The San Francisco call., 1904-03-08


chapter in the Postoffice investigation
of last summer was revealed to-day
when Chairman Overstreet of the
House Committee on Postoff1ces and
Post Roads laid before the House of
representatives a closely printed doc
ument of 21S pages recounting the in
stances on file in the Postoffice Depart
ment in which members of the Senate
and House of Representatives have
used their influence with the officials
of the Postoff1ce Department, with
more or less success, to secure in
creases In salaries. of postmasters, ad-
ditional clerk hire and advantageous
leases of buildings for postoff1ce pur-
poses.
The report is made by the unanimous
vote of the members of Overstreet's
committee, in response to q resolution
calling for the information, introduced
by Representative Hay of Virginia. AS
the information accompanies the re-
port, the committee recommends that
the resolution lie on the table. Some
of the transactions involving members
of Congress recorded in the report are
held to be technical violations of the
statutes, others are pronounced by
members who have read the report as
clearly censura BILE, while in the major
ity of cases 1t is held that members III
making their recommendations to the
department expected nothing not in
harmony with the rules and practices
of the department.
Three cases are set forth in which
members of Congress own buildings
which were leased to the Government
for postoffice purposes.
The details of these cases are given
by Fourth Assistant Postmaster Cen
eral Bristow in a communication to
Chairman Overstreet:
Section 80 Of the Revised Statutes
provides: No member of or delegate
TO Congress shall, directly or indirect
ly, himself, or by any other person in
trust for him, or for his use or benefit.
or on his account undertake, execute,
hold or enjoy, in whole or in part. any
contract or agreement made or entered
into on behalf of the United States by
any officer or person authorized to
make contracts on behalf of the United
States
The statute further provides:
All contracts or agreements made in
violation of this section shall be void.
Yet, in the face of this statute
Beavers has made contracts with mem
bers of Congress for the rental of prem
ises, either in his own name, the names
Of his agents, or some member of their
families.
CONGRESSMEN ARE ACTIVE
Persons whose influence seemed
good with the Postpf1ce Department.
for a time at least embraced in the
history of these cases include: G. d.
Meiklejohn, Representatives Russell
Sperry and Hill of Connecticut: SEN
ator Clay and Representative Griggs
Of Georgia.; Senator Cullom, ex-Sen-
ator Mason and Representatives George
w. Smith, Rodenburg. Warner and
Prince of Illinois; Senator Beveridge
and representatives c.. F. Lands,
Crumpacker, Watson, Hemenway,
Overstreet and former Representative
Steele Of Indiana; former Speaker
Henderson and Representatives Cous-
ins and w. /. Smith of Iowa; Repre-
sentatives Miller, Bowersock and
Calderhead of Kansas; Representative
Pugh and John w. Langley of the
Census Office for Kentucky; Senator
McComas and Representatives Pearre
and Jackson of Maryland
-Four allowances in Michigan were
secured by Representative H c. Smith.
Representative Gardner was success
full in one instance, and John A. Mer-
ritt in another. Hon. H. A. Castle,
former Representative Fletcher and
Representative McCleary are the
M 11narfinnad in he l;et
r. c. Kerens, Webster Davis and John
Dougherty secured increases which
afterward were revoked for Missouri.
Thomas H. Carter appears in the
list for Montana. Former Senator
Thurston and Representative Burkett
are down for Nebraska.
Representative Gardner and Will
lam Johnson secured increases in New
Jersey. New York is represented in
the list by Governor Odell, Representa-
tives s. E. Payne, Sherman, Alexander,
Ketcham and Vreeland and ex-Repre-
sentatives Ray and Tomkins. Former
Senator PritChard secured an increase
for clerk hire for Greenville, N. c.,
from $40 TO $3.50 per annum, which. on
December /, 1908, was discontinued al
together. He also secured an increase
from $40 to $3.50 for Wakeforest, N c.,
which was reduced to the former
amount October /, 1903. Senator Hans
brough appears in the list for North
Dakota.
Besides seven ether instances in
which II. A. Librand, Hon. W. s.
Brown and w. NJ. Mooney figure, these
two instances are given in the record:
jefferson oho-January II. 1899, on the rec
ommendation OF Hon. Charles Dick the al
lowance for separating clerk hire at this Of
fec increased from $500 to 5000 per an
mum from January l. 1899, and the same
date il further increased to 5000 per an
mum from July l. 1899.
South Bloomingville, Ohio-February 81 1900
upon a recommendation of c. II Grosvenor
the allowance for separating clerk hire at this
office was fixed at $50 per annum from April
1, 1900.
A report of the Postmaster dated