The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-10
i ,ol n.oPJNS|BLE
ov,l >ervice Commission
oayS He Alone Can Au-
thorIze Removals.
COLLECTORS POWERLESS
uNLY THE AGENTS OF THE SEC
.RETARY OF THE TREASURY.
A New Interpretation of the Law Said to Have
the Approval of Eminent Legal Authorities
Commssionersto File Comprehen-
, sEe Statement Attacking Mr..
Cages Position,
COLLECTORS POWERLESS
Cages Position.
Especial dispatch to Baltimore Sum-

over the deputy collectors of internal
revenue but in few days will present
to the Secretary of the Treasury and the
Attorney General a statement of their
views, which will be in direct conflict
with the position assumed by Secretary
Gage, regarding the power of removal
10y collectors of internal revenue, and will
also controvert the opinion prepared by
Assistant Attorney General Boyd SuS-
tanning the Secretary. Mr.. Boyd's
opinion has not yet been given out by
the Attorney General as the ruling of
the Department of Justice upon the
questions involved in the controversy,
and il is thought possible a recOnsidera-
ton Of the matter has been deemed pru-
dent, and that the opinion when finally
made public may be somewhat modi-
fed.
As the issue up to this time has been
between the Secretary of the Treasury
and the Civil Service Commissioners
the latter have not given expression to
any views in regard to the opinion pre-
pared by Assistant Attorney General
Boyd, but are dealing directly with the
general proposition advanced by the Sec
rotary of the Treasury that collectors
have both the power to appoint and to re
| move deputy collectors. The commits
sioners, it is understood, are prepared
to deny this absolutely, and they think
Secretary Gage has been led into error
by his failure to give the subject suffi-
Gent consideration.
A NEW VIEW OF THE LAW.
In the first place it is held that, not
withstanding the law of 1864 directing
nf hxy 4ho
| lectors, such appointments, unless au
| thorized by the Secretary, are not legal.
| The constitution gives the power of APP
pointing subordinate officials to the
courts, the President and the heads of
| departments. Congress cannot take
away or abridge this power, and any
law passed for that purpose is clearly
unconstitutional. 1t therefore follows, it
is claimed, that either deputy collectors
| of internal revenue are not officers of
| the United States, or else they secure
| their authority as such officers directly
| from the Secretary of the Treasury.
| The collector himself can give them no
| authority, except as the power may
| have been delegated to him by the Sec
| rectary, i'll whom the authority is vested.
| This being true, and the members of
| the Civil Service Commission have no
| doubt on the subject, it cannot follow
| that terms of deputy collectors expire
! with that of the collector any more than
| that the terms of clerks in the office
| of the Comptroller of the Currency or
| in any other bureau of the Treasury
| Department expire with the change i'll
| the heads of the different bureaus
AN UNTENABLE PROPOSITION.
Al. T.. IL.
secretary Of the Civil Service Commits
| sioners regarding the case of Collector
| Brady. he declares that as the appoint
| ing power is vested absolutely in the
| collectors, the terms of all subordinates
| he may appoint expire when he goes out
| of office This the Civil Service Com
| misSioners are prepared to show is an
untenable proposition, no matter what
| the Attorney General may think about
it, The truth is, they will probably ar
que, the collector of internal revenue
has no power to appoint except as an
agent acting for the Secretary of the
Treasury, and the terms of deputy col
lectors are, therefore, as indefinite as
those of clerks within the classified SER
vice. As a consequence it will prOba
bly, be shown the Secretary either makes
the removals himself, which he has a
right to do, or the collector makes them
not by virtue of any authority he him
self possesses, but because of permission
given him as an agent of the Secretary
VOUCHED FOR BY EMINENT
LAWYERS.
If this view of the law is correct. and
it has been vOuched for by some of the
leading lawyers of the country, Secre
tary Gage will not be able to hide behind
the suppositlous authority given collec-
tors by the law of 1864, but must him
self assume responsibility for the re-
mOvais made by all collectors of internal
revenue throughout the country. If he
does this the Civil Service Commissioners
can have nothing to say upon the sub
jact, but the issue viii then be between
the Secretary and the President, whose
order he will have violated.
As to the right of the President to
place deputy collectors within the CLASH
fed service there can be no question.
He had this right prior to the passage
of the civil service law, which merely
furnished the methods by which the
classification was to be made and the
machinery for its own enforcement. But
the power of the President was neither
extended nor abridged by the act of
Congress, nor could it have been affected
by any act which Congress might have
PASSED. Therefore, the classification OF
Jerks, the formulation of regulations
PREVENTING the removal and the establish
nent of a system of competitive exam
lations to determine the fitness of appli
ants for office was voluntary curtail
0ent of his prprogative and authority by
he President himself
THE PRESIDENTS ORDER.
The PRONUNCIATION of civil service. ru
vas an executive act and in iSSnne ~
ecent order prpsideu Mo- iu'el u
My accepted what had ben l,r
PREDECESSOR. hut rXtcn led -, nc
lis own reSmn / ilitr -