Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-14
PUTTING HIS FOOT DOWN.
rHBPREsIPESr cAI1SAHALT


srsjses,minsh, reI,ucsi sisush,sr s'sppsd-
"en.asne panisapship" Has psevsae
pfsu.ve- CiviI.sesyice Rcferm 20 b. Car.
riee 0at.
iBy eel ~,rAph 10 the Dispaioh.i
WASHINGTON, July l3.--The Fee
@iag Ssr gives prominence 70 the fol-
lowing:
The President has called n halt. A
little over a week ago the order went
ont TO ell tle departments that all d. &.
missals and appointments to Gil places
not vacant must stop at once. The
President, after declaring his policy
with relation to the civil service IN the
most positive manner possible, turned
the departments over to bis Cabinet
officers. making them personally re-
sp0nsible for their acts. Now nu-
merous changes have been made AID
many officials have been turned Oh.
on the indefinite charge Of "ofien-
sive partisanship until the term itself
has become offensive. The exposition
Of the loose WAYS Of the appointment
clerk of the Treasury, followed by the
attempt 20 prevent the appointment of
Kcllar under the ciyIl-Seryice law the
sweep in the Department Of Justice,
the indiscriminate filing Of charges IN
the PoSt-Ohice Department, and the
alleged disposition of the Commissioner
Of Pensions to make a clean sweep in
the Pension Office, have attracted the
Presidents attention, and he has
asked his advisers to explain
their sections, and ordered them
meanwhile TO stop right where
they are. A week ago stop was put
10 all the work in the appointment d.
vision Of the Treasury Department, and
the appointment clerk was told that no
more commissions were 60 be made out
Or papers considered until further or
dcrs. and that a lot Of changes that
were contemplated by him were killed
in their conception. A remarkable
quiet has settled over the building, the
clerks are all coming up smiling, and
the appointment clerk stands with
folded arms looking at his shattered
schemes for " turning the rascals out.
Commissioner Pensions Black was
sent for personally by the President,
and was given TO understand that the
offensive partisanship cry had become
too indefinite in its meaning, and that
no more changes in his official force
were to be made until there was a
thorough understanding on the sub
iect on the part OF the Presi-
dent The result was that the
orders for a number of changes
III the Pension Office were counter
manded and everything put at stand
still. The President, it is understood,
then had an understanding with the
heads of the Post-Ofiicc and other De-
partments. declaring his policy TO be
10 stand by the ciyil-service reform de-
ClaratiOnS in his letter to Curtis, and
in his address on the 4th of March.
" Removal for cause " he held to mean
that, and not removal with excuses.
The result is that lhe axe has
been stuck in the block for the
past week, and is still there. How
far the thing is to 90 can be merely
SuImsed, but it is believed that the
President is decidedly in earnest, and
does not intend that his declarations
shall be ignored. The instructions Of
the Secretary Of the Navy concerning
the examination of applicants for fore
men of the various works III the navy
yard, in which he takes rather advanced
anti-ciyil-seryice-reiorm grounds, is
criticised by the civil-seryicc reformers,
and, il is said, will meet with the CON
demnation of the President.