The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-11-30
WASHINGTON LETTER.

MR.. JAMES ANNUAL REPoRT.-HIs
PROFESSIONS VERSUS HIS RACTICIS.
HOW He IGNORES HIS CIVIL SER
VICE RULES.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., Nov. 25, 1881.
To the Editor of The Morristown Gazette:
Postmaster General James has
completed his annual report, and Ills
suggestions on civil service reform
are so good (Alas that they should
be at such variance with his prae-
tice) that l will venture to send in
extract He says
"Some method of relief must be
provided from the overwhelming
pressure for appointment to clerk
ships and other subordinate posi-
tions, and from the equal pressure
for the removal Of capable and eX-
perienced assistants to make room
for those who are not more compe-
tent Appointment by influence
naturally results in making the ton
ure Of office depend not upon fidoli-
ty and efficiency in the discharge Of
official duty, but upon the assiducus
cultivation of the favor of a patron.
Such a tenure is incompatible w; tn
the self respect Of the incumbent,
and the service must necessarily suf-
fer from the decline of its m0rCIe.
But the evil consequences cannot be
limited to the public service; they
affect all political action, the purity
and vigor of the government, and
| the national character itself The
! question, therefore, is one of far
higher importance than that of ,he
comparative fitness of clerks in -,he
employment of the government, and
really concerns the character and
success Of republican institutions. y
This is the way that Mr. James
writes, but it is notorious that he
has dismissed hundreds Of able post
masters in Virginia for no other
than political reasons, replacing
them, in every case, with less eX-
perienced, if not totally inexperi-
enced, men. An example, that has
come in peculiar way to the atten-
ton Of your correspondent, will bet
ter illustrate Mr.. James method
than volumes of annual reports.
About three months ago, he dis
charged w. II. Smith, the postnas-
ter at SnOwville, Pulaski county,
Virginia, against whose manage
ment of the office there had never
been the pretense Of complaint. He
discharged him against the respect
full written protests of nineteen in
twenty Of the patrons of the office,
and he appointed in his place Joseph
Convey, an illiterate, disreputable
man, the owner of a little log apple
brandy distilIary, who lives two
miles from the Postofice, which, is
further than the postal law allows.
A defiant, square tOed advocate OF
all the vices Of our most vicious civil
service system, is not half so can
gerous to republican institutions as
an insinuating hypocrite like James,
who praises reform with his pen
while he stabs it in his practice
where Guiteau shot Garfield.
But it is not only in Virginia that
the public service has deteriorated
under the brief management Of the
New York Reformer. His own
loudly trumpeted rules have been
conspicuousIy ignored and trampled
upon by himself right here in
Washington again and again. Only
! last week. q main was Amounted to
a $1,000 cIerkship who did not pass
examination, whose only claim was
that his father is Justice Of the Su-
preme Court He was appoir ted
over competent, experienced cle,'ks,
who have been long in the service,
and who are getting only 81 200 per
wear.