The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-06-29
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
Reply of Mr.. Curtis to Jay A,
Hubbell.
voluntary Contributions" Wrung from
Government Employees Under
Pain of Dismissal.

Mr.. George William Curtis has written
the following to Congressman Jay A.
Hubbell:
Hon. Jay A. Hubbell, Chairman and
Treasurer, &C., sc.
SIR: have received your letter of the
| 22d inst, in which you comment upon
the circular of the Civil Service Reform
Association advising certain employees
of the Government that they may render
themselves liable to legalI penalties
| should they yield to a requisitiOn to pay
a specified part of their salaries into the
treasury of your committee. Upon this
| suggestion you remark: "The law is
| misStated in your circular and the alarm
| you seek to create is without justifica-
tiOn in the law. Your consul to whom
you vaguely allude, either misunder-
stands OF perverts it," This is, however,
merely your opinion; and to differ with
your view of the construction of a stat
ute, while awaiting an authoritative in
| depreciation, does not seem to me to
prove either the incapacity or the
knavery which you discOurteOusly attri-
| butte to gentlemen of high professional
character. If, however, your letter had
| contained only the proposition to unite
with the Civil Service Reform AssOcia-
t1On in procuring prompt and authOTi-
tative decision of the legal question in
vOlVed, should have nothing to add to
/ the response which was Immediately ad-
| dressed to you by MessTs. Wheeler and
| Whitridge, lhe consul of the association,
| informing you that we have already
called the attention of the Attorney GEN
eral to what we hold to be violations of
the law, and that we shall willingly
| join you in making case for the courts.
But in your letter you permit yourself
to say: 81 invite you to this mode of
settlement as both more manly and more
honorable than your attempt to confuse
the action or alarm the minds of the en-
| plOyes alluded to-" This is an allega-
tiOn that it is not quite manly or honor
able to apprize employees of the Govern
ment, who otherwise would probably not
know it, that if they take a certain
course they render themselves liable to
| fine and Dismissal, and that such notice
| is an attempt to alarm and confuse them.
1t seems to me, however, that man who
| lives with his family upon $500 or 5000
year would find it much more alarm
| ing and confusing to be summoned to
pay 2 per cent. of that amount than to
be told that such payment might lead to
| legal trouble. If, indeed, there be any
| question of comparative manliness and
| honor in the transaction, it strikes me
| that virtually to threaten labOrers in
navy yards and elsewhere, clerks, eTTand
| boys, and even women and girls in the
public offices, to whom, | am informed,
| that circulars have been sent that they
are in danger of dismissal if they do not
| surrender part of their wages, is con-
duct quite as open to the charge of want
| of manlineSs and honor as the act of
warning such labOrers that the law
probably protects them against the de-
| mand.
You remark that you disdain "tO seek
protection and shelter behind any
| mil fharafnrn Of M
| to hide under the pitiful pretense that
the assessment of 2 per cent. or other
specific sum levied by the Congressional
| Committee is an invitation to make a
voluntary contribution" 1t is stated
| that 10000 or more of the circulars of
your committee have been sent out. l
have personal knowledge of them as ad-
dressed to employees of the Government
| from Kentucky to New England, and
| they are undoubtedly daily mailed to
every part of the Union. They are
apparently addressed exclusively to pub
| lie employees, and those employees un-
dOUbtedly understand that the alterna-
| tive is that of payment or dismissal.
| The demand is issued by committee
which knows that such is the general
| understanding in the service. 1 once
| the injustice of this assessment
upon poor men earning small wages and
reduced to despair by the demand. and
he told me hOtly and plainly that for
every one that did not wish to pay there
were fifty persons ready to take his
place with all its membranes. 1t is
| not necessary for me to point out to you
that this is practically sale of the pub
lie service to the highest bidder, that it
destroys the self-respect of the public
| employees, and that it is necessarily fatal
| to honest politics and economical ad-
ministratiOn. Ifthe wages of the public
service are too high, let them be reduced.
But by what rights does committee of
an irresponsible club of members of Con-
| gress levy party toll upon the public
| employees under pain of dismisSalp You,
sir, are chairman and treasurer of the
Republican Congressional Committee.
What party authority constituted that
committee? In what way is it RESPONSE
BILE to the Republican partyP If a levy
of money is to be made upon employees
of the Government for the benefit of a
party treasury-which l hold to be a
perilOus abuse-it should be authorized
by those whom the party designates for
the purpose. 1t is certainly not a duty
to be assumed by any committee of MEN,
bers Of the party elected for another
purpose. If such committee may de-
mand 2 per cent. of wages 1t may extOrt
20 per cent. under the same terror. Other
| SlmllET COumLLL6eS may uO Iu6 Sduue
thing, and, in fact, the public employees
are now subject to various demands of
the kind. The money thus coerced by
irresponsible committees is expended in
ways of which there is no public ac-
count. 1t becomes often a vast corrup-
tiOn fund, drawn from the public treas
ury by the party in power to secure its
continued control of the Goyernment.
This is a dangerous blow to free insti-
tutions, and the general knowledge of
the abuse necessarily destroys popular
confidence in the honesty of elections
and brings us face to face with a catas-
trOphe.
Undoubtedly there are legitimate po-
litical expenses for every party, and In a
free country everybody should be at
liberty to aid and to refuse to aid his
party. But the public employees of the