The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-09

l wholly unexpected phases of miseonducts. 1 The frauds in the postal department which 1 were unearthed some six years ago, for l instance, offer case in point. My sus- | plcious were first aroused by a report | made as to the very extravagant and Ge- bauehed manner of life of a certain pos tal employe, this report being made oy an official of the secret service in con- neetion with another transaction on whiSa he was at work So with cases of the abuse of the franSing privileges. The l postonice never, of set purpose, nspects l any package sent through the mails by a | senator Of congressman but sometimes through the accidental breaking of such package, the contests are exposed, and If | they are of a character which makes their transmission by franking privilege l Illegal, steps are taken by the postoffice l authorities to collect the full postage some Of these instances represent real l abuses, but in other cases they are due to l carelessness or ignorance, and very often doubtless are entirely unknown to the i congressman themselves, and no good pur- 1 pose would be served by any publicity in l the matter
 Case of Different Kind.
 But a case has just arisen of a dif- 1 ferent kind, which it seems to me- I | should put before you as illustrating in | striking fashion the way in which in- Vestigations begun by any of these vari- l ous agencies in the strict line of their l duty, may develop facts of high import 1 ance, which the investigations would not in the first instance have sought to dis | eoVer which when discovered ought not 1 10 De hidden or suppressed but the de- l Velopment of which may tend to create an l erroneous impression that the agents in | question were being used TOT purposes rot within the line of their lawful duty | In aI.f senator Tillman called the attention of the Senate to circular of a syndicate firm Tor the sale of lands in Oregon, partieu- iariy in Cook and Douglas counties, which had been granted to corpora eions by the government, the circular stating that the company, in possession of the lands, was bound to sell them for s25o an acre or upon their refusal would be prosecuted by the government.
 !" Among those who have spoken for a part of this land Is Senator Tillman of South Caroline, the leader of the demo- cratic party in the Senate, a man who usually gets what he goes after
 TiIlman's Denial.
 Senator Tillman denied the statements or this circular, and expressed a wish Tor an investigation, and uponshis request, the postoffce department, through it's inspectors made such an investigation. He stated in reference to this circular:
 " I have not bought any land any where in the west, nor undertaken to buy any. have made some inquiries, as some naturally would, in roaming through the west. l simply want the people of the country to be put on notice that this swindler at Portland has no warrant whatever for endeavoring to inveigle oth- CTS into his game
 T enclose the circular referred to as aNbihif af inspectors under date of July 27, 190S as exhibit e. This is a confidential re- port of type usually not furnished but in this case the matter is so serious that I feel l should put it before you. I enclose you also as exhibits D1, D2 D3 D4 and D5. photographic fae-similes of letters and envelopes and telegrams from Senator Tillman and his agent, William E. Lee. It appears that on October 19, 1907, Senator Tillman wrote a letter (Ex- hibit DO to Messrs Reeder & Watkins of Marshfield, Ore, who were attorneys representing people who were applicants for the purpose of certain wagon road land-grant land; Dorr was a land agent making his filings through Reeder & Wat kins. Senator Tillmans letter runs in part as follows:
 Letter of TiIlman.
 wired you from wamsau, Wis, as IL. William k. Lee, my agent will see you about land. I want nine quarters re- served. Will forward signed applications and money at once. Members of my fam fly are entrymen. Letter follows.
 B. R. T.
 "tI write now to say that I wired MT. Lee, who resides at Moscow, Ida to go at once to Marshfed and see you about the land to locate quarters for the seven members of my family who are of age, and one for my private secretary, J. B. Knight, whom I desire to let into the deal, and of course he wants a quar- ter for hmself.' ''The letter continued, stating in detail 1 what was to be done in order to enable the senator to get the land. The William Lee to whom Senator Tillman thus re- ferred to as his agent wrote to Reeder | & Watkins, under date of December I, a letter, photographic copy of which is herewith submitted, marked exhibit D4 In this letter MT. Lee explains that he to the status of the land matter, advis- ing him that it was a good gamble but that the senator was featuring and that he did not get MT. Lees letter until a week and a half previously. The letter continues:
 In on the Deal.
 Tn case Senator Tilman gets in on thlS deal with some good land Tn the eight quarters we want, l am satisfied that he can be of great help in getting matters started from Washington and cause the government to get busy and do something along the line you desire. He will set up such a howl that 1t will be impossible to do otherwise This will be very important for your whole scheme to have a man of his influence here to aid you at this end of the line. By all means save a lot of good land for us. as we intend to be of more value than any one of the others in this matter
 Resolution By TiIlman.
 'On January 31, 1908, Senator Tillman