East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-02-29
HITCHCOCK MACHINE
Anglers DEMOCRATS
EFFECT OF STEAM ROLLER
FELT IN SOUTHERN STATES
Defying President Taft, Who Sees
Danger, Postmaster General Pre-
sists in Riding Rough Shod Over all
to Strengthen Fences.
(By Winfield Jones.

' democrats in the house are much ex-
ercised over the growth of the Hitch
cock political machine, which has
been engineered through appoint
ments by the postoffice department.
The postmaster general has been
very active in strengthening the fenc-
es of the republican party in the
southern states and democratic men,
eers of the house who have appealed
to the department against certain
| appointments claim they have been
given no satisfaction. one member
of the house declares that he has it
upon reliable authority that Presi-
dent Taft himself, feeling the brunt
of the criticisms, has demonstrated
with the postmaster general against
over playing the appointive power and
that the latter has signified his in
tention to carry out his own pro-
gram.
| The house committee on expendi-
lures in the postoffice department has
been flooded with complaints from
| members whose constituencies are
their respective localities. Post
master General Hitchcock is charged
with naming politicians for import
ant offices, with transferring popu-
las postal employees without any ex-
PLANTATION, and with naming outsiders
to assume the reins in offices that
localities believe should be presided
over by local men.
Representative Saunders, of Virgin
in intrndrnad n IN
house in the last session providing
for an investigation of just such al
legged performances on the part of
the postmaster general. The Saund-
ers resolution was passed by the
house, and that is as far as it got.
The house committee on eXpendi-
lures in the postoffice department has
investigated alleged extravagances in
the postoffice department at the
headquarters of the entire service
Washington. 1t has concerned itself
with charges that the postmaster
general has been extravagant in fur
nishing his offices; that there is dis
elimination in the contracts let by
the department for supplies; and
that there has been a general disre-
gard of economies in administration,
to say nothing of the "gagging'' of
those postal employees who professed
a desire to affiliate with labor un-
ions.
The protests of Southern members
of congress have become so insistent,
however, that the committee will
soon be compelled to take up the
| n hr~Dr 1pI np i,,,t ,is,- 10
maintenance of a political machine,
fostered. by appointments direct from
the hands of the postmaster general
and kept operative because postmas-
ters are politicians rather than pub
lie officials.
1t is charged that the Hitchcock
machine is daily becoming more OBJ
noXious and that republican proteges
of the postmaster general are being
cared for while the men really de-
sired by the communities affected re-
ceive no consideration whatever in
the matter of appointments. Politics
il is said, even extends to the mail
carrier service. If carrier is a re-
publican he receives a soft berth"
with a short city route. If a carrier
is a democrat, and is unable or un-
willing to turn a hand for the good
of the republican cause in his par
ticular city, it is alleged that he is
given a long route and heavy
pouch.
"A Southern member of congress
seems to be helpless in combating
this political machine" declare
Southern representatives. "Never be-
! fore has there been anything to equal
it in the postal service. Appoint
ments are all made with an eye to
securing delegates to the national
convention and the merit of the man
to be appointed does not enter into
the question at all.
I'VE have information from an au-
thoritative source that the protests
are so general over the country that
the president recently told Postmaster
General Hitchcock that he would
have to go easier on his system of
appointments: that he, the president,
was being blamed for some of the
acts of discrimination being prac-
ticed by Hitchcock in his campaign
to run the entire government from
the postoffice department"
The house committee, pressed by
, a unanimity of protests, probably will
, soon start an investigation. In this
event sensational disclosures are
promised so far as favortism in the
postoffice department is concerned.
|