The Washington herald., 1914-03-08
Stormed for a Year Over the
Waste in Postal Service,
Then Got T. R. to Back
Him Up.

cause Of the fighting attitude Of her hus-
band She even spent one social season
at home and with her daughter. Miss
Marcia Murdock. missed a Presidential
Inauguration while Murdock's disfavor
was at its height
i Murdock did not give up the fight. De-
feated In Congress because of the iron
clad rules. he went to see Theodore
Roosevelt. then President of the United
States.
Roosevelts reception was chilly. lie
ddnt want to be bothered with MUIR
| DOCKS bill. He thought Murdoch was
Grandstanding. Roosevelt said he asked
the Postmaster Gener-! about the mat
| ter and that official had told him MUIR
dock was misinformed. He said the mails
were weighed seven days in the week
and the divisor used was seven.
THE Postmaster General doesn't
| Know" said Murdoch. He's only POST
master General. He doesn't weigh the
mails He let's a clerk do IL. The clerk
is in the ONCE of the Second Assistant
Postmaster General. Your Postmaster
General has n even investigated this
condition. Congress won't investigate be-
here soaring them.
Roosevelt Gets Busy.
III you want to save the country $780,
Oo year go, to the seventeenth clerk
in the Office Of the Second Assistant Post
master General He sits In the farthest
corner Of the room. Ask him.
Roosevelt went to that clerk and found
that everything Murdock had been MAX
ing noise about for more than a year
was true. The next day he gave an
order that the mails be weighed seven
days in the week and that instead of
dividing by six to divide by seven.
The fight had taught Murdock a les
son. He learned that free debate could
BE- cut of at any moment by the Speak
er and Immediately began to fight for
revision Of the r-'G He was the in
surgent of the insurgents.
The old line Republicans convicted him
OF breaking faith with his party, Per-
haps he did. BIT the people back in
Vic Murdock's district did not think he
broke faith with his party. They thought
he was such 4 good Representative that
in 1905 he carried nearly every precinct
In 1910 there was no Democrat to make
the race against him. In 1872 he ran as
a Progressive and --as elected. In Con- !
gress he is flo leader of the House for |
the Progressives.
Mrs. Murdock Popular.
Mrs. Murdock takes the deepest in
terest in her husbands career. 1t is |
women voting. holding Office. and enter
ing public life are half as radical and |
advanced as are Mr.. Murdocks. She Is
one OF those women whose contribution
L. public life is an indirect one. By the
treating of an insprational home en-
'ironment at their residence in Washing
ION by an intelligent understanding Of
The public questions OF the day: and by
/ sympathetic comprehension of the prob
ems which have confronted her husband
II various stages of his public career,
she has done much toward making him
he manner of man he is.
The Murdocks have two charming chill
iren. Marcia, a girl just budding into
yomanhood. and Katherine, a daughter
II five or six years.
Mrs. Murdock. during her several
ears residence at the Capital, has made
wonderfully interesting coterie of
and has become one of the best
.nown and best liked women of the Con-
.ressional set .
Out on a rise of ground just inside the ,
ity limits of Wichita in a cemetery is !
granite shaft. On the side OF the
haft is an inscription telling about ,
Murdoch. one of the builders Of ,
He was a remarkable leader.
his Marsh Mur1ock. His farseeing eyes !
aw years ago that Wichita was the ,
oint for 4 city. Through his paper he
rged the city fathers of the early days ,
q lay out wide streets so as to take :
are OF the city OF future years. He :
rged en- the men of that time to plant
rees so as TO bcautify the almost tree
ess town.
A group of visitors in the city were
athered around the shaft one day. Won
ering who the man buried there could .
e that they should honor him with such
fine granite block. One of the visitors !,
allied to a man passing by and asked:
Who was this -!arshaIl Murdock who :,
buried here
The man replied:
That's Vic Murdocks father"