Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-13
NO PLACES COULD sE FILLED.
What the Erect of . Failure 10 Appropriate
fer the Civil Service Beard Woald Bs.

NO PLACES COULD BE FILLED.
what the Erect oe Failure 10 Appropriate
fer the Civn Service Beard would Bs.
THE ACTION OF TIE HOUSE WOULD pxParvr TEE
COMMISSIONERS OF ALL CLINICAL zxLP-coN-
MISSIONER RoosEvELr's VIEWS ON THE suB-
yEcr-THE STATUS OF THE COMMISSIONERS.
The action Of the House Yesterday in the
committee Of the whole in dealing with the
paragraph in the legislative bill that affects the
civil service commission is regarded the
hardest blow civil service reform has received
since the law was passed in 1883.
"A STAn reporter called upon tho members of
the commission this morning to inquire what
effect the final rejection of the paragraph in
question would have upon the workings Of the
commission.
~ ME. RoosEvELT's VIEWS.
In response to his questions Commissioner
Roosevelt said:
The action in the House yesterday knocked
out the entire clerical force OF the commission.
Ii this action stands and the clerical force il
not in some manner appropriated for. the work
OF the commission will, of course. come nearly
to standstili on July next.
AT present. ne continued I'VE have twenty
seven employees, including those detailed TO us
seven were knocked ont of the bill. This force
has been trained under cur own eyes and the
members of 1t holding the most responsible
positions have been with US for several years.
We are just able to keep abreast Of our work
now.
The departments have only detailed to us
the men we have now after infinite trouble on
our part because the departments need their
own clerks for their own work Judging from
the difhculty we have experienced in securing
the ten men we have now (who are not pro-
yided for at all in the report Of
not suppose it would be possible for the
departments TO detail for us more than four
or fvc more clerks, il even this number. These
four or five raw men would have to attempt to
do the work which our twenty-scven expert
enced men are barely able to accomplish. II
is even possible, presume, that the depart
ments would be unable to detail to US any men
at all. In either case, however, at least four
fifths of the commissions work will stop short.
THE APPLICANTS WOULD SUFFER.
''The hardship will not come upon the CON-
missioners at all. 1t will come upon the pub
lie service and upon the applicants. We re-
| ceive and answer from 200 to 100 letters a day
at present. After July all these letters will
have to go unanswered. We examine and
mark the papers of between 5000 and 10000
applicants every year, holding examinations al
least twice in every state in the Union. All this
will have TO be left undone. Almost all that We
would be able to do would be to certify to the
departments those eligibles who were on the
registers on July /. These would supply clerks,
copyists and applicants for one or two other
branches for perhaps eight months from that
date. But long before eight months were over
the supply of special pension examiners of
patent Office examiners and Of stenographers
would have given out Under the law not one
appointment i'll the classiti, service can be
made save through our lists. Therefore all
vacancies in the position Of stenog-
rapher, patent Office examiner and the
like would simply have to go untitled,
not an appointment could be made to them
and by the end of eight months or SO no further
appointments could be made at all unless either
the civil service law was repealed or some
method OF giving the commission adequate
force was adopted.
MIGHT HOLD A FEW EXAMINATIONS.
st Is possible" continued Mr.. Roosevelt,
shat We might be able to hold very few ex-
aminations for branches where applicants were
specially needed, but these would have to be
held mainly in Washington or its immediate
vicinity. Hardly district over 200 miles from
Washington would have an examination in it,
except by haphazard, as the commissioners
themselves might go 20 conduct them.
Our entire published schedule of ex-
aminations for the ensuing year would
have to be revoked and the applicants
from nine-tenths Of the remote states and
territories would be deprived of their chances
of appointment At present we are left with
less force than we had at the beginning. in 1888,
when there was not tenth Of the present work
to be done, for the detail of the ten clerks has
been knocked out"