Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-05-08
MAK|NCANEFF0RT
FOR A COMEBACK
Attempt to Punish Tavenner for the
Wide Circulation of His
Speeches.

They simply cannot let Congress-
man Tavenner alone down in Wash
tngton because of the circulation
given his speeches on the war trust.
etc. Tavenner offended in the first
place in delivering the speeches, and
he has offended again in getting them
to the people through the aid of Mr..
Ford Now he is charged with abus-
ing the ranking privilege, although
he took the pains in advance to ascer-
tain just how far he could go.
Be that as it may, they are still
after him, as witness the following
from a Washington staff correspond
ent Of the Chicago Tribune:
Charges of gross abuse of the con-
gressonal franking privilege by Con-
gresham Tavenner of Illinois and
Henry Ford will be called to the at
tention of Postmaster General Burle-
son this week by various members OF
congress.
1T is probable some member will
be selected to introduce resolution
| in the house directing an investigation
into the manner in which Mr.. Tayen-
ner has put his frank at the service
of Mr. Ford, who is conducting great
propaganda against any preparedness
program. The resolution also will
call for an investigation into the al
legged abuse of the Thanking privilege
by other congressman interested in
the Ford propaganda.
Mr. Tavenner today admitted hav-
ing used his frank to send through
the mails more than 100000 speech
! es, the printing Of which was was
paid for by Mr. Ford. The Illinois
congressman insisted he was not the
| only one who had done SO.
| About twenty-five or thirty con-
gressmen and senator's he said, have
| done the same thing.
! MIR. TaVenner has turned the rooms
of the house committee on investiga-
| ton of the expenditures in the post
Office department over to the Ford
propaganda and has obtained addition
al quarters in the house Office build
! ing for the dispatch of the speeches.
When Mr. Tavenner was asked
about the use of his frank today, he
| said:
81 am sending these speeches out
as have right to do under the law.
! made the speeches, and under the
! law l can frank them out. There is
no limit to the number | can send.
! Some time ago, while | was going
| through the halls of the house office
| building, l saw several mail sacks ad-
| dressed 10 the Navy league | knew
those sacks contained literature which
| the league would frank over the coun-
! try
| Members of the committee on print
! ing estimate that Mr.. Ford probably
! has paid sac, 1000 to the government
! printing office for the printing of the
Tavenner speeches One member to-
| day said he believed it would cost be-
tween three and four cents each to
mail the speeches first class. Thus it
would have netted between $780, 900
and $50 1000 for work it has done for
| Ford free of charge.
! Postmaster General Burleson may
/ be compelled to act against Ford and
| Tayenner, in view of the fact that i'm
mediateiy after he took office he at
tempted to collect a bill for $67 600
| postage from sugar interests on ac-
! count of their use of the frank of Sen
ator Lodge of Massachusetts in circu-
lating a government document oppos-
ed to the removal of the sugar tariff.
The dTavenner case Repre-
! sentative Madden of Illinois said to-
day, appears to be identical to the
sugar case It is all right for Mr.
Ford to conduct a propaganda, but he
certainly should pay for his use Of
the United States mails. If he can
afford to send peace ships to Europe,
he ought to be able to afford to pay
postage on peace speeches sent
| through the mails at his request"