The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-27

been so numerous that the rules have
almost lost their forte, and the al
legged law of necessity is regnal, and
want of uniformity exists in all the
business of the commission. and the
greatest uncertainty -evails- The
subordinates cannot do their work
with confidence, because all precedentSs
practices and principles are abandoned
and new ones substituted. No reliable
policy or line of action exists which
can be relied upon, and contradictory
action is frequent. The force of the
commission has lost confidence in the
ability of the management, and can
do no more than to maintain existing
conditions and await inevitable
changes. The action taken by the COM
mission lacks continuity. and the min
utes of one day contradict those of
another day. Action is taken, then
amended, then revoked. Under the re-
cent administration, four of the five
officers of the commission were
changed, bringing in new men who
lacked even the advantage of expert
ence in the departmental service, some
whose views were unfavorable to the
civil service laws and rules, with the
cries little less than hostile, and their
ineXperience and unfamiliarity proved
disastrous They adopted rules to
classify, in one lump, 10000 new offices,
and utterly failed to provide to meet
these needs. The present condition is
thoroughly alarming. Disaster can be
averted only by immediate remedial
action, and at least three changes in
the office should be made at once. not
Tor political reasons, but in the inter
ests of the service"
Mr.. Proctor asked if Mr.. Bailey had
not sent copies of this communication
to certain senators.
The witness replied that his wife was,
so far he l<navy only other
son who knew of its existence
About that time did your friends
not ask the president to appoint you
civil service commissioner"
All l know is that the papers said
Representative Walker of Worcester.
Mass, where L came from, had pre-
Ssnted my name to the president"
Mr.. Proctor of the commission then
took the stand, and at the outset
sought to show that the sweeping ex-
tension of the classification of May g.
1896, was not, as had been alleged. "a
leap in the dark" so far as being
equipped for the changed conditions
was concerned.
President Proctor made a statement
to the committee regarding the charges
that he and the commission had sought
TO lntlmidate Witness Bailey. He said
that when he had spoken to Mr.. Bailey
and told him that hitherto no one had
been subpoenaed by the chairman of
the committee except those who were
antagonistic to the committee, he had
in his possession a duplicate copy of
the communication to Mr.. Roosevelt
submitted today. 1t was furnished him
by a United States senator, and he did
not know its author until the first tes-
timony of Mr.. Bailey, when he sus-
pected him. He had known for some
time that the paper had been passed
among senators, and made the basis of
an attack on the civil service. He told
Mr.. Bailey that he supposed the latter
had been subpoenaed at the instance of
some senator who had seen the paper,
and that after the complaints were all
in he would ask the committee to sum-
mon people who had long experience in
important positions in relation to the
operation of the civil service. He had
stated that he wished anyone having a
knowledge of wrong doing in the COM
mission would state all the facts, but
there was a line to be drawn between
that and a subordinate criticizing the
administration of the commission and
the president and making suggestions. /