The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-02
orally. They have not counted for much

w washington % or ~ years ago GDaG
men and women were appointed to de-
partment places not alone as a reward
for public services, but for reasons not
so decent. In some of the departments
there were hundreds of men and women
borne on the pay roll who did no work.
A Woman o9 Influence.
recall the case of head of bureau
who was new to Washington, politi-
cal appointee, but man of good ideas.
He found on the pay roll of his Office a
number of men and women who render
ed no service. He called one of the
women in and asked her to do some
writing. He found she wrote an unde-
cipherable hand. He asked her to add
column of figures. She made a mess of
it. Then he told her she was not fit for
clerical work and that he would have
to recommend her discharge. She was
indignant. The idea, she Eaid. She had
not been appointed to do work of that
kind-in fact, she did not take place
in the department to work. He said she
would have to work or get out. She
answered that she would see about that.
The next morning the appointment
clerk sent for the head of the bureau.
A United States senator sat in the room.
He was red from excitement. He broke
out on the head of the bureau. The
woman who had been recommended for
dismissal was appointed at his request,
he said. If she did not want to work,
she nee Int. He wouldn't EEsave any lit
tie whippersnapper of a bureau chief
interfering with his affairs, and the bu-
reau chief found that the senator was
right. The woman staid in the depart
ment and did not work, but she drew
her salary regularly, and she came to
the department when she liked and not
oftener. 1t was a typical case. The &
partments were full of such people.
The government pays out 800, 000,-
900 a year in salaries. 1t is a pretty
serious question whether it gets the
value of its investment. The sum is big
enough to interest even the smallest
taxpayer. It is an average of about 81. %
for every man, woman and child in the
United States. That much of it is
wasted is proved by the fact that in the
youngest of the departments the secre-
tary of agriculture in the last four years
has cut down the pay roll 50, 900, 600,
or $500, 900 year. The secretary of war
has made q general reduction in the
list of his employees, and the wedding
process could be continued in other de-
partments to good effect YeG the govern
ment is more economically administered
today than it was under the old spoils
system. The government has mora clerks,
but it has more work for them, and it
gets more out of them than it ever did.
Right of Removal.
They are a funny lot, these govern
ment clerks. The civil service rules are
intended to protect them in Office, but
only in this way-that the head of a
department has no object in Diminishing
q man for political reasons unless he
can be sure of getting a personal or po-
litical friend in his place. Why should
the new secretary of the treasury throw
! out John Smith, Democrat, unless he
is sure that he will get a Repu blican
in John Smith 3 place? But it is as like
! ly as not that the civil service rules
will make him take Democrat to fill
| the vacancy. The clerks don't under
stand that this negative protection is
all that the law affords them. They be-
lieve they have vested rights in their
places. If the head of a department re-
moves an old time clerk or chief of a
bureau, there is a great uproar in the
ranks of the clerks. f'They haven't any
right to remove him. say the clerks,
greatly scandalized. "He's been in Office
| Is years.
When Colonel Ainsworth, who was so
much abused at the time the Ford s
theater building fell, killing some of
his clerks, first took hold of the record
and pension division of the war depart
ment the clerks all through the public
service were brought to the verge of
| riot by the fact that he notified one
half his force that it would have to do
night work. He wanted to expedite the
business of the pension Office, and Wien
a request for a soldiers record came
over from the commissioner of pensions
| he did not want it to lie unanswered
for week or more. By having the re-
quests sorted and arranged at night he
could get at the work of answering
them the next day. The system worked
to charm, but it made Colonel Aims
worth the most hated man in Washing
ton.
Not Many P1uins.
It is going to take good deal to con-
vince the people who are looking for
ward to March that about all the
offices in Washington above the grade
of laborer and below that of presidential
appointee are protected by the civil
service laws. You Will find skeptics all
over Washington who will tell you the
civil service rules are sham. They be-
lieve there is some way of evading the
rules and that the commissioners, to
gain favor with the administration and
hold their places, will wink at viola
ton of them. There were once loopholes
in the law. 1t takes time to perfect
anything. One of these loopholes was a
provision that clerks could be transfer
red from the excepted list, or the list
of those not subject to examination, to
the other lists of clerks. Under this rule
the head of department had only to
appoint clerk to the excepted list and