Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1903-06-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
fFrom our Regular correapondent.,

FROM our heKuIar correspondent
Washington, d. c., June 15.-The
Postoffice investigation still progresses
with such speed as the Postmaster
General is unable to prevent. Mr..
Payne has not yet made public the
reply of Fourth Postmaster General
BristOw to the Tulloch charges and
meanwhile Perry Heath has left tie
country, or has left Salt Lake City
with that Intention. An instance Ct
the kind of ''irregularity'' for which
Heath stands responsible is furnisht d
by the case of Mrs. Fanny R. Winans,
formerly society editor of a small pa
per In Ohio aad sister-in-law of the
publisher. When Senator Hanna was
running for the Sena the support of
this paper was regarded as more CT
less essential to his success. Accord
ingly, Hanna asked Heath to appoint
Mrs. WinanS to position In the Post
office Department. and Heath did so.
but Mrs. Winans was given no work,
her only duties being to draw her saia
ry. She seriously objected to the con
tinued drawing of pay without the per-
Torrance Of any work in return and
"pestered" Heath until he told her she
was a nuisance" Then she took her
case to Hanna and he wrote Heath he
would have to give Mrs. Winans some
thing to do but this he failed to do
and finally Mrs. Winans, who is an
exceptionally clever woman took
civil service examination and secured
an appointment In the Pension Office,
position she now holds. This is but
q sample of the type of abuses which
| nrIor vO1itsoo1 or Or iDi ct 70 To-, I,o lOnn
been common.
An instance in the New York post
| office where the Postmaster has con-
ferred sine cure on his son has just
come to light. Because of the difficulty
of securing men with peculiar scientific
qualifications for certain work Presi-
dent Mckinley issued an order that in
case no man could be found in the
classified service who had the quail
fications necessary to fill any particular
vacancy, an outsider could be employ
ed. Awaiting themselves of this clause
Postmaster Van Colt and Perry Heath
fixed up the appointment of young
Van Colt, the father certifying that
no one could be found to perform the
entirely routine work to which the
young man was assigned. Heath en-
dorsed the certifcation and President
Mckinley accepted it. Then the Civil
Service Commission made such az
urgent complaint, alleging that Var
Colts appointment was a clear evasion
of the intent of the law, that President
Roosevelt repealed the regulation blu,
did not have the courage to discharge
the men whose appointment had nee
essitated the repeal.
4 Is Wall street really opposed to thu
electioD:of President Roosevelt Their
is grave doubt on this question express
ed by democratic politicians who COM
to Washington. They say that by thu
appointment of Payne and other o
, Hanna's prOteges to good offices Mr.
Roosevelt secured the friendship of thu
Ohio boss and then the Senator per
mitted it to be understood that he wa
Opposed to the President greatly to th
latter's advantage. Now it is remark
ed that there is great cry of the op
position of Wall Street to Presiden
Roosevelt, but it all emantes from re
publican editors. 1t is beginning t.
he suspected that this is a shrewt
game on the part of the President an.
his advisors to gain the support OF th
anti trust element of the voters.
A new republic may be the out
, growth of the proposition of the Unite'
States to construct the Panama canal
Reports from Bogota, believed to b.
reliable, are to the effect that the in
!, habitants of the states of Panama ant
J, Cauca are unanimously in favor of thu
ratification of the treaty and that il
their insistence on this point is disre
lgarded by the Columbian congress
they will secede. These two states ar,
the ones that would profit most by tn
construction of the canal. They ar
almost entirely shut off from the rest
of Columbia by mountain chain anG
in view of the impoverished condition
of the Columbian treasury it is not be
/ lieved that the mother country could
effectually opposed secession. The two
states would together make a country
larger than Costa RIGA, and the an
nuity Of $250.OOO which the United
States is prepared to pay for the use OF
the canal zone would almost maintain
the government, especially as this cOun-
try would pay bonus Of SIC, 0OO, 600
to start with. While it would be a
diplomatic error for the State Depart.
ment to admit as much, it is believed
that there would be great relief il
these states could accomplish sue
cessful revolution.