The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-08-11
CHIEF MOORE Is
VERY INDIGNANT
Weather Bureau Does Not Belong TO
the Rascality Department.
DENIES CHARGES OF GRAFT
OFFERS FULL OPPORTUNITY FOR
INVESTIGATION.

IAI Aug. 1e--Professor
w Willis l. Moore, chief of the
United States weather bureau,
today issued a signed statement deny
ing allegations of graft in the manage
ment of the weather bureau station
in the Blue Ridge mountains, near Blue
mountain, discIaiming the existence of
any Irregularities in the administra-
ton of his office and Offering full op-
portunity for the investigation of any
specific charges by any person.
"A few days ago statement was
published in Washington to the effect
that 1T was reported unOficiaIly that
the secret service had dispatched agents
to the mountain station Mount Wealth
er of the United States Weather bu-
reau) where the sleuths for the past
two days have been noSig around.
According to the report these sIeuths
discovered that the weather bureau
was paying So per day for unskilled
laborers in the city of Washington, and
that there is a complaint on the part
of the employers adjacent who only
pay IS cents to 81.
1T is a fact that the weather bureau
has never paid So a day to any Iaborer
employed at Mount Weather, or at any
other place, and If the reporter who
wrote that statement had taken the
trouble to ask for the privilege of exam
lining the payrollS of the weather bu-
rGau he would have saved his readers
the opportunity of reading secretly Sc
cured scandal Instead of O~enly pro-
cured news. 1 would like to have the
entire payrolls of Mount Weather. or
or any other portion of the weather
bureau. published so that the public
may know whether there is an extra
Savant management inside of the bu-
reau or any Justification.
Proud of Paying Fair Price.
Il do not doubt that I have dis
turbed the labor market in the vicinity
OF Mount Weather and I am proud of
the fact, for l was told of men work
ing from sunrise to sunset for 80 cents
per day and board, or 80 cents per
day and board themselves I believe
that such hours of labor and such
wages do not contribute to the better
ment of American citizenship or the
welfare of the state, and so far as L
have the power as the chief of a large
government bureau / shall ever strive
TO alter such conditions.
ION the approval of Secretary Will
son, / established a wage of IS per day
for stone masons, s.. 90 for carpenters
and $3.50 for day laborers. If the
sleuths had been little more vigilant
they would have discovered that
from fifty to sixty men had been for
some time receiving the ADVANTAGES of
such scale and such hours of labor
No ExtraVagance.
These wages are not high, and
surely they are not extravagant. Had
we been employing these people in
places where the cost of living was
high. the wages would have been
greater. If this is evidence of eXtrava-
gance and bad management, it may as
well be told now that the wage scale
of each and every class Of skilled or
unskilled labor in the weather bureau
has been materially increased during
the past eight years by Secretary VIII
son on my recommendation.
Il believe that wherever government
officials in any measure have been
recreant to their trusts, their records
should be inquired into and they held
i'm strict accounta bility, and I also be-
Iieve that the greatest enemies of
graft are the representatives OF the
American press. who should be given
free access to the files and records of
every public office"