The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-27
Former Postmaster General De-
 fends His Administration
EXPLAINS THE TRANSACTIONS
Most of the Seeming Irregularities Were Caused By Having to Make Provision for the Spanish-Amer-
 ican War Without Precedent.

Pnlladelphlas June Zo.-CnarleS bnOhy Smith, who was succeeded as postmaster general by MT. Payne, made public today his reply to the charges made by MT Tulloch in connection with the postoffice investigation.
 Letter to Postmaster General.
 Philadelphia, June 2S 1903. Hon. Henry c. Payne. Postmaster Gen.
 eral.
 Sir-In view of the partial publication of the letter of Fourth Assistant Posi- master General Bristow on the so-called Tulloch charges and of the accompanying reports of inspectors made to him in 1899 and 1900, I deem 1t incumbent on me for a right public understanding to make a further statement, supplementary to my letter of May 27. and to present the pa- pers in their proper relation.
 Appended to this letter, and to be treated as a part of it, will be found 1st, complete copy. marked Exhibit A, of the itemlzed statement of the Tulloch charges, as submitted to me at the time they were made; 2d. in parallel column. complete copy (except as indicated in the text marked Exhibit B, of the con idential report of 1nspector-ia-charge Smith, which Is the main document ac- companying General Bristow's letter; Sd, a complete copy, marked Exhibit c, of the report which came as a result of the examination made when the Tulloch charges were submitted. and which em- bodies the answer, and the explanation of the transactions referred to. It will be seen that the Tulloch state m ha fnE a tically Identical. At many points the language is exactly the same It is as if they were written by the same hand. The Tuloch statement was submitted to me. The inspectors report was submitted to the fourth assistant. It was the business of the inspector to find whatever seemed to call for explanation; 1t was left to the postmaster general to find the explanation and the truth.
 Tulloch's Statement Probed.
 This was done by probing the Tulloch statement when 1t was presented. All of the transactions described as irregular were examined and 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 case. To this report I direct particular attention. If its statements are correct, then on most points its explanations are satisfactory. Its accuracy in all it's specific averments has never been impeached in any quarter. On the main points 1t is believed to be be- yond successful challenge.
 These main points may be thus summed up, each in a sentence: First, names of military postal clerks were put on the general roll till the military appropra- ton 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 supplies were made from the regular department con tractors named under competition and at regular contract prices. Fourth the vouchers for expenses of department off, cials travelling on official business were made as required by the auditor. Fifth, the lease of the Washington postoffice was shown to be entirely justified Sixth, the apparently double payment of those employed in examining letter carriers claims is fully explained.
 Appointments Were Right. These points embrace all that are speci- fled in the charges, except the items re- lating to appointments. including the in- dividual cases of Larner and O. H. Smith, and thus the matters open to question
  all told involve thirteen clerks and seven | cleaners. Even thfs is not the irreducible minimum, for several of these appoint ments, as shown in the explanatory state ment were perfectly right beyond any question.
 More than one-half of the inspectors 8 report is taken up with a minute and de- tailed statement as to the cases of Larner and O. Fl. Smith. Of the latter I had no kp0VVlpdQa nd mer l have so. recollection, as it was the only one of Che cases that was ap- pealed to me. Larner had been appointed a military postal clerk for Porto Rico by the first assistants bureau. He went un- der promise from that bureau of con- pensation at the rate of $1400 a year. About that time fixed the general com persation of clerks in Porto Rico, as l was empowered to do by law, at $12O0 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 $1400 and found on inquiry that this was true I ordered that he should be paid what he had been promised, as had right to do Out of that question of rate and out of the question of the actual length of hi. service grew the whole story of alleged | irregularity which takes up one-quarter | VI NhC Au5pccLOT report except as 1t iD- wolves few items of his expense ac- count One of the questions at issue in the latter was the question whether in the Porto Rican service "seidlitz pow ders, pills, pennyroyal and caloneP, should be treated as a personal expense or as chargeable to the government, Ills Duty Plain.
 When the charges of irregularity were made my duty was plain It was to havo them examined, and If there were irreeu- larities, to have them corrected. This is exactly what was done. The explana- tons were reported, and to me most of them seemed satisfactory. I was .hs more assured in this judgment from the fact that the comptroller of the currency, who made a searching investigation at the time and thoroughly examined all the vouchers allowed all except sf60 in total amount. As to these points of the expla- nation which were not satisfactory to me I said in my letter of May P and can only | repeat:
 l should not be altogether candid if did not say that in some cases was not convinced of the necessity or propriety of the transactions. These questionable | transactions consisted for the most part of placing on the pay roll a few persons 1 the need of whose services was not clear l ly shown When these facts develoned