General Leonard Wood, Congressman Loud and a few other reputable officials induced President Roosevelt to institute an investigation. The investigation was made under the direction of Joseph L. Bristow. Then things were uncovered; that is, some things were uncovered. In speaking of the nastiness disclosed William Allen White in 1904 wrote, in part, as follows: “Most of the Congressmen knew there was something wrong in Beaver’s department; and Beaver knew of their suspicions; so Congressmen generally got from him what they _went after_, and the crookedness thrived. “When it was stopped by President Roosevelt, this crookedness was so far-reaching that when a citizen went to the postoffice to buy a stamp the cash register which gave him his change was full of graft, the ink used in canceling the stamp was full of graft, the pad which furnished the ink was full of graft, the clock which kept the clerk’s time was full of graft, the carrier’s satchel tie-straps, his shoulder straps, and his badge were subject to illegal taxation, the money order blanks were full of graft, the letter boxes on the street were fraudulently painted, fraudulently fastened to the posts, fraudulently made, and equipped--many of them with fraudulent time-indicators. Often the salaries of the clerks were full of graft. And in the case of hundreds of thousands of swindling letters and advertisements that were dropped in the box--they were full of graft.” We will now get down to the present Postmaster General, Mr. Frank H. Hitchcock. I have read, and shall later print in this volume the Senate “rider” to the postoffice department appropriation bill, which, so far as The Man on the Ladder has been able to learn, Mr. Hitchcock either wrote or “steered” in its writing. I have also read his series of letters to Senator Penrose, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Postoffices and Postroads; also his 1910 report. At this point I shall make my comment on Postmaster General Hitchcock brief but, mayhap, somewhat pointed. Most Postmaster Generals for the past thirty or more years have been incompetent. There have been a few notable and worthy exceptions, but their worthiness was almost completely lost in the department by reason of previously planted corruption and political interference. Most Postmaster Generals, as has been stated, have had little or no qualification for the management and administration of so large a service industry as that covered by the federal postoffice department. Mr. Hitchcock, in his administration of the department, in his reports and recent letters to the Senate and the House, has shown himself scarcely up to the _average_ of his incompetent predecessors.