Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1903-12-30
FROM WASHINGTON
Special Correspondence of the counrrn.
Washington. Dec. 20.

lnulanh, Is u MEMBER OF Congress
from that state, is the Secretary of
the Republican Congressional Com
mittee and is the chairman of the
House Committee on Post Offices
and Post Roads. To this commit
tee has been referred the recent
report of the Fourth Assistant
Postmaster General, Bristow, on
the grating and looting in the
Post Office Department. In that
report the Forth Assistant p. NJ.
q. inveighs strongly against the
game of graft by men in high
places in which they have the al
lowance of some obscure post Office
increased several hundred dollars
year and then place some favor
lite in that Office to draw as a salary
the increased allowance for the
Office. In now transpires that the
Hon. Jesse Overstreet, whose
committee has been charged with
the work of inspecting BristOw's
report, and reporting to the House
of Representatives on the same,
has been guilty of exactly the same
offense that Bristow condemns so
earnestly in his report. He got
the allowance of some small post
Office In the state of Indiana in
creased, and then sent a young
lady who had been acting as his
secretary TO draw the salary thus
created by the allowance.
1t will thus be seen how sincere
is the attempt of the republicans
to bring any of the offenders to
justice when they place the report
of the investigation in the hands
of a man who is guilty of the same
offence as others developed in the
investigation.
Until there is a democratic adj
ministration the people need not
expect anything to come from this
investigation of rottenness in the
Post Office Department. Every
move on the part of the. republi-
cans is merely bluff to hoodwink
the people of thenation. 1t is up
to the people to move in the mat
ter.
Everybody is aware of the siren
uosity and reverberating vocifer-
BUSINESS of the President as Il civil
service refOrmer. 1t has been his
hobby which he has ridden for
years with all the delight which he
evinces when busting a broncho.
he protests in season and out of
season that he will allow no in
fringement of the law governing
the civil service, and will hold no
man to a strict observance of the
same. Let us see if all these pro-
tests and vociferation are sincere,
or only bluff to fool the people.
Not long ago the President sent
Civil Service Commissioner Alfred
w. Cooley over to Philadelphia to
investigate as to the doings of
Postmaster McMichael of that city
who had been reported as using
his Office and his power as Post
master for purely political and
partisan purposes, and in other
ways violating the civil service
law. Mr.. Cooley went and made
out his report to the President,
and in that report he declared that
the Philadelphia postmaster was
guilty of all the offences charged
against him, and recommended his
dismissal for good and sufficient
cause, As soon, however, as Matt
Quay, the Pennsylvania repubIi-
can boss, got wind of the matter,
he went to the White House and
read the riot act to the President
to the effect that he did not intend
to have one of his chief henchmen
and tom tom heaters in Pennsyl-
vania disturbed in his fat office.
He had placed him, he intimated,
in the position he occupied for the
very purpose of having him do the
things he is charged with having
done in fragrant violation of the
civil service laws of the country,
and he intimated, also, that the
President would better be careful
how he disturbed his pets. What
was the results
The President fastened to send
for Civil Service Commissioner
Cooley, and practically taking him
by the throat, demanded of him
that he straightway write another
report of the findings against the
Philadelphia postmaster, in which
he would find nothing 10 his detri-