Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1903-06-11

mean the turning If sood many
votes Needy dependents, too, could
fud employment somewhere at liN-
ing salary. Is it wonderful that, by
degrees, the Difference which senators
and representatives used 10 show, for
patronage reasons, TO the first as
sistant postmaster seueral, they came
To pay to his subordinate, the super
intendent Of free delivery? Machen
could give them rural route, or
change a carrier on one already Is,
tabushed, He could draw up an order
making a new regulation or aholiShjns
an old one; and the postmaster SEN
eral. seeing his initials in the corner
of the sheet, would not think OF Ques-
tioniug it--usually not Of reading it,
but would sign it, as a matter Of
course. A uniform device for letter
boxes along rural routes had to be
adopted by the government in self.
defence. to prevent the farmers from
using insecure old soap boxes, and the
like The postmaster general appoint
cd a committee to pass upon designs;
Machen was on the committees Natur.
ally, the contractors resarded him as
power To be couciliated,
BY and by. after all the salaried
places worth having in the rural dc.
livery system had been filed by the
tavorites of congressman and other
maguates. it was decided to put it
under the civil service rules. When
the civil service commission undertook
to frame regulations for the eNamina.
ton and selection of employees, 1t was
not the postmaster general, or the
first assistant. but Macheu who was
called into consultation as the practi-
cal expert He therefore knew the
civil service rules covering this sys-
tenn as we'll as he knew the statutes
and regulations covering free delivery
in cities,
Rise of the Delivery System.
Meanwhile, the city delivery sys-
TEN had been expanding. A larger
carrier service, a greater number of
offices enjoying it, new designs for
letter-boxes. new ideas in collection
all these came in for Machen's atten-
ton. In every aspiring town his
name became watchword. Post
masters opened his official letters with
respect, and recognized him as a per,
sonage to he reckoued with at each
new turn in their affairs. The in
yentors of patent locks, the manu-
facturcrs of paints especially suited to
the surface Of boxes, the designers Of
collection wagons, all saluted him
with hat in hand AS the one man
who knew all about it, he was the
ultimate authority to sit in Judgment
on everything connected with free dc.
livery. His 90 X" could not have
been more valuable il written in gold
and his hostility was proportionally to
he dreaded; for, though he might he
only one member Of a board of three
or five or seven to make an award, his
expert knowledge usually turned the
scale for or against project.
Machen Believed by Some to be In
noceat.
In view of all this, it is not difficult
to see how AIachen was presently in q
position whore favors poured in upon
him from all sides, even including q
large, but unsolicited, increase Of his
own salary This was the con
gressmen's way Of returning him many
IlIindnesscs. Rumors Of his corrup
ton were rife now and then, but he
met every charge sQuarely. II was
reported at one time. for instance
that he had forced upon the patrons OF
the rural routes style of lettcrbo&
which was manufactured by his
brother; but he promptly brought ont
the papers to show, not only that he
was merely one Of a bench Of arbi
ters In the disposal Of the box con.
tracts but that their sessions were
open, that they approved fourteen al
tentative styles so as TO give every
Ipatron a wide range of choice as to
size anu UIlGt hHu ludL no l9ldliNh Oh
his, as far as he knew, had any inter.
est In any of these boxes. At the
coal supply scandal which had been
stirred up by local newspaper, he
simply shrugged his shoulders, refer.
ring questioners to the higher authori-
ties Of the department, who in their
turn admitted that the situation was
not pleasant but declared that they
could not draw nice distinctions in the
midst of fuel famine and that they
were thankful to MI Machen, as they
would be to anyone else, who could
and would help them 10 keep warm.
A story was set aH0at that Machen
was a promoter If mining company
and that lie had unloaded hundreds Of
worthless shares uron clerks who had
to look to him for their bread and but
ter He met this with the assertion
that 1t was true that he was president
Of a copper mining company and that
some Of the clerks had asked him 10
sell them little stock but a lie to
say that ho had ever requested or adj.
rised any Of them 10 buy; that. on the
l. a Z