The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-29
N ANSWER TO TIMER
PRESIDENT AGAIN INDUCES IN EpIsToLARY PAsTIME.
AcuuIeeer in Verdict of Acquitsai, bus Cannot Believe Ex-Assistsnt AZ terney General Is Entirely
 Immaculate.

nt the president. Secretary Loeb today se,,t !, James N. Tyner, the former as- sistant attorney general for the post cysce department a letter in reply to Mr. Tyner's letter dated October D. and made public last night. The ie.- ter says as the question of Mr. Tyners guilt on the criminal charge on which he was tried has been passed upon cy < fury. the President acquiesces in the to him overwhelming that you tMr: Tyner) were guilty either of mora. obliquity in performance or duty or oi the grossest ineficiency.'
 The letter Follows:
 White House, Washington,
 Oct. 2s. 1904.
 sir.--The president has received this morning your letter dated October s' written In answer to my letter or June 24. which I have never. made public, although sou did make public your own letter which 1t answered.
 In your present letter you again claim that a wrong has been done you and ask that 1t be righted. As you are out of ofiice the fighting of the wrong could not be effected by your reinstate- ment to office, or a declaration by the president that you were innocent. The president instructs me to say to you that his memorandum to which you take exception was written when thren indictments against you had been rel turned by the grand jury. the report or MT. Bristow submitted to Messrs. Bonaparte and Conrad, and the action taken against you by the Department of Justice being on the recommenda- ton of Messrs. Bonaparte and Conrad. Tn his memorandum, the president re- ferred to your office as follows:
 "'The investigation dfscloses con- dition of gross corruption in the office of the assistant attorney general for the post office. In the case of Assis- tant Attorney General Tyner the mis- conduct has gone on for a number of years. but 1t is impossible to say ex- actly when 1t began. The three chief offenders in the service were Tyner, Machen and Beavers. Friends of Ty- ner have advanced the theory that in his case the chief offender was really his nephew by marriage, Barrett. who was his assistant in office for a part of the term. and that Tyner's offenses were due to his failing bodily and mental powers.'
 The facts set forth in Mir. Bris- tow's report do not tend to substanti- ate the validity of these excuses for Tyner. while they show literally hs- founding misconduct in Barrett. In the Office of the assistant attorney general for the post office department under Tynsr and Barrett far greater wrong was inflicted upon the public than could be measured by a pecuniary standard. for in this office the corruption of. the government officials took the form of favoring get-rich-quick con- cerns and similar swindling schemesg in other words, the criminals whom 1t was the sworn duty of the government officials to prosecute, paid them for permission to fleece the public unmo- lested.'
 you were tried, you have been declar- ed innocent by a jury in 8 court of law and the verdict Is final as regards all citizens. including the President. There is, however, a wide difference between which is criminal and de- clared such by the courts, and miscon- duct which. though 1t does not right the wrong to the criminal law, yet re- quires his immediate separation from the Government service and Justifies his severe condemnation by the gen. erai community on moral grounds. You were acquitted of conspiring with Bar rett to do certain criminal deeds. Yoa were not acquitted of doing the deeds.
 That these get rich quick concerns which employed MT. Barrett were im- properly favored in your office seems to admit of no doubt.
 Tt appears that Mir. Barrett. your nephew by marriage and formerly your assistant, immediately upon leaving office under you. made his speciality of practicing before the Department of which you were head in this class of cases, and with a success which has -fx kn vaolr thousands of dollars in two years. His work consisted in preventing the issu- aflce of, or securing the cancellation of the so-called fraud orders against these concerns.
 since Attorney General Robb was made Attorney General for the Post ofhce Department all these fraud or- ders, the issuance of which Mir, Bar rett prevented, or the cancellation of which he secured. have been issued land in no case has one of them been mad void by the courts. The contrast between what was done under your ad ministration and under Attorney Gen eral Robb and the conduct of MT. Bar rett in the Presidents judgment. war rant the emphatic statement that Mir. Barrett should never again be allowed to practice befofre the Department, and that your removal was imperative ly demanded in the interest of honest and efficient government.
 There are certain matters which could not come before the jury which nevertheless it was and Is necessary for the President to consider when you ask him to take any action looking to the rehabilitation of your charac- ter. One of these is the burglary committed by Mrs. Barrett, Mir. Bar rett's mother, and by Mrs. Tyner nt your direction. Mrs. Tyner came to the Postofice Department, entered your private room in the office and then admitted Mrs. Barrett and a safe expert and the three then rified the safe.
 The Department of Justice has nev- CT been able to know exactly what documents were at that time abstract ed from the safe. The President has the right to assume that they would not have been abstracted in this man. ner had they not been of a character such as would gravely incriminate you and Mir. Barrett. Moreover certain other actions of yours were brought to the Presidents attention which seem ed to show such gross lack of the sense of official propriety on your part as not to warrant him in making a presumption fin your favor"
 The incidents referred to in this connection are then cited as attempts to coerce the postmaster at Portage Wis, into retaining MT .Tyner's daugh-