The Washington times., 1903-05-23
Congress and the P. O. d.
irregularities" Impossible Without
knowledge Of Many Members.


knowledge of Many Members.
The spectacle of a Federal official
deliberately mourning a deficit of
nearl Y three-quarters of a million dol
lars within the comparatively short
period of ten months is sufficiently
novel TO arrest attention and cause the
question to be asked. How Is it posi-
bic for any department of the Gov
eminent, in violation of statute law,
to exceed its appropriations and
plunge head over ears into debt 2"
We suppose that a small offender
in this regard would be brought up
with a short turn promptly enough;
but in the case of a man who Oper-
ates on as large a scale as Mr.. Mach
en- has such methods would clearly be
out of place. His violation of the law
is mere ''irregularity." His run
ming into debt is, if anything, praise
worthy; for doesn't he benefit the
country, and are not all his intentions
honorable? Hasn't he, in fact, dem
cnstrated time and again, in getting
his Deficiencies settled by Congress,
that he has the approval of that hon
orable body. and that, having Con-
gress at his back, he can snap his
fingers at such of his superiors as
presume to query his doings or seek
TO obtain from him plain answers TO
plain questions7
To be perfectly frank, Mr.. Mach
ems operations would have been abso-
lutely impossible but for the conni-
vance of individual members of Con-
gress. The favors he had to bestow,
his ready compliance in honoring the
drafts of politically impecuniOus
statesmen, the dizziness acquired by
him in the manipulation of men and
measures so as always to secure the
largest personal return for himself
all conspired to create a machine"
which he fondly thought would fur
nish ample protection in time of
stress and safe shelter in case of sud
den attack.
Shrewd as he was, however, he
overreached himself. Had he been
content to go on as he had been do
ing, he might today still be big Gus"
But in an evil hour he harbored d
feeling Of revenge. He wished to get
square" with someone for attacking
him. And he couldn't strike back, of
course, without preliminary assump-
ton Of virtuous Indignation. He
''blufed,' in other words; and it
proved his undoing. He knew who
the Postmaster General was; but he
didn't know-his kind never does
the type of man represented by TheO
dore Roosevelt.
We are not concerned at this mo-
ment in learned discussion by some
of our contemporaries as to whether
Mr.. Machen is, or is not, a dead
duck" or whether he will be permitted
to resign or be dismissed. We may
have our opinion as to what some peo-
pie would like to see done, and as to
what is likely to happen. But we
can't stop now to elaborate on that.
Our present purpose is to point out
and emphasize the guilty connection
of probably two-thirds Of the mem
bership in Congress with these so
called irregularities" in the Postof-
fee Department Small, indeed, must
be the number of members who have
not known for years what was going
on. Small, indeed, must be the mum
Der that didn't profit by II. The eX-
istence of so unsavory an alliance jus
tifies some painful reflections If 1t
should serve TO arouse the public CON
science, however, and stimulate civic
pride to the point where 1t will sweep
from high places all those counten-
ancing such practices, even Machen
will not have lived in vain.
The Car has dismissed the governor
of Kishinen for neglect of duty in fail
ing 10 stop the Jewish outrages. II is