The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-03-10
THROWN ON M'KINLEY.
He Must Take All Responsibility Re
garding Civil Service Rules.

gard1ng Civil Service Rules.
Washington, March Ex-senator
Pritchard, chairman of the committee
on civil service has presented the report
or that committee on the recent invest
1gation of the classified service en-
bodying the conclusions of the commit
tee. These conclusions are divided IN
der two heads as follows:
First, that the executive has the DOW
er to make such notifications as may
be found advisable and therefore no
legislation is needed.
Secondly, the committee is agreed that
the classification has been too extern
sive and that certain places which have
been CLASSIFIED should be excluded from
classification so that appointments may
be made to them at the pleasure of the
head of the department or the bureau,
and not through examination.
The committee therefore is of the
opinion that the president should make
certain notifications ain the existing
civil service rules and should restore to
the heads of departments and the heads
OF bureaus the appointment of certain
classes of officials.
The committee however recognizes
that its province in this is purely adj
visory, since it has no legislation to
propose
Among the Offices which the commit
tee recommended should be excluded
from the classified service are the fol-
lowing:
Deputy commissioner and deputy col
IectOrS of internal revenue agents, who
ternal revenue; temporary stOrekeepers
and gaugers; certain lighthouse en-
ployes, shipping commissioner at the
various ports, inspectors of hulls and
boilers, all positions in the custodian
service; assistant attorneys and special
agents in the department of justice and
deputy United States marshals.
1t is recommended that a number of
employees in the interior department,
including the chief clerk of the depart
ment and the chief clerk of the various
bureaus, special agents and law exami-
ners be exempted
The exemption recommended in this
department is quite extended and in
cludes generally the positions of indi-
vidual responsibility, the temporary
places and the places of minor RESPONSE
bility. 1t is also recommended that pri-
vate secretaries be in all cases exempt
ed.
to the chief clerk in all departments,
also as to postoffice inspectors and spec
ial agents of the agricultural depart
ment "A competitive departmental ex-
animation for technical positions at ma
Wy yards is recommended.
The committee express the opinion
that the classification of the govern
ment printing office was not authorized
by law, but then if it was many places
in that office were included which
should not have been. They think that
if the office is to remain in the claSsi-
fed service the appointments should be
appOrtioned among the various states.
These positions, they say, do not in any
way interfere with the principle OF reg
ulating the appointments to the CLASH
fed service, but merely take from the
classified lists those persons whose re-
lations to their chiefs are either of a
fiduciary or of an executive nature, the
principle being that where an official
has to impose peculiar confidence either
in the honesty or the executive, ability
of an officer, the selection of that officer
should be with the person who is direct
ly responsible for his acts.
The recent order of the president in
regard to removals seems to have been
interpreted more narrowly than in the
opinion of the committee, the order JUS
titles. They say that while the power
of appointment to the civil service may
well be regulated so as to open the ser
vice impartially to all the people of the
United States under suitable restric-
tions the power of removal should be
very broad. Where a clerk is deemed
by his immediate superior to be ineffi-
cient it is clearly in the line of public
policy that that clerk should be dis
charged, and there should be no imped-
iments placed in the way of such a dis
charge except such as may be neceS-
sary to secure justice to the person re-
moved"
The committee further recommends
that the president be requested to
change existing regulations, so that
when a vacancy occurs, and under the
rule three names are certified as eligi-
BILE for such vacanacy, the three names
shall be forwarded to the local officer
in charge of the office where such va
cancy exists, and such local officer shall
designate the person to be selected for
such vacancy, subject to approval by
the head of the department having jur-
isdictiOn of such office.
Senators Chiffon and Kenney also
submitted a brief report saying that
while they agree that no legislation is
desirable, they consider it inadvisable
to make any suggestions to the presi-
dent.
Senator Lodge presented his views in
a separate report, which, while it agrees
in the main with the report submitted
by Senator Pritchard, does not present
so long a list of persons whom he would
have exempted from the operations of