Omaha daily bee., 1911-03-04
DETAILS OF
THE SHAKEDOWN
CONTINUED from First Page,)

Mr.. Woodland or Mr.. Thomas who reached
out and took the envelope; they sat close
together and 1 turned my head partly
away; 1 felt guilty. l never collected nor
was l ever solicited to collect by any other
postmaster before.
shortly after Mr. Thomas became post
master we had an election. and he came to
me with about the same kind of a hard
luck story as 1 have already related-being
assessed heavily, etc. 1 went among the
boys-Connorsn, Kalteier, Burmeister,
| Westerdahl-and we raised, / think, $45,
The postmaster told me when 1 made the
| rounds to enclose It in an envelope and
place 1t on his desk that he would get it.
IL he should be out. He got it all right,
for he thanked me afterward when 1 was
in his office.
Mr.. Thomas whenever occasion pre-
scented itself impressed upon me his
stand-in with the department. and the way
he displaced oldtimers in the office, was
/ led to believe him. A Job is worth more to
me now than it was twenty-five years ago.
When the Shotwell charges were preferred
against Mr.. Thomas last fall, mentioned
the matter 10 him. one day, when 1 was in
his office with some official papers.
"NOthIng 10 IL at All"
! " Nothing TO it, 1 am going down to
! Washington in a few days and you will
/ never hear of the charges again.
! He did leave in a few days 70 attend
the national convention of First-Class
| POstmasters, 1 think, at Richmond, Va,
and on his return l asked him IL he had
the charges pigeOn-holed.
Nothing to It,, he replied.
He impressed on me. when occasion
offered. with the pull he had with the two
senators and also with DR.. Grandfield.
Two or three days ago, think the day
he returned from the postmasters' convsn'
ton at Lincoln. the postmaster called me
to his office He said he had letter from
the department in regard to registered
mail at the new union postal station.
knew what It was, because / learned Il
through the Daily Bulletin Never before
did he talk 70 me regarding arrangement
at the new station. This calling me dowr
to his office had another motive He asked
me II had seen his letter in the paper II
reply 10 Tinotson.
What do you think about ito he asked
Il replied that l did not think much
about it, but / did think 1t poor judgment
on his part TO stir this matter up.
who do you think he asked, has put
this thing up; who has been talking@
Il said that l didn't know that the only
man who had said anything to me wa'
Connoran; that he remarked 70 me this
other evening Stay by your friends; b
careful who you talk TO-. / told him
always stood by my friends,
Calls Them on the Carpet.
well, It was only a few minutes wheE
was over IN the city division, l saw both
Burger and Connoran headed for the post
! masters office. / learned later that both
were on the carpet in the postmaster
! office
About an hour later Mr. Thomas calleS
! me over the office phone, and stated tina
, he wanted me 10 so with him 20 the new
station In the morning 20 look over thing
there. lie never said anything to me abou
the new station. ignoring me entirely;
! thought he had an TO grind. However
C replied that I would go win him in TN
: morning about or $50
! Next morning. Tuesday. Ast. At s:SO