Morning journal and courier., 1888-12-11
CIVIL SERVICE REFORm.

A Committee of the New Haven AssO-
 cIation Hold a Meeting and Hnvestf-
 gate Charges Against Letter Carriers
 Who Have Been DIscharged-Several
 ThemBelves to be eInterrogated-What the Result VEAll Be. A subcommittee of the executive commit tee of the New Haven Civil Service Reform association held meeting in this city yester- day. The object was to investigate whatever violations had come to its notice in the gov- ernmental departments in the city during the past year or more. It was the first meeting of the kind since the one held several years ago, shortly after the wholesale decapitatien which occurred immediately after the present administration came into power. At the meeting held at that time there was large number of men before the committee to express their grievances The meagre satisfaction that the men received at the time, however, gave them not very exalted opinion of the influence of the association in remedying the troubles. Probably for that reason the number which was present yesterday was not so large as was anticipated, and not more than half the num- Der invited appeared before the august body. The examination of the men was conduct
 
 law chambers building. The only members of the committee present were s. T. Dutton, superintendent of schools. and Lawyer Mans field.
 The investigation was in charge of MT. Dutton questioning the men.
 The following persons were before the com- mittee, all but the last one having been former letter carriers, and who have been discharged under Postmaster Engiish's ad ministratioD:
 Frank Haines, R. R. Russell, Charles E. Bill, George Welch and Fred R. Bisse1l. The latter is the son Of Policeman Bissell and was formerly bookkeeper in the jail.
 The examination lasted nearly two hours and consisted chiefly of the questions which were asked by MT. Dutton.
 Postmaster English's side of each case was obtained last week, so that the examiners had something to work on.
 The story of each man was taken as it was elicited from the answers given to the innu- merable questions asked.
 The case which chiefly attracted the atten- tion of Mir. Dutton was that of Mir. Bill who, although he was discharged before the last meeting of the committee, did not appear then. At that time he addressed letter to the committee, and he reiterated substantial ly the same facts iu the case yesterday.
 He cisimed, as is we'll known, that he was discharged for the reason that Assistant Postmaster Earle gave, that too much out side pressure was brought to bear on the office, while the reason that is officially given is that E'he knew too much"
 The subcommittee will report to the exec utive committee and that body will in turn present the report to the association at it's annual meeting next Friday evening.
 The men who were before the committee yesterday are very much interested to know just what this process amounts to. Some of the men who received notifications of the WAT in hair ions on the matter and regard the effort of the committee as an attempt to whitewash Mr. English and make it appear that he had done everything that was right in discharg- ing the carriers.
 One of the best known of these men is Fred D. Ingham of 51 Lafayette street, who was carrier for eighteen years under N. D. Sperry. He refused to appear before the board because he thought it amounted to nothing and because he thinks the board is biased anyway from consisting of majority of Democrats.
 The latter feeling seems to be quite general and but little respect is entertained for the result of the investigation.
 A singular thing that occurred was that Mir. Russell learned for the first time, he said, what the reasons were for his discharge. He alleges that at the time he received his notice no reasons were given whatever, but the discharge was peremptory.
 Lawyer n1hnbnolU Hau Ln6 AOtlC0 OL OhCu mans discharge with the postmaster's req sons and 50 each man had the pleasure of learning that he was Incompetent, neglect ful, etc."
 One fact that was brought 10 the attention of the committee yesterday is that every one of the men that have been discharged were Republicans, while every new man appointed has been an ont and oat Democrat. This statement was made by MT. Bill.
 Lawyer Mansfield took exceptions to this and replied that Bill knew better. Quite 8 lively tilt ensued.
 The attention of the committee was called to the fact that one rule of the office was broken daily, namely: Ia regard to smok- ing. And yet there has been no discharge on that account for the reason, one man said, that the rule affected the Democratic clerks and carriers more that the men of the other party.
 Tue report of the committee to the associs- ton Friday night will be watched and read, if tt is made public, ss it probably will, with a great deal of interest