The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-27
SMITH FURTHER EXPLAINS
FORMER POSTMASTER GENERAL
 ISSUES ANOTHER LETTER.
MaAe Further Statement-Answers the TulIoch Postal Chnrgcs-Their Ex-

animation.
 Washington. June 26.-The following is given to the public by Former Post master General Emory Smith in connec- | tion with the postal scandals:
 Philadelphia, June 23. 1903. Hon. Henry c. Payne, Postmaster Gen. eral: Y Sir: In view oe the partial publica- ] tion Of the letter Of Fourth Assistant Postmaster General BristoW On the so- called Tulloch charges and the accom- ! panying reports of inspectors made to him in 1899 and 1900. I deem it incum- | bent or me Sor a right public under standing to make a further statement. supplementary to my letter Of May 27, and to present the papers in their prop CT relation.
 Appended to this letter. and to be treated as part of it, will be found, 1st, complete copy, marked exhibit A, of the itemized statement of the Tulloch charges. as submitted to me at the time they were made; 2d, in parallel col umn, 8 complete copy (exceot as indi- cated in the text) marked exhibit B, of the confidential report of Inspector-in- charge Smith, which is the main docu- ment accompanying General Bristow's letter; Sd, complete copy, marked ex- | hibit c. of the report which came as a result of the examination made when | the Tulloch charges were submitted, and which emhodies the answer, and the explanation of the transactions referred to.
 It will be seen that the Tulloch state ment and the inspectors report are per- fectly identical. At many points the language is exactly the same. It is as if they were written by the same hand. The Tulloch statement was submitted to me. The inspectors report was sub mitted to the fourth assistant. It was ! the business of the inspector to find whatever seemed to call for explana- tion; it was left to the postmaster gen. eral to find the exclamation and the truth.
 This was done by probing the Tulloch statement when it was presented. All of the transactions described as irregu- lar were examined and a report was made to me which took them up item by item and groups of items and gave the facts and the explanations in each lease. To this report, which appears be- low as exhibit c, direct particular at- tention. If its statements are correct, then on most points it's explanations are satisfactory. Its accuracy in all its specific averments has never been inn peached in any quarter. On the main points .t is believed to be beyond suc- cesseul challenge. -
 These main points may be thus sum med up. each in B sentence: First, names of military postal clerks were put on the general rolls till the military ap- propriation became available; then they were transferred to the military roll. Second the bond premiums of military postal clerks were paid for good reasons which are plainly set forth and which had the approval of the comptroller. Third, the purchase of Porto Rico sup plies were made from the regular de- partment contractors named under competition and at regular contract prices. Fourth. the vouchers for ex- penses of department officials travelling on official business were made as re- quired by the auditor. Fifth, the lease of the Washington postoffice was shown to be entirely justified. Sixth, the ap- parently double payment of those em- ployed in examining letter carriers claims is fully explained.
 These points embrace all that are specified in the charges, except the items relating to appointments. includ- ing the individual cases of Larner and o. H. Smith, and thus the matters open to question are reduced to the appoint ments which all told involve thirteen clerks and seven cleaners. Even this is not an irreducible minimum, for sev- eral of these appointments. as shown in the explanatory statement, were per- fectly right and beyond any question.
 More than one-half of the inspectors s report is taken up with minute and detailed statement as to the cases of Larner and o. H. Smith. Of the latter had no knowledge and say nothing. Of the former have some recollection, as it was only one of the cases that was appealed to me. Larner had been appointed military postal clerk for Porto Rico by the first assistants bu- reau. He went under a promise from that bureau of compensation at the rate of $1,4O0 a year. About that time I fixed the general compensation of clerks in Porto Rico, as I was empowered to do by law, at $1,200 a year. When Larner returned he refused to settle his unsettled account on that basis, and appealed to me. He insisted that he had been promised $1,400, and I found on inquiry that this was true. I or dered that he should be paid what he had been promised, as I had right to do. Out of that question of rate and out of the question of the actual length of his service grew the whole story of alleged irregularity, which takes up one-quarter of the inspectors report, except as it involves few items of his expense account. One of the questions at issue in the latter was the question whether in the special Porto Rican ser vice ''seidlitz powders, pills, pennyroyal and calomel" should be treated as a personal expense or as chargeable to the government.
 When the charges of irregularity were made, my duty was plain. It was to have them examined and, If there were irregularities, to have them corrected. This is exactly what was done The explanations were reported