The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-08-30
REFORM is A FACT.
Commissioner Roosevelt Talks
on the Civil Service.
Reform i'm the Service on a Bet
ter Footing Than Ever.
CREDIT WHERE DUE.
Senators Lodge and COckrell
Deserve Praise He Says.

WASHINGTON, Aug. SO.-Civil Service
Commissioner Roosevelt, in an inter
view on civil service matters, said the
commission was now on a far better
footing than ever before for efficient
work This was due to the fact that
the commission, under legislation
pushed by Senator Lodge, Of Massa-
chusetts, and Senator Coch-en Of Mis-
souri,, hereafter would have its own
force OF clerks instead Of being de-
pendent on clerks detailed to it by
the several government departments
The civil service commissioner de-
nOunced the Bynum bill for the rein
statement of the Democratic railroad
mail clerks dismissed prior to the
classification Of the railway mail SER
vice, under the civil service system in
1889, as a thoroughly vicious partisan
measure, saying: If it should be-
come a law it would be a precedent
for the enactment of similar meas
ures whenever change of admins
tratiOn took place 1t is lntrod uced
purely in the IN serest of the spOils
mOnger and is a thoroughly vicious
bill in every way
Then" Mr.. Roosevelt went on, 81
wish to call the recent decision of the
attorney general, which permits sO-
licitation for political purposes by
letter in government buildings If
his option holds, the commission must
Immediately request the passage OF
law to prohibit such solicitation. The
commission has always insisted that
solicitation for political purposes was
illegal whether done in person or by
letter in q government building
1T was owing to this interpreta-
ton that we were able to very nearly
break up the practice during the last
presidential campaign, and as the
aftermath of that campaign, we have
procured the conviction of two gov
eminent officials, one a postmaster in
Ohio and the other deputy internal
revenue officer of Kentucky, but we
have never had q case tried in the
courts where the accusation was that
the solicitation was by letter.
Nine enths OF the good done by
the law will vanish if solicitation by
letter is allowed, and although the
commission will Of course do all it
can to protect employees if they are
molested in any way for refusing to
contri butte, it is imperative that we
should be given power to prosecute
any attempt at political assessment in
a government building either by let
ter or otherwise. THE statute is SO
broad, inasmucb as it prohibits any
person from soliciting in any manner
whatsoever IN government build
ing, that we have taken it for grant
ed that it must mean by letter, and
DnaLs we Know was the meaning OF
the gentlemen, both in congress and
out, who saw the passage Of the bill
The commissioner expressed the
hope there would be a great extern
sion of the classified service and that
there would be a great reduction in
number Of places excepted on one
theory or another. from the civil
service rules including not only the
departments, but the pOstotfices and
custom houses throughout the coun-
try, and in this connection he called
attention to several instances in
which old and efficient employees had
been gotten rid of by indirect
methods
The commission. he thought, should
have a power to interfere in these
cases Of removals and require that
reasons for dismissals be given ia full
and in writing.