The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-05-10
THE CIVIL SERVICE.
The Senators Resume Their Work of In
vestigation.

Washington, May S.-The committee on
civil service of the Senate today resumed
| the investigation of the operation of the
| law which was undertaken some time ago.
Senators Pritchard of North Carolina and
| Chiffon of Texas and President Proctor
and Mr.. George R. Wales of the civil SER
vice commission conducted the proceed
| ings. Several letters from government
officials giving their opinions of the law
were read.
| The first witness was Thomas Robin
| son, who had been appointed in 1878
| through o competitive examination to a
$1,000 position in the second comptrol-
ler's office of the treasury. He had risen
to $1,000 clerkship, and in August, 1898,
had been discharged without charges.
The reason, he asserted, was because he
had printed only Republican newspapers
in Georgia during Grants second cam
paign. Comptroller Durham informed
him that the governor of Georgia, one
senator and other officials had demanded
his discharge for that reason in the first
| Cleveland administration. Secretary
Carlisle told him that he was dismissed
for the good of the service.
William f. Hill, former assistant SUI
perintendent of the free mail delivery,
charged that there had been collision
between the post office department. and
the civil service commission to violate
the law by the employment in 1894 and
1895 of 80 spies, whose employment was
not authorized by law. Two of the in
spectors, termed spies, Mr.. Hill asserted,
were brothers of Mr.. Machen, superin-
tendent of the free delivery service One
of Mr.. Machen's brothers had been under
charges of embezzlement in Toledo, O.,
when appointed, and another of the ap-
pointees had been dismissed from the
Washington post office for embezzling
funds of the Letter Carriers Association
First Assistant Postmaster General
Jones had refrained from assuming the
authority of signing the appointments
of the inspectors and had delegated the
duty to his private secretary, Mr.. Lamar.
In the campaign of 1894 six of the in
spectors, Mr.. Hill asserted, had been de-
tailed to influence the votes of letter car
riers in the Fourteenth Congressional
district of New York. Mr.. Hill testified
that in Philadelphia the Cleveland adj
ministration had managed to get rid of
many Republicans and old soldiers on
the letter carriers. force in October,
1894, by evading the law.
The inspectors had been assessed for
the expenses of the Ohio campaign in
1895. 70 make arrangements for the
assessment they had been massed in
Chicago at a meeting of them held on
October 81, which had been addressed by
Mr.. Machen, superintendent of the free
delivery who had gone from Washington
for that purpose. That they might bet
ter bear the assessment, the salaries of
the inspectors had been raised from 81
to IS a, day in July, 1895. The witness
read letter from one of the inspectors
to Mr.. Machen.
An affidavit was read from an employee
of the post office department that Mr.
Machen had withheld money from the
salaries of ''spies" for political purposes
In dismissing Mr.. Hill from the post
office department., Assistant Postmaster
General Jones had told him that he
would pursue him and secure his dis
missal from the department of justice as
assistant commissioner of claims, which
he did.
| In the course of discrimination by
Mr. Proctor of the civil service commits
sion, it was developed that the commits
sion had made a report on the matter of
political assessments recommending to
| the attorney general, Mr.. Olney, prosecu-
| ton of the officials implicated.
The committee adjourned for one week.