The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-04-30
A POINTER FOR PRINTERS
How II Is Proposed to Upset the
Civil Service.
STREAMING A POINT OF LAW
Several Heads of Departments Are
Eager and Anxious to Find a Way
and appointment of Republicans.
Attorney Generals Aid Asked.

The Senate Committee on Civil Service
Adminlstra Jion met today AMI continued its
search for holes into which TO stick Repub-
licans The committee has so far heard
two Cabinet officers, and both of these,
while damning the civil service by faint
praise, pointed out some respects in which
il was positively bad In the respects in
which Mr.. Gage and Mr. Wilson said the
law was too stringent, both OF them Sho W ed
that il those respects did not exist they
could make more and better appointments.
Mr. Gage would like to have deputy in
ternal revenue collectors taken from under
the operation of the la w, which would give
him the appointment ola small army. Mr.
Wilson. OF the Agricultural Department.
did not wantquitc SO much or SO many, but
his suggestions were in the line OF inCIeas>
ing his available list of personal APP
pointees.
1t is said that the committee would try
and have before il the new Public Printer
and further that MIR. Paine is not unwilling
to appear. 1t is also not unlikely that the
Attorney General will be asked to give
his views.
The Attorney General has been appealed
to by the Public Printer already on the
point as 10 whether the applicable OF
the civil service law to the Government
Printing Office viii hold. While the re-
quest 80 the Attorney General is credited
personally TO the Public Printer, the re-
port goes that the request is really madeon
behalf OF members of both houses OF Con-
gress. There has been, and still is, "a ter
ribly embarrassing congestion of seekers
after place in Washington, and one ease
ment is looked To at the great printery.
Those who are engineering civil service
outof the Government Printing office rely
on an apparent conflict of two acts of
Congress. The general law was passed IN
1883, and it is under this law that the
current method Of appointments, after for
mai eXamina tons, prevails. The spOilsmen
have taken comfort out of an act passed i'll
1895, which declares that it shall be the
duty Of the Public Printer to employ
wOrkmen who are thoroughly skilled in
their respective branches OF industry, as
shown by trial OF their skill under his di-
rection. The claim is set up that this lat
ter act, or part OF an act, actually nullifies
the civil service law as applied to the Gov
eminent Printing Office, and that Public
Printer Benedict was pOwerlesS 10 put his
men under the civil service raIes, because
he acted after the passage of the act OF
1895.
Ii was stated by very good awyer last
night that it nowhere appears in the law
of lS95 that it was its intention to super
sede the original civil service law, and
that it could only be by the most strained
construction that such an illogical Con
ClusiOn could be reached. The laws in
fact do not contradict or stand in the way
Of each other, for the obvious meaning
of the act OF 1895 is that ne Public Printer
shall employ woTkmen, after trialof skill,
in the various branches of industry under
his direction. and not that he shall EN-
pluy them on trial Of skill under his
direction. And even If this latter cln-
stTuCton was put on the act Of 1895 il
shows clearly that far from repeating the
law OF 1888, it is with it in letter and
SpiTit-that is, that the eXaminatio shall
be the prerequisite showing { hat the civil
service was in the minds OF the Trainers |
Of the law.
Should the Public Printer, however, be |
backed up 10y the Attorney General on |
his flimsy tcchnicality, it will not take |