Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-17
HEATH AND BEAVERS
Scored by Conrad and Bona
parte in Report.
HELD RESPONSIBLE
FOR ABUSES AND SCANDALS IN
CITY POST OFFICE.
Charles Emory Smith, Controller Trace
well, Auditor Castle and Others
Are Criticised.
HELD RESPONSIBLE

The report of Messrs. Conrad and Bona
parte on the charges made by s. w. Tul-
loch, formerly cashier of the Washington
city pos: office, against the administration
of this Office has been made public.
Under instructions from the President
the report views the Tulloch charges
from a legal standpoint" The report be-
gins with a brief history and nature of
the Tuiloch charges. and then makes the
following preliminary observations" con-
corning them:
NO improper official act on the part of
any public officer or employee is alleged
which did not occur more than three years
before Jgly II. 1903, and as all possible
prosecutions are barred we are led. there
1ore, TO Ii" e-pret our instructions to report
on these matters from legal standpoint
In broa Ter sense than we might other
wise ven uTe TO ascribe to them, and I'M
derstaDd nat our views are desired as to
the leg'A propriety of the official action
disclosed md not merely whether 1t NAV
or may not have been criminal
The Tulloch charges have never been
properly speaking, investigated at all
We have been repeatedly confronted in in
curry with an assertion on the one side
and denial on the other as to a question
OF 1act. with no sufficient means at our
command to determine which statement
We could advise you to believe"
Inc tendency to evade answering these
charges evlnced by those replying to the
Postmaster Generals request for such an
swers, the report says, is illustrated very
forcibly by the charges against Perry s
Heath. FORMER first assistant postmaster
general, which have been made public
HERETOFORE. and his answers to them
Altogether insufficient.
We consider this answer" 1t continues,
sst1t
isfactory in substance than in form"
Continuing. the report says the revision
OF Postmaster Willett's accounts of itself
is sufficient to show that Mr.. Heath's off,
cial record is not so clear as to defy suspi-
cion. 1t adds:
Moreover, the confidential report of In
spector in Charge Smith and the special
report of Inspector Little tend so strongly
TO sustain some of the most serious charges
MADE by Mr.. Tulloch against Mr.. Heath
that II is quite impossible to dispose of
these charges by calling them lies out of
the whole CLOTH especially when we re-
member that the confidential report is
stated by Inspector Smith to set forth ir-
regularities discovered by himself, and
that the special report was prepared
whole year after Mr.. Tulloch had left the
office.
The reasonable Inference to be drawn
from Mr. Heath's complete failure to meet
fully and explicitly accusations which as
postmaster General Payne very justly adj
monfshed him, charged him with many
acts Of doubtful propriety. added to the
facts appearing from the record evidence
laid before us. oblige us to say that at
least a strong prima facie case is present
ed of willful and reckless disregard by the
late first assistant postmaster general of
obligations imposed on him by the regula-
lions of his own department, as well as by
the statutes of the United States; and we
feel 1t our duty to add that suspicion of
his personal integrity must be inevitably
aroused in our judgment by an impartial
consideration of the facts submitted to us