Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-05
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
Some of the Departments Have 1t and
Some Haven't-The Other Blaine's

Some of the Departments Have 1t and
Some Haven't-The Other Blaine's
sinecure.
The latest development in the public
service. saws a Washington special, is
that the Agricultural Bureau, presided
| over bv the magnificent and superfiuous
/ Loring, is not under the operation of the
| civil service law, which has from the
first been disregarded there. Commits
siOner Eaton, while admitting this, with
holds the reason.
In a letter replying 10 one asking for
information, he says the Agricultural
Bureau is exempted from the civil service
rules, and is run according to the rules
Of LOring, because President Arthur, in
prOmulgating the rules and orders giving
effect to the law, did not specify that
branch Of the government. Whether the
omission so to do was by design or acci-
dent, the willy Eaton viii not say, but
leaves TO be inferred that it was one of
those little games which, as they cannot
always be prevented, have to be winked
at for the beneftO Of important persOnages
and peculiar objects.
The law makes no exceptions, and is
expressly applicable to all departments
alike. The Agricultural Bureau belongs
10 the Interior Department. 1t is singu-
lar only IN its own practices. That il
should escape the operation of the law is,
indeed, remarkable, but not more so than
some other things in the service, which,
from being tolerated so long, have become
usage as sacred as law itself.
1t was only a short time ago that Mr..
Eaton made a merit Of bringing under the
operation OF the law and the civil service
rules the Bureau Of Geological Survey,
which required technical knowledge
solely. On that account, and
under the language Of the law il was
claimed it should not come under the
rules. But Mr.. Eaton held that the law
applied to all departments, bureaus and
branches Of the service whatever, and
that therefore the Board of Commission
ers had no option, and must bring the en-
tire service under the law. AS matter OF
fact, the law itself makes the exemption
Of part of the service impossible, and
only recently Mr.. Eaton so held, though
he was at the time, as he had been before,
and has since done, countenancing the
open and complete disregard Of the law
at the Agricultural Bureau.
II there IS any efficacy in the civil SER
vice law to prevent or reform abuses,
there is no spot in the government where
there is greater need of its rigid enforce
ment than the Agricultural Bureau. II
- atlA AuEh hAldUAt AAiAEIEuGE Lldl Tue UEdutD
Of the service which sets aside a law OF
Congress should be restrained in its ir-
regular operations, and if possible re-
formed.
Commissioner baton at one time said
that the board had taken on themselves
more than they could do, and left it to be
inferred that hence the law was not en-
forced at the Agricultural Bureau. At
another he writes that the fault is with
no U-aefTnaH ho !, s4rs- =
an open question. But there is no ques-
tiOn at all about the way the law is dis
regarded at Loring's concern, or about the
abuses existing there.
Senator Hale should proceed to find out
the truth and locate the responsibility.
1t is a suggestion not without reason that
the Agricultural Bureau is not the only
place where the civil service law, not to
mention other laws, Is not enfOrced-a
fact that Mr.. Hale would not have to go
far to find out, if the truth is what he is
after.
a brother OF James G.. Blaine is a bene-
iiciary Of the peculiar methods now in
vogue at the Agricultural Bureau. NOm-
inally he is the superintendent or keeper
Of DIR. LOring's latest device in humbug-
gerry. Some months ago capaciOus
building of the most intlammable mate
rial, and for that reason a perpetual men,
aNt 70 AuE MuEIG II bLduus, >,
was built by the direction of the Commits
siOuer to receive the agricultural exhibit
presented by the late Atlanta Exhi-
bitI0n Association. A few cart loads
Of agricultcral belongings were
placed in the building, and Blaine's
brother, who, like the rest of his relations,
is here to live off the government, was
appointed to oversee them. 1t is repre-
sented to be a museum, but on a thousand
farms in the great agricultural districts
its superior is to be found. There is not
an average Of three visitors "a week, and
no one ever goes a second time or comes
away without a vivid impression of the
righteousness of the affair. The only
thing accomplished by this arbitrary eX.
penditure of several thousands of dollars
is the job of putting up the building and
an Office-an absolute sinecure-fOT
Blaine, who earns nothing, and whose
pay is five times as much as he could
earn at any honest work.
These things, in addition to the nulli-
ficatiOn of the civil service law at the
Agricultural Bureau, are narrated as a
few among the many there to which Mr..
Hale and his committee, if they are really
in pursuit of frauds in the service, should
furr, tbnfr attention