Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1893 — The Halford Scandal. [ARTICLE]

The Halford Scandal.

Secretary Gresham has made a discovery in the State Department which reflects as much credit upon his own sagacity as it reflects discredit upon his predecessor in office. The facts as given in a Washington dispatch are briefly these: John W. Foster, while Secretary of State, ordered the payment of sls a day to Major Elijah W. Halford for his services as disbursing officer of the Behring Sea Commission. This was in addition to his salary of $3,600 a year as paymaster of the army, making his total pay about $8,675 a year. Mr. Foster was equally generous with J. Stanley Brown, the husband of Mollie Garfield. Notwithstanding the fact that he was already drawing $lO a day as an officer of the Treasury Department, he was allowed sls a day additional as a member of the staff of the Behring Sea Commission. Seven or eight other officials were likewise allowed double salaries. These disclosures are astounding. While it Was known that Secretary Foster was by profession a sort of lobbyist for foreign interests, it was not supposed that he would be guilty of any such scandalous work as this. Neither was it supposed that Maj. Halford was the kind of a man who would consent to profit by an imposition of this sort Both men were thought to be above doing anything dishonorable. Secretaries Gresham and Carlisle are entitled to the thanks of the public for bringing to light this fraud—this looting of the treasury by men in high places. They will be entitled to still more gratitude if they shall promptly put a stop to the whole disgraceful double-salary system. —Chicago Record.