William W. Griest to Woodrow Wilson

SIXTY-FOURTH CONGRESS.J
uly 10, 1917.

May I ask your personal consideration of the following?Attention has been attracted to the conduct of certain postmasters engaged in securing enlistments in the Army and Navy and collecting from the Government a bonus of five dollars for each man enlisted. In some cases the postmasters have used the bounty for patriotic purposes, but in other instances postmasters apply the money to their personal benefit; and it is not right that postmasters receiving salaries from the Government should be paid an additional bonus for encouraging men to enlist while hundreds of citizens are rendering service gratuitously and willingly.
The Secretary of the Navy writes me that so long as one branch of the military service continues to pay postmasters for obtaining recruits it is not believed to be good policy to request the President to withdraw the authority covering payment for recruits for another branch of the military service. That argument does not appear sound, and I trust that you will see the lack of patriotism on the part of postmasters who are collecting and retaining these fees and who are thereby profiting financially at the expense of the people during this war.
It is generally known that the average Presidential postmaster is none too well equipped for his position, and certainly he should not be paid bonus in addition to the substantial salary allowed by the Department. I appeal to you to issue an order which will cause the Departments to act uniformly and discontinue the payment of these bonuses, in order to stop certain abuses which have existed in recent months and which may lead to more serious charges against government officials.