Passaic City record., 1893-12-16
POSTMASTER AND EMPLOYEE.
A Word to Our Friends, the Hold
Oyers.1

Mr.. Francis E. Leupp, editor of
G00d G00ernment, the official Jour
nal of the National Civil Service
Reform League, has furnished us
with the following article on the
relations of employees and post
masters from a recent issue of his
paper.
We have received several complaints
at various times since the general classi-
ficatlon of the free delivery postoffices,
from individual employees who have
been dismissed by new postmaster for
no better reason. as they claim, than be-
cause he is Democrat and they are
Republicans We have investigated
these cases and always found that the
papers on file at the Post Office Depart
ment are in regular form. They set
forth that the d1smissals are :. for the
good of the service" and this is all that
is needed to keep the postmaster's act
within the technical bounds of the law.
If it were possible to prove affirmatively
that a postmaster had lied in making
this report, and that his course was die
tated by partisan malice alone, test
case might be made up for presentation
to the President; but unfortunately, in
instance after instance which has been
brought to our notice, careful inquiry
has drawn forth the fact that the en-
ployee dismissed had made himself per-
sonally obnoxious to his superior officer
by going about and boasting that his
place was now protected by the Civil
Service Law, that the postmaster would
not dare to turn him out, and the like
Now, this sort of talk is very foolish
In the first place, the Civil Service Law
does not protect any person. 1t was not
enacted for any such purpose. All it was
designed to protect was the United States
Government, which was suffering rank
robbery under the spoils system. In the
second place, the Law while forbidding
the removal of an employee on political
grounds, does not forbid his removal if
he makes nuisance of himself The
motives of the Democratic postmaster
who recommends Republican carrier
for removal because the carrier is al
ways prating about his rights and privi-
leges under the Civil Service Law, may
be open to suspicion; but ON the other
hand 1t may be that the postmaster
would inhict similar discipline on car
r1er who insisted on wearing his cap
wrong side before, or who persistently
whistled Hail Columbia out of tune to
the annoyance of everybody within ear
shot, or who had any other habit which
made him ridiculous or disagreeable and
caused ill-feeling in the office.
Employees OF the government are
bound by the same rules of courtesy,
caution and forbearance as persons in
other walks of life. All of us have many
rights which we do not feel called upon
to assert constantly with blare of trum-
pets The man who needlessly and de-
liberate1y goads his neighbor into a
quarrel may have the strict letter OF the
law on his side, but he gets scant consid-
Grafton from the average jury before
whom the issue is tried. 1t may be a
wrong thing for farmer to keep his
hercest bull in a pasture close to the
highway, with only a low fence between;
yet the passerby who carries a red rag
with him to shake in the bulls face finds
few defenders when the beast leaps the
fence and cores him.
If the ''holdover" clerk or carrier be-
lieves that he is permitted to remain in
the service because he deserves to remain
there, and not simply because he hap
pened to be there when the order of
classification went into effect, this sense
ought to inspire him with dignity, polite
ness and consideration. He ought to
have too much self-respect to avail
himself of the benefits of the Civil Ser
vice Law without accommodating him.
self to its obvious spirit-which is the
spirit of non-partlsan devotion to the pub
lie business. No employee of the govern
ment, certainly, who has any regard for