Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-20
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS

Postmaster General New has deemed
If prudent to publish in the daily Post
Office Department bulletin a warning
and a. guide to postmaSters and postal
employees as to their political activity
in the Fall congressional elections.
He warns them against ''pernlc1ous'
political activity, but advises them
that they have the right to engage
ito a reasonable extent In political
matters" He recites the sections or
the criminal code which forbid the
soliciting of campaign contributions
by Federal officeholders. He quotes
from an executive order Whlcn al
fects civil service postal employees
only. Their political privileges by this
order are limited to 1.-The right to vote
AS they please and to express privately
their opinions on political subjects.
Presidential postmasters. as Mr.. New
is to some pains to point out, are not
so restricted. They may participate
in politics to the same extent as any
private citizen" except that they
must not make themselves offensive
politically to any party or group Wnlcn
they are obliged to serve and 1T is
deemed unwise that postmasters shall
accent political management or be-
come conspicuous in political cam
natpns." Be as active as you ike
but be inconspicuous about it lest 1t
give some offenSe-that seems TO pe
the gist Of his advice.
* X
.July press dispatches from Paul
Smiths reported Secretary Wilbur as
informing Mr.. Coolidge that $500, O00,-
900 would be paid into the Federal
Treasury on August l by the recelv-
ers in the PanAmerican Petroleum
case (the Doheny oil lease litigation
ont of the funds accumulated in their
hands, as a payment on account of
accrued oil royalties due Uncle sam.
This looked like a considerable wind
fall for the Treasury and likely to
help considerably toward another sur
plus Inquiry at the Navy Depart
ment discloses, however, that either
Secretary Wilbur or those who re-
ported his remarks erred in two i'm
portant particulars. There were too
MANY ciphers and the decimal points
were misplaced in the figures. for the
sum in question is $3,500,OOO. That
was the first mistake. The other err
ror was in stating the payment as
certainty, when it is as yet only pro-
spective. The receivers can pay out
nothing without the consent of the
Federal judge in the California dis
trict, and his approval, at this writ
ing, has not yet been secured.
|, An oil portrait of Helen G. O'Neill
In her uniform which she wore during
the war as a yoeman CD has been
hung in the Navy exhibit at the
Sesauicentennial at Philadelphia. A
tall, blond girl with a friendly smile,
no one would mistake her Boston
birth and her Irish ancestry. She was
selected from scores of handsome
young woman members Of the Naval
Reserve Force as a model for paint
ing to typify the feminine branch of
the service. She served in the Bureau
of Navigation at the Navy Depart
ment during the war and is now a
chief of division in the bureau. She
is also charter member and past
commander of the Jacob Jones Post
No. Of the American Legion, the
first womens post and' the second
post to be granted g. Legion charter.
She is now serving as Junior vice COM
mander of the Legion in the Depart
ment of the District of Columbia.
Hats off to Miss O'Neill.
* X
An interesting sidelight on the diff
ficulties which beset we'll intended eff
forts to secure stringent enforcement
of prohibition is furnished by Vir-
ginia. Two years ago Virginia adopt
ed a law which extended to ship cap
tains, railway and trolley conductors.
station agents and various other
specified classes of civilians author
ity to make arrests for law violations
which came under their observation,
and. in the case of prohibition arrests.
provided for bonuses and rewards
from S. to $50. Passage of this law