The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-12-22
CIVIL SERVICE.
Views of Distinguished Senators on the
Reform Of the Civil Service.
Pendleton in Support Of His Own
Bill; Voorhees, Against it.
SENATOR pRNnI.FrnN


WASHINGTON, Dec. 18-Mr Pendleton, IN
support of his bill in the senate, gave
some curious instances Of the great
abuses Of the patronage system He
said that Of 3,400 persons on the rolls Of the
treasury department 1900 are not employed
by authority of law, and are paid not from
any appropriations made by congress, but out
of other funds; that / 200 had been put on the
rolls at the pleasure Of the secretary of the
treasury, and that an army Of unauthorized
detectives, inspectors, deputies, and agents
have been sent over the country at every cleo
ton. He quoted from the testimony of Mr.
Graves, superintendent of the National Bank
Redemption agency, and formerly civil-ser-
vice examiner, the following startling state
ment:
"The economy of the proposed system should
be clearly brought out Every one knows that
under the present system there is a constant
pressure upon the departments to make ap-
po1ntments, and as q consequence there is .
like pressure by the heads of the departments
upon their subordinates to devise pretexts for
taking on new clerks. That state of things
was entirely changed under the civil-service
rules. Under these rules there could be no
pressure in favor of any particular person,
and the heads of bureaus and departments did
not ask to have the machinery Of examina-
tons set in motion unless there was an abso-
Lutte necessity for the employment of clerks.
A considerable amount Of money was saved
to the treasury during the experiment by the
lapsing of the salaries Of places which other
wise would inevitably have been filed.
$The extravaganza Of the present system
was well shown in the examination of the
bureau of engraving and printing by COM
mittee, of which was chairman OF force
of 958 persons. $50, with annual salaries
amounting to 1896, 900, were found to be su-
per1uous and were discharged. The COM
mittee reported that for years the force in
some branches had been twice and even three
times as great as the work required In one
division sort Of platform had been built IN
derneath the iron roof, about seven feet above
the floor, to accommodate the surplus count
ers. 1t appeared that the room was of ample
size without this continuance for all the per-
sons really needed In another division
were found twenty messengers doing work
which it was found could be done by one. The
committee reported that the system Of patron
age was chiefly responsible for the extrava-
gance and irregularities which had marked the
administration or the bureau, and
declared that it had cost the people mill
ions of dollars in that branch of the service
alone Under this system the Office had been
! made to serve the purpose Of an almshouse or
asylum"
In consequence of this report the annual ap-
preparation for the printing bureau was re-
duced from $500, 900 to 800, 900, and out of the
first years say ings was built the fine building
now occupied by that bureau.
He went on to say that another abuse under
the present civil service system which this bill
sought to correct was the lapsing Of salaries of
clerks. For instance, where one man was en-
ployed by law at salary of 81 800 per annum
three women were sometimes substituted each
at a salary of 5000 year. In one instance
thirty-fve clerks were put on the @lapse roll"
| in order to show up an amount of money that
| had otherwise been left over and saved to the
| government senator, whose name he would
not mention, but who would recognize the re-
mark, had told him what certain secretary
of one of the departments had said on SIM
liar subject It was that there were seventeen
clerks in his department for, whom he could
find no employment He said instead of these
seventeen supertluous clerks he needed one
| clerk of higher grade at good salary. But
instead of providing for such a clerk the ap-
| preparations have been made otherwise, and
the political pressure had been so great that he
| was compelled to put these seventeen super
! huous clerks on the roll