The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-11-16
MR.. BELLows's APPOINTMENT

1t seems that the Secretary of the Treasury
has approved the action of Collector AMBER
son in appointing a clerk in the custom
house in place of Mr.. Clark, resigned, upon
the recommendation of number of prom
inent Democrats instead of under the pro-
visions of the civil service law.
When it is borne in mind that the Secre-
tary has just been instrumental in breaking
down one of the rules of the civil service
commission, and that Mr.. Eugene Higgins,
whom the Baltimore Civil Service Reform
Association denounced as one of the most
corrupt spoilsmen of a ring-ridden State,
is appointment clerk Of the Treasury
Department, and while holding that posi-
ton practically decides all such ques-
tions, this decision is not surprising. 1t
goes to show that the enthusiasm which the
appointment of Higgins created among the
Jacksonian Democrats was well founded.
According to the Advertiser, ex-Collector
Dow is primarily responsible for the de-
cision under consideration. 1t seems that
he, in answer to question from somebody
who wanted to publish book, wrote letter
in which he stated that he classed this par
ticular clerkship among the non-competitive
positions. This was an opinion expressed
outside the line of his official duties, to
which no responsibility could be attached,
and under which no action was to be taken
Yet this dictum is now quoted as a control
ling precedent in a case affecting the right of
every applicant under the civil service rules
for positions in the Portland custom house,
and, by reason of its endorsement by the
fof
Interpretation of the civil service law.
1t is possible that Collector Dow when he
wrote that letter believed that the clerkship
was classed among the non-competitiye po-
sitions, or it may be that he desired that it
should be, .or thought that it ought to be,
and SO far as we know he may be of the
same opinion still But the time has been
when Mr.. BOWS view of civil service reform,
as applied to the administration of affairs in
the Portland custom house, was a matter of
special anxiety to our local civil service
reform association and, if we remember
correctly, received some attention at the
hands of the Advertiser. And our con-
temporary and Collector Dow will excuse
us for saying that such of his views
as might receive the appreciation of, say,
Mr.. Dorman B. Eaton, would be likely to
better satisfy the friends of reform, than
would those which should should meet a
hearty response from the redoubtable Hig-
gins, of whose services in behalf of reform
the Maryland Civil Service Reform Associa-
ton has had much to say
As matter of fact, whatever Collector
Dow's opinion or wishes may have been, the
,o5a MT hxrf ba aciO lion IF
Mr.. Clark, and which, as we believe, has
been filed in violation of the letter and
spirit of the law, is not that of a private
secretary or a confidential clerk. 1t was
classed with other clerkships of the same
grade by the authorities at Washington, and
was in no sense such a position as is referred
to in Rule XIX.
1t is true that Mr.. Clark generally attend
ed to some, probably most, of the official cor
respondence of the collector But other
clerks in the same grade attended to some of
ii also, and the position of Mr.. Clark differ
ed from theirs, only in the fact that his desk
was in the collectors private Office. But, if
we are correctly informed, this was an inno-
walton of Collector Dow, who for reasons
best known to himself, but, so far as we
know, without warrant of law, changed in
this particular, the time honored usage of
the office. Had the collector chosen to re-
move half dozen other clerks into the same
room and furnished them with desk accom-
modations would he by this act have vested
all of them with the character of confidential
clerks sufficiently to have placed them in
the non-competitive class? And if not all,
why one?
But as the Secretary of the Treasury
through Mr.. Eugene Higgins, has passed APP
provingly on the method of the recent ap--