The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1920-01-31

louma, L., Jan. Is, 1920
lew Orleans Item,

0uma LII, Jan. 15, 1920
yew Orleans Item,
Orleans n !,
evening 0f December II,
afl ~ appeared IL the New Or
leafs Item of which the following
IN QH0tatiOn:
l0re than 1000 campaign 7
letters were mailed from
New Drleans sunday, said Mi. :.
habs1Te. great many Of
esas addressed 10 persons in
s5 HONMA were marked No
8qch Party and returned to
e at my country home at
RAfncourtville. These letters
sA6u1d have been kept at the
H4st Office for ats1east five I
ys before being returned. It. !
~ my belief that some one In
bthOrity 0pened ONE Of the
LISTERS and s&w an opportunity
u to defeat = Parker man by not
pcrIntt ttfng the letters to reach
n the voters to whom they were
" addressed. n
When this article was called to
sention, / Immediately wrote
'tA4 Chief Post Office Inspec. or,
svgsgning gton, D. C., and requested
rigid and an immediate investi-
cation OF the charges.
the Investigation showed that
this office returned only ten of Mr..
sEabasre's letters before the expi-
ration CT five days. OF these ten.
three were addressed to deceased
persons and the remaining seven
topersons who had moved and left
,n0 address. These letters were
marked either DECEASED" or Nov
Ied Lett no Address Gas the case
might have been) and returned i'm
'nlediately as specified in the
Amendment OF March 18th, 1918
th Eecx 6332 Of the Postal Laws and
Regulations. All letters mailed by
g! III Isabarre to the .Houma Of
'ftca were handled strictly accord
|i4i toA the Postal Laws and Regu
a wIote M. Labarre and request
ed Kha lle ketract his statement AZ.
4ta VII M we're absolutely false
sak Unclaimed an
g iIlA oI,A let
|tek SAt the Item mfsqUOted hffn
ana jim another letter that Mr..
sp1la bfathe Item Staff made the
therefore renuest that the Item
correct this matter Immediately
and give the correction the same
prominence that the charges were
given, or I will be compelled in
Of .HysdNf and the
HOnmA Post Office to publish all
Of the papers and communications
relative to this matter now in my
possession and take proper steps tr
show 1.-THE responsibility of these
charges.
Respectfully,
THOS. Z. WRIGHT. JR.
Postmaster Houma, lie
New Orleans, Jan. %. 1926
Mr.. Thomas =. WTislt }
Postmaster, iol.nl, "a.
Dear Sir:
regret exceedingly that the
pressure of the closi lg lays tf the
c,,a, ,Sr:r~ carsed your letter 20 be
overlooked, with others, on my
desk. | enclG'se clipping from to-
days Item, front page, containing
correction you requested, and to
which 5au appear to be entirely
entitled. l trust you will accept
his EXPRESSION of regret as sincere.
Orr re'tarcer who talked with
Mr. Lahar-cs about the matter in
question had been at Mr.. Labarre's
house under invitation. He says
that I've followed the terms and
spirit of Mr.. Labarre's converse
tion as far as possible. The story
as printed, was not as strong as
Mr.. Labarre had related it, h
says; also he states that Mr.. La
barre's accusation was made agains,
the postmaster" in his conversa-
tion, and not vaguely against
some one in authority as
printed.
He took Mr.. Labarre's tone and
as being SO authoritative
and serious that he says lie mea.
toned the matter to some one in
the post office here.
With best wishes,
Very sincerely,
! MARSHALL BALLARD,
Per HI. HI. RAYNER,
Secretary.
=