The Washington herald., 1913-12-21

their fellows in both houses, who had
gradually been sundered from me by
the open or covert hostility Of the finan-
cIsl or Wall Street leaders, and OF the
newspaper editors and politicians who
did their bidding in the interest OF priv
ilege. These Senators and Congressman
asserted that they had right to for
| bid the President profiting by the unpaid
advice of disinterested experts. OF
course, / declined to admit the existence
of any such right, and continued the
commissions. Ny successor acknowledged
T, the right. upheld the view OF the poll
ticians in question, and abandoned the
| commissions, to the lasting detriment Oh
| the people as whole.
Reducing the Public Debt.
| One thing is worth pointing out: During
| the seven and u half years Of my ad-
ministration we greatly and usefully eX-
tended the sphere OF governmental action.
and yet we reduced the interest-bearing
debt by more than SsO.eO0,OOo. To achieve
a marked increase in economy is not
an easy feat; but We performed It.
Roofing Out Corruption.
There was one ugly and very necessary
task. This was to discover and root out
corruption wherever it was found in any
OF the departments. The first essential
no political or business or social influence
of any kind would for one moment be
even considered when the honesty Of a
public official was at issue. 1t took a
| little time to get this fact thoroughly drill
| ed into the heads both of men within
the service and of the political leaders
without. The feat was accomplished so
! thoroughly that every effort to interfere
in any shape or way with the course OF
justice was abandoned definitely and for
good. Most, although not all, of the
| frauds occurred in connection with the
Postoffice Department and the Land Office.
The Po<tomce Frauds.
1t was in the Postoffice Department that
we first definitely estab blished the rule of
| conduct which became universal through
out the whole service. RumOrs of cor
ruption in the department became rife,
and finally | spoke of them to the then
First Assistant Postmaster g eneral,
afterwards Postmaster General. Robert J.
Wynne. He reported TO me, after some
investigation, that in his belief there
was DOUBTLESS corruption, but that II was
very difficult to get at it, and that the
offenders were confident and defiant be-
cause Of their great political and business
backing and the ramification Of their
crimes.
Talking the matter over with him,
| came to the conclusion that the right
| man to carry on the investigation was
the then Fourth Assistant Postmaster
General, now a Senator from Kansas,
James L. Bristow, who possessed the
! iron fearlessness needful to front such
a situation. tMr. Bristow had perforce
seen a good deal of the seamy side of
politics, and of the extent of the un-
scrupulousness with which powerful in
! fuence was brought to bear to shield
offenders. Before undertaking the inves-
tigation he came to see me, and said
that he did not wish to go into 1t unless
| he could be assured that I would stand
personally behind him, and, no matter
where his inquiries led him, would sup
port him and prevent interference with
him. answered that 7 would certainly
do 80. He went into the investigation
with relentless energy, dogged courage,
| and keen intelligence. His success was
complete, and the extent. Of his services
| to the nation are not eahly to be exag-
gerated. He unearthed really -appall-
ing amount Of corruption, and he did his
work with such absolute thoroughness
that the corruption was completely
We had. OF course, the experience
usual in all such Investigations. At first
there was popular incredulity and disbe-
lief that there was much behind the
| charges, or that much could be un-
earthed- Then when the corruption was
| shown there followed yell OF anger
from all directions, and a period during
which any man accused was forthwith
held guilty by the public; and violent
demands were made by the newspapers
for the prosecution not only Of the men
who cotild ha nrosecuted with A fair
chance Of securing conviction and I'm
prisonment, but Of other men whose mis-
conduct had been such as to warrant my
removing them from once, but against
whom It was not possible 70 get the kind
Of evidence which would render likely
conviction in o criminal casa
Suits were brought against all the