The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-05-13
Get Busy-QuiCk" Brigade
1t Ought to Be Mustered Out of the
Service Permanently.

Not since BOSS" Tweed sat back
IN his chair and sneeringly remarked
What are you going to do about
III" do we remember having come
across a more amusing piece of i'm
pudence than the language of former
Assistant Postmaster General Perry
5. Heath in discussing the charges
of gross irregularities in the Wash
ington City Postoff1ce, made by Sey-
mour ". Tulloch, its former cashier
Says Mr.. Heath:
Mr.. TulIoch was relieved by Postmaster Cen
eral Smith, which he had a perfect right to do,
and no one has the right to question his ac.
ton. He, no doubt, had friend whom he
preferred to Tulloch for the position of cashier.
This Tulloch had been holding down that
position for twenty years, and naturally thought
the Postoffice Department could not get on with.
out him.
Ii this is not defense of the prin-
ciple, dear to every boodler's heart
that public Office is a private snap
what is it?
We have never admired Mr.
Heath's political methods, but we
have heretofore at least given hin
credit for some common sense. Yet
here he asks us to believe that the
Hon. Charles Emory Smith-at that
time his official chief-was willing
party to the summary removal of
Mr.. Tulloch, because he (Smith) de-
sired the place for "friend."
Mr.. Heath goes even further-he
boldly asserts that the IRREGULAR
ties" had the sanction of an Assistant
Attorney General, the Comptroller
of the Treasury and of the entire
Cabinet. A more deliberate insult to
the memory Of William Mckinley
was probably never uttered. Nor is
the insult offered to the living less
pronounced. Does Mr.. Heath wish il
10 be understood that John Hay, Ly-
man ]. Gage, Elihu Root, John D.
Long, John W. Griggs, Ethan AL
len Hitchcock and James Wilson
sat silently by while abuses in
one of the departments of the Gov
eminent were brought to their notice,
without raising a hand to correct
them, or that anyone dared TO ask
70 81,
of their approval? The mind that
suggests such an idea must be that of
a fool or a pervert.
Mr.. Heath becomes positively hui
morous, however, when he attempts
to argue that the irregularities were
due to the outbreak of the Spanish
war and the difficulty of supplying
275,000 soldiers in hundreds of camps
with their mail. "There was no time
to daily" he says; 1T was up to us
to get busy, and get busy quick"
Precisely. That was the language
used by the enterprising concerns
which found so many valuable friends
and sympathizers in the office of the
Assistant Attorney General. They,
too, wanted to "get busy quick
and they generally succeeded. But
they had good memories. They never
forgot to make use of official COM
munications for advertising purposes.
Mr.. Heath's memory, on the other
hand, is singularly defective He
seems 10 forget that many of the II
Irregularities now complained Of are
duly set forth in the official report
of Congressional investigation,
which ante-dates by many months the
outbreak Of the Spanish war. Mr..
Heath, it seems to US, has another
guess coming to him.
In fact, we do not understand Mr..
Get-Busy- Quick Heath when he as
sures us that the idea of funds being
appropriated for private use is "ut-
terly silly" What he means to say,
most probably, is that it is utterly
silly" to expect a politician of the
stripe that has lately figured promi-
nently in postal affairs to look upon
the discharge of his duties as a sacred
trust. 1t is utterly silly" no doubt,
10 question the propriety and legality
of expenditures and disbursements
mounting into the millions 1t is
"utterly silly" perhaps, to look too
closely into the manipulation of pay
rolls for the benefit of rotten poll
ticians. 1t is utterly silly" we sus-
pect, for the public TO want to know
whether a system of official black
unnil h~e F. ,~----7-''1~l +" crow up