The San Francisco call., 1904-03-10
POSTOFFICE SCANDAL REPORT
STIRS WRATH OF C0NGRESSMEN
Indignant Members of the House Demand Com
pIete Investigation Into the Postal Department
of the Government and 4url Epithets at Bristow

rage and a violation of every principle
of justice"
Prolonged applause followed this
| statement. He wanted to know by
what right the Bristow report had
been published before the action
| of any tribunal had established the
truth of it. In order to show what he
termed the infinite rascality'' of the
Bristow report. Grosvenor explained
the cases in which his name was men
toned.
Il will resign my seat tomorrow, :"
he said, pounding his desk, ''if there
is anything irregular and improper in
what l did,
BRISTOW Is SCORED.
Then, showing the effects of his in
dignation, Grosvenor pounded his desk
again and said:.
L condemn the man that sent that
into this House. Can any self-respect-
ing Congressman ever enter the cffiee
of the man who will produce such a
document as that?"
This report, he added, would be
printed abroad and it would be said
that in the American Congress there
were 191 rascals. If the Postofice De-
partment had some official whose judg
ment was so dwarfed by the opinion of
a Congressman the officials had better
be turned out, he declared The Bris
tow report, he said in conclusion, was
conceived in sin and born in iniquity,
and had Travelled it's course until it
had struck the public of the United
TOT
men 'as free from wrongdoing, cCrrup-
tion, crime and irregularity as an equal
! number of men on the face of the
earth"
Lilley of Connecticut, who was
| charged in the report with being a
technical violator of the law in leas-
ing a building at Winsted, Conn, to
the Government for pCstoffice purposes
explained that within twenty four
hours after his attention had been
called to the statute in question he
| had made personal application at the
Postoffice Department to have the lease
| Cancelled. First Assistant Postmaster
| General Wynne had asked him to de-
lay the matter that he might take it
up with the law department. He had
| been informed by a written opinion
| from the department two days later
! that his election to Congress did not
invalidate the lease in any way.
BID DEFIANCE TO BRISTOW.
Butler of Pennsylvania, another ac-
cused member, said he never before
understood the duties of Representa-
tives, but he now conceived them to
be of singular and conspicuous mac
: tivity" He differed, he said, from
General Bristow, and he would defy
any one to close the doors of the de-
] partment to him. Whoever had as
sailed him, he said, was coward.
Hill of Connecticut, likewise mention
I ed in the BristoW report, denied that he
had done anything improper. He had,
! he said, submitted certain questions
to General Bristow, answers to which
had been refused. II am going to
vote for a resolution to investigate
myself and to Investigate the Fourth
Assistant Postmaster General he said
amid a round of applause. Holding
up a-copy of the report Hill vehement
! ly declared that document is the pro-
| duction of liar and scoundrel"
| Thompson of Alabama, also named
in the report, characterized the re-
port as infamous and having for It's
object the intimidation of members in
order to keep them from insisting on
their rights.
/ Robinson of Arkansas demanded an
| investigation of the entire Postoffice
Department, lit having confessed to
being unable to conduct its affairs with
a fair degree of seeming propriety."
Cooper of Wisconsin interrupted
Robinson and said he had been in
formed by an old member of the House
that. General Bristow, trembling from
illness told that member that he
| (Bristow) had never seen the report as
it was now printed. Therefore, said
Cooper, Il think the abuse of him
ought to stop
The naval appropriation bill was
sent to conference, the Speaker ap-
pointing Messrs. Foss, Dayton and
Meyer conferees on the part of the
House and at O'Clock the House ad-
!! journed.