Arizona republican., 1903-05-19


 master General Payne today sent let ters to the comptroller of the treasury, the auditor of the postoffice department and other officials, calling their atten- ton to statements made by ex-Cashier Tulloch in his communication of last Saturday. The letters ask for any ex- planation of further information that might throw light on the subject. The formal charges of Mir. Tulloch, MT. Payne said. have been dissected, and that matter relating to particular branches of the service were referred to the bureaus having jurisdiction for report,
 NIT. Payne said tonight that he re- garded the charge against the auditor and the comptroller as the most serious of the allegations. He said that if these officials '"allowed improper accounts to be audited or suppressed. that might be called pay dirt had been found' in the charges impugning their good faith and integrity MT. Payne pointed out a diff ference which existed between charges of irregularities and of actual viola tion of the law.
 "A government official he said, may DuS WHICH ne mas no authority to purchase and no authori- ty to pay for, but the government gets the use of the article nevertheless IT, regularities do not necessarily mean anything unlawful. The department may pay out of the wrong fund, either by accident or by design, yet that need not be unlawful"
 He said in this connection that the charges regarding the disallowance by the comptroller of between $20,C00 and $40,000 was a charge of irregularities but not of unlawfulness and he under stood that practically all of this sum had been subsequently, allowed. Tt is unfair,' he suggested, ito make the public believe that the government has been cheated out of such an amount of money when it was only a question of irregularities in accounting"
 The postmaster general was asked re- garding the charges against former Assistant Postmaster General Perry Heath and George w. Beavers, form erly chief of the division of salaries and allowances, and as to what effect the fact that they were out of the ser vice would have in the consideration of this case.
 T have nothing to do,'' replied the postmaster general, with the personal relations between MT. Tulloch and Indiana politicians nor with his hatred for the postmaster of Washington or others. If any improper act was done by any one now in office or by anyone who is not now in office so far as it might reflect on the department, we will investigate it."
 "Discussing MT. TulIoch's reference to the Porto Rican service, MT. Payne suggested that Mr. Tulloch was not charged with the responsibility for the Porto Rican establishment, and that the Porto Rican establishment had no more to do with the Washington office than the Chicago office, for instance, except in name, which was for con- venience in administration. He said it was a physical impossibility for MT. Tulloch to know whether the employees at Camp Alger or Porto Rica, or in the department, were performing the labor , for which they were paid.
 MT. Tulloch, as cashier he said, "did not know what work any set of clerks was doing: only the postmaster general, the assistant postmaster gen. eral, or those who had charge of that part of the work would know. Some of these allegations that no work was performed are now being investigated. If anyone has drawn money without doing any service we will try to get the money back from him. We will demand the recovery of the money. The responsible party is the postmaster of Washington, who should have known whether they were doing any work; l suppose the postmaster involved is now dead, Mir Wiliet."
 Speaking generally, the postmaster general said the original letters of the officials against whom MT. Tulioch made accusations were necessarily gen. eral in tenor, but now that the Tulloch letter furnished something more defi- nite in the way of charges, they will have an opportunity to make more definite replies. "Mr. Bristow, he said. went very carefully over MT. Tulloch's charges and he has selected such things ought to be considered and investigated"