Morning journal and courier., 1891-08-17

Violation of the Law in Baltimore
 Several Factions Get Tangled Up in
 the Struggle for Spells s- Commits
 sioner RooseveIt's Report.
 WASHINGTON, Aug. 16.-In the latter part of March information was received at the office of the civil service commission that the provisions of the civil servicelaw relating to political assessments were being
 violated by persons in the official service of the United States in the city of Balti
 more, that influence of United States officers in that city was also being unlaw fully used to control the primary election
 An investigation was immediately begun, and continued through a part of the
 month of April, conducted by Commits
 sioner Roosevelt, and copy of his report, together with the testimony taken, show ing that the investigation was amply justi fled, has just been submitted to the presi- dent with the approval of the commission. The attorney general and postmaster gen.
 eral and secretary of the treasury have also been furnished with copies. The fol lowing statements are taken from Com | missioner Roosevelt's report as embodying | some of the results of his investigations The primaries held on March 30 were marked by very bitter contest between l two factions of the republican party. One | of these factions was generally known as l the "Johnson crowd, or "Johnson-Airey | faction" MT. Johnson being the postmas | ter and MT. Airey the marshal in Balti- | more. The other faction was known simi- | larly as the Henderson faction" or Glen | derson-Stone faction," Messrs. Henderson
 and Stone having been respectively, candi- l c. 4o oc 1 postmaster and marshal. There were side issues that complicated the struggle some
 what, but in it's essence it was without
 doubt mainly fight between the office
 holders on one side and the disappointed | office seekers on the other. Apparently
 they care primarily for the offices, party
 success being purely secondary consid-
 eration, important only because it facili-
 tated getting them. It seems to me that | this fact alone furnishes tolerably accu-
 rate measure of the much vaunted useful
 ness to any party of the office-mongering,
 ofice-seeking and office-holding variety of
 ward worker.
 As a whole the contest was marked by
 great fraud and no little violence. At
 present the ordinary ofice-seeking ward
 workers and 8 very large percentage of
 oficeholders have grown to believe that it
 is part of the natural order of things that
 those who hold or seek to hold the offices
 should exercise the controlling influence in
 political contests. The civil service law is
 doing much to disabuse them of this idea,
 and the further it can be extended and the
 more rigidly it can be executed the healthi-
 CT the result will be. The ward worker
 who is simply in politics for the offices is a
 curse to the community, and the sooner
 this is recognized the better. His political
 activity is purely unhealthy and mischiev-
 ous. Take it out of the power of any politician to give him any office and
 he will cease from his noxious Ia bors in very short space of time ) AS for the government office holder he must be taught in one way or another that his duty is to do the work of the gov ernment for the whole people, and not tc ! pervert his flee for the use of any party ) or any faction. The examinations for tn, custom house have been perfectly straight 3 No vacancies have been made for the pur pose of allowing partisans to be appointed . and no man has received an appointment unless he passed so high that he was on 3 the first three on the list, but it seeml 3 clear that MT. Marine believed that he hat i the right to discriminate among thes J three for political reasons. Now undoubt
 edly he has no such right. He has righ of choice among them, but he has no righ r to exercise this choice on political or relig , ious grounds. Any discrimination of thi 8 sort calls for severe rebuke, and, if per : sisted in for prompt punishment. This i : the only criticism, however, that is to b I made upon Collector Marines conduct O l the office.
 The internal revnue collector at Balti more was not used in the interest of eithe :, faction. The custom house likewise, wa not used in the interest of either faction : The case is very different in regard to tn post office and the marshal's office. Tn
 evidence seems to be perfectly clear tha
 both of these offices were used with tn q purpose of interfering with or controllin Q the result of the primary election and ths '. there was systematic though sometime # indirect effort made to assess the govern l. ment employees in both for political pull :, poses. Marshal Airey was undoubtedl one of the leaders of one of the factions 8 ,, the primaries, and took very active par q therein, ,even to the extent of coming int Y physical collision with one of the opposit s judges, whom he accused, whether rightl !. 0 or wrongly, of cheating
 4 In my opinion the following governmer Q employees should be dismissed from ofic if for violating sections.11 to IA of the civ a service law: Edward Biddleman and Wi a liam H. H. Sultzer of the marshal 5 office; John Fensley and W. E 10 Ray of the customs service; John 4 ,s ,e Bel, James Wilson, William H. Mitchell 1s James F. Webber, Robert F. Reed, Henr ,e ,s Martin, Henry Glars, Louis E. Gladfelle ,t John B. Tweedle, Charles G. Smitl ,D Charles W. Hammet, George G. Holt |, William T. Birmingham, Joshua N Ricl g ardson, Edward Pe1ine, Edward Tout ?. ?. Oscar W. Gibson. H. L. Theiss, Joh
 Bond, Daniel Phelps and Noah Pierson ,e While it does not appear that Mir. Johl ,e r7 son himself used the postofice to infuen, io the primary election it is evident that ,' ro was used with his full knowledge and tn u- he took no effective steps whatever to pr nf vent such use thereof
 It.
 " For Mental DenresSiOn