Postmaster General Payne

Postmaster General Payne says the charge of S. W. Tulloch as to irregularities in the postofflce department are not specific. It would seem to an outsider, however, that some of the charges are sufficiently specific. For instance, he charges that two women were carried on the pay rolls, not the regular pay rolls but some other kind, who had nothing to do whatever with postal matters. They had no other public duties to perform and yet they received salaries from the public. This seems to be specific and there are various other charges which appear to be equally specific. However, it is a difficult matter to secure action on charges made against public officials. The crookedness involved generally Includes people powerful enough to make it an obpect to the head of departments to protect them or it is to the interest of party to protect them, or some other reason sufficiently strong to prevent the rascals being brought to book. In this way investigations which are entered upon with a flourish come to naught. It is well understood by those who are observing and who have had some experience on the inside that stealing, bribery and various other forms of corruption in public life are constantly going on and that there are ways without number to cover the tracks of people engaged in such affairs. In fact it is well known that the public conscience is very, very low relative to such frauds upon the public. The public is regarded as entirely fit subject for plunder and those who successfully do it, are regarded as very cunning, shrewd and thrifty, their acts are regarded as very little out of plumb by the moral standards of the times. The greed of our people to get in financial shape to "blow themselves" is so great that the means by which they secure the wherewithal matters little. If a person overreaches himself and gets saugh, he is regarded as a poor fool because he has not been sharp enough not to get caught. Public opinion condemns him for getting caught, not for his criminal acts.

Since Supt. A. W. Machen of the free rural delivery department of the postoffice department has been removed from office, it has been discovered that he had issued orders to the carriers to obtain the names of the men, women and children on their respective routes. Just what he desired to do with these names has not as yet been developed, nor have the lists themselves been discovered. To the ordinary citizen it does not appear how the possession of these names could be of advantage or use in the legitimate business of the department. If such a list be at all necessary to the service, why should not the department get a list of all the names of all persons receiving mail at the various postoffices of the country? It is easy to see how such a list as those on the rural delivery routes could be of great advantage to mail order houses and business concerns. The public will await an explanation from Mr. Hachen of his action on this matter.

A Maryland congressman asked for the establishment of a new postoffice in his district and recommended a colored man for postmaster. An order was issued for the establishment of the office and the colored man was duly named for postmaster. Such a howl immediately went up, however, as to lead the postoffice department to suggest that Congressman Jackson withdraw his request for the establishment of a postoffice at the place and this he has done and the good people will be served by rural delivery Maryland, be it known is a doubtful state at present and there is an election coming on and it would not do to have the color line drawn there. In the far southern states it makes no difference, of course, because they are hopelessly democratic anyway. Thus does politics show up as a prominent factor rather than principle in the matter of the appointment of colored men to federal positions.

Senator Hanna has given one more bit of evidence that notwithstanding his repeated statements that he is not a candidate for president he does not propose to have Ohio tied up a year or more beforehand in the matter of state choice. He does not want the coming state convention to endorse President Roosevelt for another term. It is too early he thinks -- for Hanna's purposes of course.

Government by injunction is getting around to be a weapon in the hands of labor unions. Hitherto it has been the resort of corporations largely. But at the present time the labor organizations of Omaha have invoked the injunction to restrain certain organizations among merchants and other large business concerns from practicing the boycot and various other schemes which have been supposed to be the peculiar agencies of labor organizations. Apparently the turn of the tables does not please the capitalists. Of course this turning of the use of the injunction does not make government by injunction any more defensible than hitherto, but it developes a new phase of this weapon in disputes between capital and labor.

The Philadelphia and Pittsburg papers have thrown down the glove to Governor Pennypacker and continue to violate nearly every section of his recent libel law. The North American continues to cartoon the governor even worse than hitherto. The daily papers continue to openly defy the law and the governor. As the agent of the state, sworn to enforce the law, the governor must accept the challenge thrown down to him or acknowledge that he signed this infamous piece of legislation as a bluff without any intention of enforcing it. The great dailies of the country outside of Pennsylvania also continue to lambast the governor. Even the New York Sun characterizes the law as one of the most infamous ever enacted in this country. It is evident that the Pennsylvania dailies (the law does not apply to the weeklies) intend to force the issue into the courts, believing the law will be held unconstitutional.

The telephone service of this city is apparently about as inefficient as it can well be and the tide of criticism is rising higher every day. The trouble is by no means entirely condned to defects in the mechanical devices of the system but is in large degree included in the inefficiency or unwillingness of the force handling the exchange to render the best service. The employees of the office are in many instances far from courteous, nor are they prompt at all times in answering calls. Various instances might be related in which patrons are told that no answer is returned to the ringing of the number called for when as a matter of fact the bell of the number called for is not rung at all, showing either defective mechanical arrangements or a carelessness on the part of employes, either of which it is the duty of the management to correct. The Argus is prepared to give various and specific instances of treatment extended to patrons most discourteous to say the least. It is prepared to name instances in which the person called for was sitting in plain view of the person calling and in plain view of his telephone, too, while the central office insisted to the patron calling that no answer could be obtained. Upon being informed that the person called for was in plain view and immediately by his phone and if his bell was rung he probably would respond promptly, a prompt answer to the ring was obtained. What anyone would infer from such an experience can be easily guessed. It is time some of these things were corrected.