The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-08-09
CHARGES FEDERAL OFFICES SOLD BY
 ADMINISTRATION
One More Scandal Added to Already Long List; Moth ing Will Result From In- vestigation.
Especial to The Times)

Washington, Aug. 9.-CharleS of the sale of Federal offices by Republican Harding administration are again be- fore the Senate for investigation. without much prospect, however, of resulting in more than an addition of one to the long series of scandals which have disgraced the country, but remained unpunshed, if not un- noticed, by the Republican Congress and the Republican President.
 Joseph w. Tolbert, Republican Ma tiona1 Committeeman for South Caro- lima, chairman of the Republican State Committee. and Republican ref eree'' in the distribution of Federal patronage in his state is the latest official of his party to face charges of bartering his political influence for money. Senator Nathaniel Dial. Dem., S. C., has filed with a Senate sub committee accusations against Tol- bert, who has been appointed by President Harding to be United States marshall for the Western District of South Carolina. The nomination has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Senator Dia1,in substantiation of his charges against Tolbert, has submit ted to the Senate subcommittee now making inquiry, testimony of var ious wrongdoings on the part of this National Republican Committeeman and nominee for an important Feder- al office. One allegation is that Fed eral appointments, made on Tolbert's recommendation as referee, were sold for one-half of the first years salary, the sums thus assessed and collected ranging from $500 to S2,000. Senator Dial said an affidavit made by a former follower of Tolbert declares he expressed the hope of realizing $1oo.0o0 from this huckstering of Federal jobs. Tolbert, it is charged, divided the state into districts in each of which he put a henchman to collect fees from applicants for ap- pointments.
 Ignored Former Service Men | In disposing of the various appoint | ments, such as those to post offices, l Tolbert is alleged to have ignored former service men and women, and has sought to oust number of wom- en from their positions as postmis i tresses. One of To1bert's agents, or I referee" was recently rejected by the Senate Post Office Committee after | President Harding had appointed him postmaster at Orangeburg, S. c. This | man is Benjamin J. Nixon. He was | charged with having tried to collect $500 from a woman in return for | having exerted his political influence in her behalf. Senator Shortridge | (Rep., Cab, chairman of the sub committee which recommended Mix | on'S rejection. is head o fthe commit tee which is conducting the inquiry | into the charges against Tolbert. | National Committeeman Tolbert is well known to thousands who have been delegates or visitors to Repub lican National conventions. He is | the oldest and one of the most use fuT' members of the Republican Ma tfonal Committee. He quadrienally appears at the Republican National conventions with a bunch of "black and tam delegates who play a more or less important part in the selection of Republican candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. | While the charges against Tolbert are provoking notoriety in all political circles here, another case almost par allel has not received much attention | from the Senate. This is the case of John W. Overall, Republican National Committeeman from Tennessee. All most a year ago Senator McKellar
 (Dem., Tenn.) charged in the Senate that Overall was peddling his political influence with the Harding administra- tion for money, and that he was so- liciting and receiving various sums
 from applicants for appointment in the postal establishment Senator
 McKellar read into the Congressional
 Record for August II, 1921 (begin- ming at page 5316) letters showing
 friends of National Committeeman Overall were writing to job-seekers
 urging them to help pay his expenses
 on a trip to Washington.
 "Gifts'' to Committeeman
 One of these letters was from a
 man named Shivers, who enclosed $1o. Shivers was an applicant for the posi- | tion of postmaster. In his letter II oHlNSTS dSh0u 1OT SOil- Il corning the appointment of a rural letter carrier. A letter from Overall acknowledging the receipt of the
 communication of Shivers, with en-
 Record by Senator McKellar. It was
 shown that Overall endorsed this check, John w Overall, N. O. (pre-
 sumably National Committeeman\
 and deposited it in bank.
 In statement on the subject of
 Senator McKellar's charges, Overall
 subsequently explained that he had
 not kept the check for himself but
 tiona1 Committee to assist in eXpung- ing it's deficit. There is no record
 that the Republican National Com
 mittee refused the check, which came from the appointee to small post
 mastership.
 Senator McKel1ar's resolution call- ; ing for an investigation into Commit
 teeman OveralPs collection of funds from candidates for Federal appoint
 ments has lain in the Republican
 Post Office Commmitete of the Sen- I ate for more than II months without any sort of action.
 . These charges, involving officials ot , the Republican party and spokesmer of the Harding administration, recal
 other notoriously bad appointments by. President Harding.
 Rewards to Unworthies
 Ambassador Harvey, who denied
 that the United States entered the | w Orld War rom any althu1St1c Ol
 patriotic motive asserting that in
 stead i've were afraid not to fight
 is still at his post and in high favor f Four of Senator Newberry's hench- men who were indicted with him or : charges of breaking the election laws
 have since been placed in Fedora
 jobs-two as prohibition officers and x two United States District Attor- r neys.
 l Nat Goldstein. St. Louis ward poli
 tician, appointed by President Hard
 ing as Collector of Internal Revenue I in that city, was subsequently, rejected
 by the Senate because of his having accepted S2,500 for former Governor . Lowden's money when a candidate fol g delegate to the last Republican con
 vention. Altho@sh surprised by thu
 Senate Go1dstein later was praised b. = President Harding and described b. 3 Senator Spencer (Rep., Mo.), defend V CT of Newberry, as a. man of "absolut = integrity"
 Roy Davis, who got $500 of Gov
 ernor Lowden's Presidential cam e paign funds, was made United State n Minister to Costa Rica. Attorne, 0 Feneral Daugherty, whose connection