The Alaska daily empire., 1920-04-15
P.-I. GETS LETTER
 IT DOES NOT PRINT
 ON RIGGS EXPENSES
Maurice D. Leehey, Republican, Writes in Defense of Attack
 on Governor

I lie Sealt1e OSt-lltclllSCHCtf nOt
 long ago printed long story about | the speech of Congressman Wood of lIndiana in which he occupied page
 or two of the Congressional Record to say that Gov Thomas Riggs Jr had charged $52 too much to his expense account while travelling through Alaska Among the items | in the Governors expense account
 was something like 50 cents a day in tips, an amount that for years,
 long before the inauguration of Pres 1 ident Wilson, has been allowed. all
 employees of the Government Depart
 ments when travelling. The P.-I.
 thought so well of the speech of the
 man from Jasper County, Indiana
 that it printed an editorial on the subject
 The action of the Postlntelligen-
 cer called for letter from Maurice ,. Leerey a Republican to Joseph " Gilbert, the Managing Editor
 os the Post-.ntelligencer The let ter which the P-I did not print follows:
 My Dear Joe:
 T know you for a real humorist so pardon me if wrong in thinking you wrote the editorial of the 26th ut. entitled, No Profit in Govern ing
 However, 1 do not write to com
 pliment the humor so much as the al .rfa
 ernor Riggs-cleverness tt passing lit in such an apparently friendly
 and therefore most effective way.
 -"But | ask as Republican, why
 should the P.-I. persist in this course
 toward Democratic officials of Alas tiee, but to the great disadvantage
 of the Territory and to the people of Seattle, who are sorely more in terested in Alaskan progress than in any personal political advantage.
 "That editorial seems to me quite
 unjustified though not so ungrac- ious as were the reflections upon the memory of the late Delegate Sul-
 ger in an editorial obituary. It con tained seriously misleading state ments, from which the editorial of the 26th is not entirely free. For instance, it is not true that Cover nor Riggs asked an increase in sal ary of s3,000 a year. He asked for s3,000 increase in the annual appropriation for his office, but that included increased allowance for clerk hire and other office cxpens-
 cs, and $1,400 of it was asked for
 necessary repairs to the leaky roof
 of the old building now used as the
 office of the Governor and other of ficials. This was denied, even roof repairs, but you do not mention the
 fact. It is fair? Why not show how Alaska is treated, while the clerk hire for Congrcssmen is very justly and properly increased from
 $1,200 to $3.200 a year.
 Neither is it exactly true that the travelling expenses of the Gov ernor are paid by the government,
 as you would readily have shown to
 your readers had you stated the | idti titAb tnt oOfCi hOi CuuCltu
 bill for only $326.22 for, two months trip through the Territory
 Of course, the sub committee, es- pecially Chairman Wood of Jasper
 County. Indiana, would not under stand why it would take two months for a trip through Alaska and cost so much money, but the P.-I. read CTS would have understood it had you mentioned the fact. Why not also tell them that the committee cut this $52.32, and allowed only
 $275.70 for trip which you and
 know could not be made for $1,- 900. Read this at page 1862 of the Congressional Record, and won der why they didn't cut it s50-50. Then you might turn back to page
 3353, and note that, just before this spasm of economy. the inno- cent Congressman Summers of Walla Walla called attention to the pur- chase by the War Department of 200.060 typewriters, of which only 3s.000 had been accounted for. The Walla Walla Congressman is serv- ing his first term, 80 he didn't know yet that purchases for Washington Bureaus are not to be investigated, and he foolishly asked about the other 165.000 typcwriters. a triffing item of $le,500,000. Congressman Wood gravely told him they would go out some afternoon to look. for the machines and were quite sure that it will not be necessary to pur- chase a single typewriter during 1921 if we can pry these machines loose