The Press., 1903-06-04
. WASHINGTON LETTER.

Washington, June 1, 1903.
 The officials of the post-off1ce depart ment have secured evidence of the dis honesty of August W. Machen, general superintendent of free delivery. Machen has been arrested on the charge of having accepted commissions on goods he pur- chased for the post-office department to amount of $22, 900 and has been released on bail to the amount of $20,00O. This event and those that immediately pre-. ceeded 1t constitute the most sensational occurrence in the recent history of the post-office department and 1t Is believed presage the discovery of crlminality which will equal the revelations of the Star route scandal. Another official place under ar- rest during the past week was Daniel ". Miller, assistant attorney general for the post office department, who is charged with accepting a bribe approximating $4 800 in consideration of his rendering 8 decision favorable to Ryan & Co.,, "get- rich-quick" concern whose right to use the mails had been questioned. Miller's arrest completes the elimination of all the old officials from the law department of the post-office department and is source of encouragement to post-ofie inspectors, who have been frequently disheartened because after the most arduous efforts to obtain eliminating evidence against fraudulent users of the mails, they have almost invariably failed to secure the CO., operation of the law department.
 The case worked up against Machen is particularly remarkable because 1t was completed without the knowledge of the postmaster general and was submitted to him only after all the evidence had been completed and Machen placed in charge of United States marshall. On ascer- taining these facts MT. Payne gave Ma chen's arrest his immediate sanction. It seems the government, as represented by Machen, has been purchasing little fasten- CTS for attaching mail boxes to lamp posts and paying for them the exhorbitant price of $1.25 each, although it has since been ascertained that they cost to manu- facture but % cents each. Of the price paid, Machen received as commission 40 per cent. or 50 cents each. The number purchased within the past ten years had amounted to $16O,OOO.
 ''The opportunities for young man to secure advancement in the army, even though he be obliged to enlist as prl- vate, were never better than they are to- day." said General s. B. M. Young, in answer to question put to him by your correspondent. Major General Young is to-day ranking General in the army, save General Miles, whose retirement will take place August 8, and as General Young was himself an enlisted man and never had the advantages of West Point edu- cation he is in position to speak with authority. Incidentally, 1t may be men, toned that General Miles was not West Pointer and neither Is General Chaffee, the officer next in rank to General Young. General Young believes that with the new organization of the army, the estab- lishment of the war college, of which he Is president, and the rigid system of ex- animation for promotion which has been instituted in the army, the young man with 1t in him" stands an exceptional chance. At the end of two years service in the ranks the young man has an oppor- tunity to take an examination for pro- motion, and, to a large extent, each suc- cessive grade will be attained as the re-