The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-06-27

Postmaster General Payne by ex-
Postmaster General smith:
Philadelphia, June p. 1903.
Hon. Henry Q. Payne, Postmaster
General:
Sir-In view of the partial pubiica-
ton Of the letter OF Fourth Assistant
Postmaster General Bristovv on the
sO-lalled TUuOch charges and of the
accompanying reports of inspectors
made to him in 1899 and 1900, / deem
a. Incumbent on me for a right public
understanding 10 make a further
statement, supplementary to my Letter
OF May 2, and to present the papers
IN their proper relation
Appended to this letter, and to be
treated Is part Of il. viii be found,
DrSJ, complete copy, marked exh...
"A OF the itemized statement of the
IuIEoch chaI ges. as submitted to me
al the time they were made; second,
n parallel column. a complete copy
except as Indicated in the teXD,
marked exhibit 3, Of the confidential
report Of InspectOr-in-C Charge Smith,
which IS the main document accom-
panying General BristOw's letter:
~Lhlrd, a complete copy, marked ex-
nblt G, of the report which came as a
result Of the examination made when
the Tulloch charges were submitted
and which embOdies the answer AMI
the explanation of the transactions re
ferred to.
Reports Identical
It will be seen that the Tulloch
statement and the inspectors report
are practically Identical At many
POINTS the language is exactly the
same It is as IL they were written BY
the same hand The TullOCh state
ment was submitted to me. The in
Spector's report was submitted to the
fourth assistant. 1t was the business
ST b p -
seemed to call for explanation; it was
left TO the postmaster general to ind
the explanation and the truth.
4 This was done by probing the Iul-
> loch statement when IT was presented.
F-Au OF the transactions described as
irregular were examined and a report
was made TO me- which took them up
ken by item and groups Of items and
save the facts and the explanations IN
each case. To this report. which ap-
pears below as exhibit c. direct par
ticulaT attention If its statements
are correct. then on most points its
explanations are satisfactory Its ac-
curacy In all its specific averments
has never been impeaehed IN any
quarter. On the main points il is be
heved to be beyond successful chaI-
lenge.
Summing Up.
These main points may be thus
summed up. each in a sentence: First.
Eames of military postal clerks were
put on the general roll until the mill
tary appropriation became available;
then they We're transferred to the mill
tary roll. Second. the bond premiums
of military postal clerks were paid Tor
good reasons. which are plainly set
forth. and which had the approval o.
the couDtrOIler. Third. the purchases
OF Porto Rico supplies were made from
the regular department contractors
named under competition and at reg
ular contract prices Fourth, the
vouchers fer expenses of department
officials travelling on official business
4 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 eXaTnln
ing letter carriers claims is fully ex-
These points embrace all that arr
specified i'm the charges. except the
items relating TO appointments, IN
Guiding the individual cases Of Larner
and o. H Smith. and thus the matters
open to question are reduced to the
appointments which, all told, involve
thirteen clerks and seven cleaners
Even this is not an irreducible mini
mum for several OF these appoint
ments as shown i'm the explanatory
statement. were perfectly right and
beyond any question
Ducks Smith Charge.
More than one-half of the inspec-
tors report is taken up with a minute
and detailed statement of the cases OF
I,arner and O. II. Smith OF the latter
4, had no knowledge and say nothing
- the former I have some recOLec-
non. as it was the only one Of the
cases that was appealed to me Larn-
er had been appointed military postal
clerk for Porto Rico by the first as
sistant's bureau. He went under
promise from that bureau Of compen-
sation at the rate Of S1.4OO year.
About that time 1 fixed the general
compensation of clerks in Porto Rico,
as I was empowered to do by law, AZ
81 200 a year. When Larner returned
he refused to settle his unsettled ac-
count on that basis and appealed 70
me He insisted that he had been
promised 81 400 and I found on inquiry
that this was true. 7 ordered that he
should be paid what he had been prom
tsed, as I had a right TO 90 Out OF,
that question Of rate and out OF InaI
question of the actual length OF his
service grew the whole story of al
legged irregularity which takes up one
quarter OF the inspectors report eX-
CeDt as II involves "a few items of his
expense account One Of the questions
at issue IN the latter was the question
whether in the special Porto Rican
service "seidlitz powders. pills, penny
royal and calcmel' should be treated
as a personal expense or as charge
able to the government.
His Duty Plain.
When the charges Of irregularity
were made my duty was plain. II
was to have them examined and If there
were Irregularities to have them cor
rected- This is exactly what was done.
The explanations were reported as
they appear in exhibit G. and TO me
-snOsf Of them seemed satisfactory. I
WWas the more assured in this judgment
from the fact that the comptroller OF
the treasury. who made a searching
Investigation at the time and thor
oughly examined all the vouchers. al
lowed all except S16O in total amount.
As to those points of the explanation
which were not satisfactory to me 1
said in my letter Of May p, and can
only repeat:
/ should not be altogether candid if
I did not say tina in some cases was
NOT convinced Of the necessity or pro-
xrfetv of the transactions. These Ques-
fionable transactions consisted for the
most part of placing on the roll a few
persons the need Of whose services was
not clearly shown. When these facts
developed the proper officers were in
structed that every proceeding which