Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-18
PLAIN LAW IGNORED
By Wanamaker in the Baltimore
Civil Service Case, Says the
MAJORITY COMMITTEES REPORT.
The Statute Openly Violated, and the
Violators Protected
BY THE ONE WHOSE DUTY Is TO PUNISH

WASHINGTON, June 1.-THE Demo-
cratic majority of the House Committee on
Reform in the Civil Service has agreed
upon q report drawn up by Representative
Boatner, of Louisiana, upon the results of
the committees investigation of the alleged
violation OF the civil service law at Balti-
more.
The report quotes the Postmaster Cen
erals statement that none of the persons
whose dismissal from Office had been recon-
mended by the Civil Service Commission
for violation of law, had been dismissed or
prosecuted, and gives at some length his
reasons for failing to act, according to his
testimony before the committee, which
reasons the committee characterize as con-
Trajectory. 1t says:
1t is singular that the Postmaster General
should have Endorsed the idea that men
charged with violation of the civil service law
were entitled to notice before any inquiry as
to their guilt was entered upon, and that
they were entitled to the assistance of coun-
sci in the investigation.
The examination of the testimony taken
by the inspectors, and upon which the Post
master General claims to have acted. shows
supported blythe statements of the parties
implicated. On the contrary, the testi-
mony reported by the inspectors con-
firms and corroborates fully that taken
by the Civil Service Commission.
The Inspectors Come in for Roast.
Substantially tho Same facts admitted by
the parties before the commission were
sworn to before the inspectors, and the Sc
ct,iot nd xybi ioI, fho in
spectors passed on the work of Mr.. Roose-
velt in making the Investigation, are not
borne out by any facts stated by the wit
nesses on that examination.
The acceptance by the Postmaster Gen
eral without further Investigation or in
quiry of the report of the inspectors, which,
II proved, convicted the Civil Service Com
missioners of the grossest official miscon-
duct and most dishonorable practices is. to
the Postmaster General to many of the
questions propounded by your committee
were evasive and utterly Inconsistent with
the evidence on which he claims to have
acted.
The report also comments upon the fail
ure of the Postmaster General to produce
written opinion from the Assistant Attorney
General of his department that contribu-
tions to the primary election, upon which
the case was based, did not constitute vio-
lation of law, and doubts whether any
reputable attorney would risk his reputa-
tion by giving such an opinion. Further,
it says:
The garbled statement of the evidence
taken before the inspectors, furnished by
the Postmaster General, shows the desper-
ate straits to which he is driven in the at
tempt to sustain the action of his inspectors
and his own.
The report holds that the accused en-
ployes were actually guilty of violation
of law, and that their excuses were "trans-
parent evasions." 1t says:
No Excuse Found for Wanamaker.
Had the Postmaster General been able to
show that he had been advised by the De-
partment Of Justice that the law did not
apply to contributions for political pri-
maries; or had he frankly declared his be-
lief that the men violated the law in ignor.
ance of its provisions, or that he was in
vested with discretionary power not to
execute the law, and had exercised his dis
erection in refusing to remove these men,
l-IA 10. f.,, ~ L.