Arizona republican., 1905-09-12
A Vigorous Wedding.

at Oyster Bay has not been very much
in the nature of vacation. He is put
ting in the latter part of it in weed
ing out the departments. The Off
Gals who are going a, the request Of
the president. while they may
have expected to go on his
return to Washington, must have
been surprised that they have
not been given a day of grace.
The two latest cases are those of Dr.
Salmon. chief of the bureau of animal
industry. and Public Printer Frank w.
Palmer.
The resignation of DR.. Salmon is of
the most immediate interest to this
territory since he had often visited it
in an official capacity and always was
held in high esteem by the cattlemen
whose interests he always served,
though he was not held in so high es-
TEEN by the big packers.
The resignation of DR.. Salmon must
be regarded as in some measure due
to the investigation which has been
going on since the development of the
cotton statistics scandal. 1t is not
surmised that he could have been in
anyway implicated in those scandals
but the investigation taking wider
range than had been contemplated
led to the discovery of unsatisfactory
conditions elsewhere in the depart
ment so that the resignation of DR..
Salmon may be expected to be follow
ed by other designations.
No wrongdoing on the part of John
Hyde. the former chief statistician,
was discovered: and yet it was di-
rectly under his eye that Edwin s.
Holmes carried on his rascalities. Mr..
Hyde was forced to resign and it may
be that DR.. SalmOnn, too, is a victim
of the evil practices Of subOrdinates.
For many years the meat packers of
the west have made charges of I'M
fair treatment by DR.. Salmon, who
was recently acquitted of being f1nan-
cially interested in the company that
supplies meat inspection labels to the
department. 1t was generally thought
that this acquittaI was to be accepted
as a complete vindication, and while
there is nothing in the published cor
respondence accompanying his resig-
nation to indicate dissatisfaction, it
is reasonable to suppose that it would
not have been accepted without cause.
An oficeholder in Washington these
days must be circumspect indeed, for
an era of efficient administration has
vigorously set in.
In the case of Palmer, in which the
president on Sunday made public the
report Of the Keep commission, an
outline of which was printed by The
Republican yesterday. it appears that
though he himself was guilty of no
actual wrongdoing, he had been influ-
enced by underlings and had permit
ted himself to become enmeshed in a
very tangled condition of affairs. The
investigation set on foot by the Mer-
genthaler people regarding the pur
chase of the monotype machines, may
have directly led to the call for the
resignation of the public printer,
which, however. could not have been
long delayed. Still the chances of Mr..
Palmer would have been better if he
had not been surrounded by assist
ants, whose wives We're stockholders
in the favored company.
Mr.. Palmer is a man Of high char
acter and intelligence and of long ex-
perience, but untitled by age and the
modern advance Of invention to man
age successfully an important and
complex branch of the public service.
Few persons outside of Washington
realize the size of Uncle Sans great
printing establishment, which is hous-
ed in a building several stories in
height, covering many acres of ground, !
and gives employment to thousands of
men and women. Nowhere are the la
Dor unions more powerful and more
persistent in their demands than in
this industrial beehive. whittier the !
easy hours and good pay serve to at
tract printers from every corner of the |
United States.
Mr.. Palmer has lone been a union |
mand and regarded himself as pro-
gressive, but it is none the less true |
that in dealing with the questions of |
an "open shop" and the installation of |
typesetting machines he immersed |
himself in a sea of difficulties from !
which he could hope to emerge only !
as a private citizen. On his account !
this is to be regretted, as he has led |
a long. honorable and useful life. In |
struggling with existing conditions, |
however. he has been handicapped |
first of all by age. as he will be sew
enty-eight next month. He has been