Arizona republican., 1903-05-17

Washington, D. C.. May 16,-Postmas- ter General Payne made an extended statement Of the Tulloch charges to- night He said, as to the charge that physicians were carried on the rolls of the postoffices without authority, that there had been fifteen or twenty such cases in the United States. This was a matter of administration policy, he said and was entirely within the prov ince of the postmaster general, but that he himself last autumn restricted the employment of physicians to postoffi- ces where the revenues aggregated $1,- OO0,000 a year.
 Mir. Tulloch," continued the post master general, says that the trouble commenced in the Cleveland admins tration under Postmaster General Will son. He instances the purchase of file case by the salary and allowance division, which was paid for out Of the Washington postoffice funds under or ders of MT. Shepard, then chief of the salary and allowance division. This may have been irregular, but certainly the government was not cheated.
 MT Tulloch makes assertions re- garding the department calling on its minor officials to be bonded by bonding companies, but ends this charge by saying that the competition between the companies soon made the fees nom inal. He refers to the house. toulouse letter box plan in Washington and speaks of letter of commendation for the scheme written by Postmaster Gen eraI Wilson, but that letter does not show that MT. Wilson had any interest in the scheme.
 ''He refers to the return postal card scheme of the Economic Postage asso- citation, which was never adopted, and insinuates: We are not unprepared to find Mir Weaver and MT. Machen rec ommending them
 Mir TulIoch refers to the salary and allowance division of the department, without whose approval nothing could be done, saying the ring consisted of the head of the division, the first as- sistant postmaster general, and the postmaster general. Well. these off cials were the only ones who had any thing to say about such matters, any way. He says that some man was car ried on two payrolls. but the laws spe- officially provide that an employe can draw from two payrolls if properly au- thorized, if his aggregate salary does not exceed $25O0.
 He says another man was borne on the rolls of the local postoffice as letter carrier, and was employed in the free delivery division. That was ir- regular, but the government got the service MT. Tulloch mentions alleged junkets of officials and employees who went to Cuba and Porto Rico to install the postal service there.
 Now how does MT. Tulloch assume to pass on the question whether these gentlemen simply went on a junket? He refers to a man who was appointed to place in Porto Rico. but who got drunk in New York on the way. Well, once in a while a postmaster defaults, and gets drunk, and is dealt with ac- cording to his desert. MT. Tulloch has made the statement that the Cuban ad- ministrative troubles, already known, were nothing compared to Porto Rico. There has been only one case of wrong doing of one administrative official in Porto Rico, and that was clerk in the Ponce postoffice, who defaulted about $3O00. The government got what it could. and this record prevented this mans getting into the arm later on. The letter mentions the auditing of ac- counts in Porto Rico. The administra- tion of affairs in Porto Rico, during the time he mentioned, was an emergency plan. and, like all such matters, might have taken some time to get in smooth running order.
 ''I want to say here that any irregu- larities complained of in the Washing ton postoffice were investigated at the time by postoffice inspectors, who made report to the postmaster general. They found some irregularities, b-t not robbery, or default of the government. Ex-Postmaster General Smith and Postmaster Merritt of this city state in their letters to me that they cor rected the evils complained of as soon as their attention was called to them. All that indicates any wrong doing in the postoffice department or in the Washington postoffice, involving loss to the government or the integrity of any official, will be investigated by MT. Bristow, but I am not going to investi- gate a stump speech or the question whether the postmaster of Washington should be a Washington man or wheth- CT MT. Tulloch should have been remov- ed. The postmaster general had a per feet right to remove MT. Tulloch. Much