Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-03-17
CONGRESSMAN WALTER I. SMITH
OF COUNCIL BLUFFS ON POST.
OFFICE AFFAIR.
RIDICULOUS CHARGE Es
Ninth District Representative In In.
terview Granted at Des Moines Says
6ristow Investigation Amounts to
Practically Nothing.

Hon. Walter +. Smith of Council
Bluffs, congressman from the ninth
Iowa district, laughs at the postal in
qulry case. Mr.. Smith has been in
Iowa for the past few days and while
IN Des Moines submitted to an inter-
view in which he spoke of the Bristow
report. He is well known in Ottumwa
and throughout the sixth district and
his remarks on the question which has
been stirring Washington for some
days will be of interest. The inter
view follows:
Il guess the boys down at Washing
ton went off half-cocked," is the way
| Congressman Walter l. Smith of the
ninth district smilingly explained the
big commotion in the national house of
representatives last week over the re-
lations of congressman with the postal
department. Congressman Smith was
in Des Moines to attend the hearing of
Council Bluffs claim to retain the
school for the deaf
Charges Were Minor.
"The fact of the matter is" he con-
tinued, "the charges made were of such
character that not over five of them
deserved even an explanation. These
five cases were incidents where con-
gressmen had rented buildings which
they owned for postoffice purposes.
This is against the law.
Hills "offense."
But in this connection, it is only
fair to say that Congressman Hill of
| Connecticut was very unfairly treated
Il oh t1nt y, al
as postofice at Norwich was the
property, of a; social club y in which
/ Congressman Hill had stock. Now the
report did not say that this social club
had never paid a dividend In its life
and that the taking of stock in it was
in the nature of donation.
"Hill got upon the floor with the in
tention of making very calm speech
but the more he talked, the madder he
got and before he got through, he an
nounced that he was ready to renounce
4 the privileges of the floor and was
ready to answer in any court for the
statement that the man who wrote
that report was a 'scoundrel and q
liar
i Smiths Cannon "Boom."
"Then William Alden Smith of Mich
igan arose. He proceeded to indulge
in some oratorical fire works ant
wound up by nominating Speaker Can
non for president and moved that thu
nomination take effect Immediately.
Report is Exaggerated.
"The exaggeration of the Importance
of the report originated in this way
The report, some 200 pages long, wal
hurled into the house late in the after
noon, and the newspaper men did no
have time to read those 200 pages. 81
they simply counted the number o
names mentioned and sent out thei
reports broadcast, that a large numbe
Of congressman had been caught in thu
postofice graft.
Smiths Part in Affair.
"Now as to my own heinous crime,
!. and the ninth district congressman as
sumed O penitent attitude, ~ admit
, am guilty. asked for an increase o
the salary of the postmaster at Mis-
souri, Valley, and didn't get it. wan
to say in extenuation that Mr.. Beav
ers was granting favors to the com
mittees on appropriations and postof
fees and post roads, and | didn't hap
pen to be a member of either of thes'
| committees, so I lost out. Oh, an
7 guilty all right, suppose should hav'
: got it.
) However, did get one increase
The postmaster was receiving $150 fo
/ clerk hire The several railroads whicl
| pass through there were in the habi
/. of buying their stamps in Chicago an
, mailing their letters at Missouri Va
> ley, so / asked for and received fo
: him an increase of $3.50 for clerk hire
''Then, upon his showing that h
was paying $1,000 for clerk hire an
receiving only $3.50, made another re
quest for an additional raise. This wa
: the one which didn't get. Now, that
my offense."