Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-10-26
Mr. ]. S. ALTSCHUL
ONE OF TIE pOSTMASTERS DUR
ING TIE WAR WHO HAS
A CLAi Nj
Against the Government Whach Cos
oress Has Twice Ordered Pad,
But Department Holds Up.
STORY OF REPUBLICAN STEAL,

Mr Jee S. Altschul. of Pine Bluff
is QHe OF The postmasters. a portion
of whose. salary is being held up b.
tAe poStoffice department in violation
| of two acts OF congress directing the
| salaries 10 be paid and appropriatmg
money to pay them. and Whlcn was
| commented on in an edit oHial in The
! Graphic of October Is.
The salary act of July /. 1864, en-
| titled pestmasters throughout the
| United States to the same compensa-
| ton in the form of salaries they had
| hitherto derived from box rents and
commissions. In many instances the
! salaries We're 10 or more per cent. less
| than the income from commisa ions.
| Hence an act was passed in 1866 giving
| to postmasters who thus suffered in
| pocket the full amount of the box rents
and commissions during the term
minus the deficient salary paid. Tyner,
postmaster general. who recently as
assistant attorney general of the de-
| partment was summarily dismissed,
years ago in the earlier part OF the
postmaster;s' fight, reported to the
| chairman of the house committee on
postOffices and postroads that no ac-
| ton was ever taken complying with
the law of 1866, and his eXplana-
| ton to the press for this failure was
| that congress in the law did not III
| struct the postmaster general how to
| obtain the necessary information on
which to act Yet, at the very mo
| ment he made this statement, just
outside his door in the corridor in
| open books on open shelves, for the
! informatin of every department Off
cial there was recorded the box rents
! and commissions and the salary paid
| each and every postmaster in each
and every term.
The postmaster general in 1882 re-
ported to congress in effect that by ig-
| nOring the act of 1866 not less than
| gone to the credit of the department
administration and, furthermore, that
| if the bill then pending for an act
to pay the salaries in compliance with
| the act of 1866 became a law not less
| than 81 900 900 would be required to
pay the salaries and the bill was en-
acted into law March 3, 1883, and
acted into law Mar. 8, 1888, and order
! cd the salaries to be paid to those en-
! titled thereto 1t required accounts
| to be made in each case of the amount
| of box rent and commissions returned
by the postmaster in each case, minus
the commissions already paid, showing
amount of additional salary ordered
paid by the act of 1866 and reorde"ed
laid by the act of 1888 1t required
| these accounts to be reported to con
| 81 lOl CiiCy Nouio OC pau oAiiJ
| by the necessary appropriation in
deficiency appropriation bills. To de
| feat this second law by congress and
| to wipe out the rights of more than
| 16 600 American citizens, the celebrat-
ed salary allowance division, in the
| name of the postmaster general hit
! upon the eXpedient of suppressng the
! only accounts ordered by the statutes
| and reporting that they had all been
| paid in full In other words, this now
notorious division deliberately pro-
| ceeded to rob thousands of poStmas-
| ters of from 10 to 90 per cent. of their
| salaries by substituting smaller sal
aries for those ordered paid by the
acts of 1866 and 1883.
The department has lately issued a
! circular with "a. P.' endorsed on it
(supposed to belong to the salary and
allowance division) which shows that