The Williams News

POSTMASTER SMITH REFUSES DEMAND FROM WASHINGTON TO RESIGN OFFICE

Telegram From Washington Says Charges by Glowner Have Been Sustained--Campbell Will Get the Williams Plum

F. M. Smith, for ten years postmaster of Williams, and many residents declare a good one, must step down and out very shortly. His successor is to be John Campbell, according to private dispatches received in Williams during the week by democratic leaders interested in seeking a change.

Tuesday last Smith received a request from Postmaster General Burleson that he tender his resignation forthwith. This Smith peremptorily refused to do.

"Charges are pending against me. To resign would be admitting those charges are true. Let them put me out," said the postmaster.

George W. Glowner received a message from Washington during the week, from an official source, stating the charges against Postmaster Smith had been sustained. The charges were originally preferred by Glowner to Senator Henry F. Ashurst. Glowner charged Smith had been guilty of grafting, inasmuch as one cent change had been ignored in stamp purchases at the Williams office. The charge was purely technical, inasmuch as cent change is not popular in Williams.

Glowner also alleged Smith is afflicted with tuberculosis. The most serious charge, however, was that Smith had connived with a citizen of Williams by which a letter from Senator Ashurst, addressed to Glowner, had been put in the other citizen's box, opened and read, and returned to Glowner by F. W. Gold without even the formality of "opened by mistake" being written across the envelope.

An inspector was sent to Williams by the department, who made a full investigation of all the charges. He gave no sign before leaving Williams as to what the findings might be, based on his recommendations.

Smith's friends, and they are not all standpat republicans, declare he has been made the goat of a political conspiracy among the democratic politicians of Williams. However that may be, he has clung to the political teat for a long time, having been postmaster at Seligman before removing to Williams. The office, without question, is one of the best conducted, so far as delivery of mail is concerned, in Arizona. Enemies of Smith declare this efficiency, which they do not deny, is largely due to the assistant postmaster, Miss Dorothy Stark, herself an applicant for Smith's position. No one questions this young woman's thorough competency and courtesy in her official position. It is understood that Campbell, before being tentatively agreed upon as Smith's successor, had to agree, in turn, to retain Miss Stark, who will take an active part in the conduct of the office.