiring cause of these inveStiga-
tons, either well founded or i'll founded,
as the case may be. In the course of his
defense, the Postmaster-General states on
Information and belief that one Harvey
Bestor a discharged employe of the De-
partment, if not the originator of the scan
dial, was at least actively instrumental in
hunting for evidence to sustain the ale
cations, and he goes on to show the origin
of Mr.. Bestors animOsty, giving some of
his record as a clerk.
The looseness of prevailing methods and
the necessity for the change which was
made few years later by which the ac-
counting business was taken from the
Post Office Department and lodged in the
Auditors Bureau, which is entirely separ-
ate and Independent, are fully developed.
The statement is that Bestor was
charged with the responsible duty of re-
ceiving Postmasters' accounts and count
ing the moneys which they contained. A
room was assigned to him for this purpose
in the Department building, with conve-
niences for keeping the accounts and mon
eys locked in a trunk and the books in
which to register them locked in a case.
1t was discovered that he, with three
other clerks, also afterward dismissed,
frequently assembled in the room where
those moneys were kept, to speri their
evenings after the office had closed. and
sometimes a part of the Sabbath Day.
During the period of these unwarranted
assemblages it was. subsequently ascer-
tanned that the number of alleged losses
of money transmitted by Postmasters
alarmingly increased. The inference was
that Bestor and his colleagues had made
way with the missing money. In fact, he
confessed to taking a part of it, but al
legged that he had debited himself with il
as against his salary. On this defense
the Postmaster-General quantity remark
ed, 'He was already indebted to the of.
fee and not authorized to draw money
Bestor was transferred to some other
duty, severely censured, and finally dis
missed from the service.
He and his associates thus became the
custodians of large-sized grievance
against the Administration. and those who
, remained in the city lent themselves very
actively to the congenial work of stirring
up the agitation for an investigation OF
Postmaster-GeneralM eigs, and furnishing
, all available pointers to assist therein.
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
The entire episode is significant chiefly
in it's inner revelations of the comparative
ly Insignificant transactions then carried
on by what is now our imperial postal ser
! vice, and of the prevailing laxity of &c
counting methods. AS compared with the
: gigantic figures involved in the recent Gu
ban postal frauds, they are scarcely
worthy of attention. But it is a notable
: fact that the Cuban frauds were made
possible by an unaccountable mistake OF
inaugurating the American postal system
there with precisely the same loose and
) inadequate process of auditing and &C
:, counting which was discarded in thu
United States when the Auditors Bureau
! was established on the recommendation
of President Andrew Jackson, in 1886.
: This humiliating episode in Cuba was
the first important scandal in the Amer
lean postal administration since the star
route revelations in the early '7O's, and is
now, in turn, succeeded by a so-caled
, Scandal based ON charges and suspicious
which are being thoroughly sifted. 1t is
but fair to say that in all that is charged
or suspected there has not been disclosed
any extensive defalcation or embezzle.
ment We may assume in advance that
: any frauds detected will be punished and
that any irregularities discovered will be
corrected.
A sTUPENDoUs FINANCIAL ENTERPRISE.
The financial transactions of the De
partment, including the money order bust
ness, will aggregate one thousand million
| dollars during the current year. The con-
duct of its affairs devolves upon more than
100000 officials and employees. 1t is in
! conceivable that purely business insti-