THE PRESIDENT stated, in reply to a press question:
"I have asked the Department of Justice to consider the report of the Senate committee on Federal patronage in the South. As a matter of fact the report refers to incidents, men, and conditions which have already been cleaned up by the action I took on the 26th of March last. 1 Under instructions to the various departments of the Government, a system has been established by which these reprehensible practices have been absolutely stopped and the system of purchase and sale of appointments, so far as it existed, has been ended. All Federal officials known to have engaged in such practices have either resigned or been removed.
1 See 1929 volume, Item 16.
"The committee makes charges against two present Federal officials but not over patronage questions. Those matters have already been under investigation for some time by the Department.
"Lately, charges have been brought that one member of the new advisory committee in South Carolina has accepted contributions from a person recommended for appointment. The charges were made by the old organization which was displaced. They are vigorously denied by the members of the new advisory committee. This matter has been for some weeks under investigation by the Department of Justice and the Post Office Department and the facts will be determined and published."
Note: The President referred to the Senate Committee on Post offices and PostRoads report, entitled "Influencing Appointments to Postmasterships and Other Federal Offices" (Senate Report No. 272, 71st Cong., 2d sess., 44 pages). It was issued by an investigative subcommittee and signed by Senators Smith W. Brookhart of Iowa and Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee.
The member of the South Carolina advisory committee under attack was R. B. Vance of Allendale, who was under indictment for accepting $300 to secure a mail route for a rural carrier. Mr. Vance was subsequently dropped from the committee.
Herbert Hoover, Statement on Federal Patronage in the South. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/211669