The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-03-23
Mackay Is Canned
As Head of Postal
Postmaster-General Burleson
Fires Him and the Entire
Board of Trustees.

Washington, g, March 22--Post-
master General Burleson today
ouste<i President Clarence ii.
MaciSay and the board of trus-
tees or directors OF the Postal
Telegraph and Telephone systems.
OF all duties having TO do with
the control and operation of that
service under government con-
troll. In their place he appointed
\. +. Adams, president OF the
Kansas City Home Telegraph
company and IA member OF the
general telegraph and telephone
operating board to superss11e
them in their management
The order ts directed against
Clarence II Mackay.~ president; W.
w. Cook. general counsel William J.
Deegan, secretary and the board Of
trustees or directors and the owners
OF the Mackay companies"
In explanation OF this drastic move
1t was stated al the postoffice depart
ment. that the order was made
necessary by the fact that since the
postoffice department refused to
grant the company the compensation
asked for by them. these officials
have refused to follow out the in
structfons of the department in the
OF the properties and
failed to put In operation promptly
the age scheduled and the eight hour
day and in various ways endeavored
to ambarrass and diseredit the govern
ment operation OF the wires.
Mr.. Adams is In charge OF the sys-
tenn tonight He presented the for
NAL order OF removal to Secretary
Deeran in the absence of President
Mackay and assumed control i'm
under specific instruction
from Postmaster General Burleson.
The reason for the refusal OF the
department to grant the sought-for
com pensation was that the sworn
submitted TO the interstate
commission in behalf of the
company, placed the net income for
1917 at s1l7,2s4. while the sworn
statement as made TO the wire con-
troll board as a basis for com rensation
placed the net income for the same
year at t4.4S5.5e334.
The value of the plant ard equip
ment of the Postal Telegraph Cable
com parisx. sworn. in tho cen@any's
return. TO the Interstate commerce
for 1915 was sS,s4T,af@
but the officials OF the company de-
clinod 10 make any statement Of val
uation 10 the wire control board al
though repeatedly asked TO do so.
Deegan's Statement.
New York. N Y. March civil
liam J. Deegan. secretary OF the
Macksy companies. which controls
the Postal Telegraph system. issued
the following statement:
This order of Burleson was de-
livered to us at IL O'Clock today with .
out any word OF warning or previous
notice. and in the absence of Mr..
Mackay from the city over the week
end. 'Burleson gives as a reason for
the order that we have failed to carry
out his orders and instructions. We
do not know what Burleson reefrs to
In the way OF orders and instructions.
This lis all a pretence The statement
by Burieson that we failed to promptly
put into effect the wage schedule is
a distortion. We announced an in
crease in the wages OF all our en-
ployees on March 5th,, to take effect
on January first. 1919. which was
more generous than that ordered by
Burleson The Burieson schedule was
based entirely on the Western Union
plan of organization which Is different
from ours and it was impossible to