Evening star., 1898-08-19


ciancy ratings" disclosing the alleged
fact that / am the lowest in efficiency of
the clerks of my class. To my personal
knowledge, no work reports were ever
kept which applied to my duties. AS to the
ef1iciency ratings" it is notorious that
there never were any for the class to which
L belong until they We're made by your
selves within a few weeks last past with a
view to the very action which you have
now taken. You commenced preparat ton
for this action by dshaading the promo
ton board required by the rules, and desig
mating yourselves as such board You thus
created All anomalous situation which has
not its counterpart in the entire civil SER
vice of the United States. In this way you
have made yourselves masters of the Sit
uation.
AS part of the preparation for this ac-
ton you degraded me from an executive
position to an ordinary clerical position,
which, under a very peculiar efficiency
scheme adopted by yourselves, dropped my
rating on character of work performed"
from a very high grade to a very low
grade Thus by a mere change of des1gna-
ton you robbed me of the grade to which
the clerks of class four are entitled and
forced me into a position where you might
with apparent fairness {but it is only ap-
parent give me a rating below all others
of my CLASS. Furthermore in this action
you ignored the Presidents rule which en-
titled me to a notice of your intended ac-
ticn and the opportunity of a defense.
Worst Of all, you called on the chief of the
division to which you had assigned me and
where l have worked faithfully for the past
six months for a report of my efficiency,
and when that report was made you re-
dUced, or caused to be reduced, the grade
which he gave me for quantity and quail
ity of work in order that you might pup
lish to the world that l was the lowest IN
efficiency of the clerks of my class. You
probably did not take the trouble to aScer-
tain, as you might have from the records,
that in the past six months / have made
an aggregate of over fourteen hours or
two full days over time, and that on. the
only work on which comparison or guam,
t.ty and quality could fairly be maze !
did more than any one else engaged on tne
work You discredited the whole merit
system by manipulating my grade 10 ac-
ccmplish your purposes. You, gentienel
who are for the time being at the nead ol
the civil service reform movement WHIT. ~
proposes to guarantee a merit system ~
appointments and promotions IN the puoii9
service used your high and responsible po-
sitions to punish me, an humble ana hellr
less subordinate. If / were the ohiy SUI
fcrer from such methods it would perhaps
be better for me to suffer in silence InaI
to incur your increasingly bitter nosiiNty,
hut in the interest of fairness ana justice
feel it to be my duty to enter my soleiiii
and earnest protest. thihk you inaoe a. ;nl @
grave mistake when you undertook 10 m
timidate me and prevent me from giving
honest testimony before the SENATE ia*es
t;cating committee; l think you mace an
other mistake when you attempted 10 iu
initiate me in the office by depriving me OF
a position which l held long before any ot
YOU were honored with the positIoh VI
civil service commissioner; l thlnk yoa
committed a great wrong When you re-
duced my efficiency rating; 1 think you
made another very great mistake IN az
tempting to still further Illuminate ana Ill, e
barrass me by publishing TO Ihe W. ~ ~.
through the newspapers tnat L was e
lowest in rank of my class; and you nav
still further wronged me in deprlVlhg ING
of 500 a year to which 1 am as much en-
titled as you are to the salaries winch ~ ~
draw You have now found preteAs loi
completing the job by discharglng me iroiii
the service. .
Your course in the past does not warrant
me in hoping that anything Whlcn l .; Gal
saw will prevent you from consumihatiiS
your designs. You have brought the clVh
service reform into great disrepute anu en-
dangered it's very existence Dy the duoP'ioh
of methods utterly at variance Win tne
Fundamental principles underlying the SyS-
tenn You have furnished the enemies ol
the cause with ample facts on Whlch 10
charge insincerity and incompetence anu
Won have deprived the friends of the cause
of their best weapons of defense Much as
| have personally at stake, my anxiety tor
the cause is greater than my concern Iof
nv own status / can III aNord 10 rose eie
nosition and Salary upon which, as poor
man | am entirely dependent, and nave
done all which my self-respect wouid per
nit me to do to avert this disaster; put my
manhood and integrity are more 10 Nle
than salary and if | have succeeded In pre-
serving these l shall not feel that an Is
lost With others l have shared the nope
that a merit system might be established
which would minimize the favorltlsns ana
INEQUALITIES of official life, and / shall sun
hope for progress in that direction; but my
hopes have received many violent shocks
in the past two years and my own personal
experience is not reassuring.
| have already protested Vigorously put
wholly unavaiingly, against your past IN
irstice and l now enter my solemn ana
earnest protest against your proposed ac-
ton in dscharging me for no other fauit
than the utterance of few words OF self
defense when publicly DETAINED by you.
Your action if taken, will be wholly inde-
fensibIe and unwarranted. Yours respect
fully, L. u. bA1LEf.
NothiNE to Say.
The commission today being informed
that The Star would this afternoon publish
it's correspondence with Mr.. Bailey, to-
gethei with the latters reply, declined to
make any statement in regard to the mat
ter, saying it had rot yet considered Mr.
Bailey's letter, and that it would not
take the matter up until tomorrow, when
Commissioner Brewer would be present.
The commission referred to the report
of the Senate committee on civil service
and retrenchment, in regard to MIR. Bailey
testimony last winter, which was concurred
in by Senators Lodge, Wolcott, Harris,
Chiffon and Kenney and is as follows:
Much of this testimony is trifiing, re-
iates only to individual grievances ana
throws no light upon the general work OF
the civil service. A smaller portion is OF
real value and deserves to be read in Its
entirety by all who interested in the
civil service of the government, and VINO
desire to understand the present system OF
selection and appointment, as Wen as the
work of the commission, which has been
Nd yrb