Arizona republican., 1897-12-02
.SCALPER'S SCALPS
An Effort to Lift them at the
 Approaching Session
THE CIVIL SERVICE REFORM
Wish to Preserve the System
 by Removing It's Abuses

President Mckinley will Consent to
 no Attack Upon the System Itself.
 Common Sense Examinations
 One of tho Refor ms Suggested.
 Washington, Dec. Among the measures which will be vigorously pushed during the coming session will be the pending bill making illegal the sale of >scalping railroad tickets. Sen ator Cullom, who is in charge of the measure, is preparing an elaborate re- port on the subject and hopes that the bill will pass at an early date. The National Association of Mer- chants and Travellers, which has talk en up the fight, is also manifesting a keen interest in the bill. and has sent out during the past few months oyer 25,000 letters to all the various inter ests which it is believed should take concern in the movement. These }et>> ters have been addressed to members of congress, manufacturers, merchants and trades journals, all of whom are
 
 ing the bill to passage. In the letters to congress the association declares that scalping is an irregular business, fiourishing mostly by reason of for gerry and larceny. The ticket scalp CTS, however, are prepared to put up a strong fight against the. bill. A movement will also be made during the session to amend the interstate commerce law. Chairman Morrison has declared that the recent decis- almost every power except the right to subpoena witnesses, and many of the railroad people coincide in this. view. The big trunk lines of the country advocate the prevention of cut throat competition and the enforce ment of contracts to be permitted un- der proper national supervision. A bill has bean drafted by a commbttee of railroad and business men from Chicago who will be in Washington, next month to urge its passage.
 Representativ Grosvenor and some other members of congress will make an effort to secure the passage of law to modify the civil service rules. It can be put down as settled that no such bill will pass congress, and that if it does it will be vetoed by the president. MT. Mckinley will have something to say on this subject in his message, and it will be to the effect that he proposes to adhere strictly to the pledges of the party and his own personal pledges givsn during the campaign.
 Senator Pritchard, chairman of the committee on civil service, says the committee, which has taken a great deal of testimony on the subject of i the extensions of classifications by President Cleveland, will resume in vestigations about Dec. 12, taking up particularly the internal reysnae ser vice. It is likely that final relpoe will be made to the senate earlysn January. Belief is that this repA will recommend some important moGA i iications of the system.
 MT. Pritchard said today that some modification seemed to be necessary to save the system from becoming | weighted down. There are a great many people in the country, of course" he' said, "who declare that they want the whole system wiped out Conservative sentiment is, how ever, that the system should be pre- served, and that the bsst wey to inn prove it is to protect it from abuse. I have an idea that a good principle to adopt would be that scholastic examination is proper to determine the fitness of persons for clerical po- sitions, but that such tGst is not suitable in determining the fitness of man to fill a position where the du- ties are executive"
 Secretary Bliss has taken prompt action to avert possible invasion of the Wichita reservation In Oklahoma by whites, with the idea of forcing upon congress the opening of that country to white settlement. Repors $ have just reached the department that certain persons are declaring their intentipn to organize a large parry in the state of Kansas, or elsewhere, to invade the Wichita lands with the object stated. Instructions have been wired to all the agents and in- spectors in that section to make in- quiries and ascertain as far as pos sible the truth of the rumOrs and re- port the result here. The agents are called upon to exercise great vigilance to prevent any such invasion, end in case of necessity, where the Indian police force is inadequate, military assistance will be promptly furnished