The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-12
CLEvELAND,s EXTENSION ORDERS.

With the incoming OF this Republican
administration, with its accompant-
ment of a rush Of hungry and clamor-
Gus officeSeekers, there came a fierce
denunciation of the extensions Of the
classified lists by the executive or
ders Of the prior administration. The
final order of May. 1896, was especial
~ attacked. Mr.. Cleveland had wait
ed, it was said, until near the close
of his administration and until Demo-
Gratis had been snugly ensconced in
the places which, UP to that time, had
been without the classified lists, to
issue sweeping order that brought
them within the snug harbor Of fed
eral salaries and permanent tenure.
So persistent was this that even Re-
publican papers, that stand staunch-
Iy by the cause Of the reform, were
imposed upon and have lent their In
f1uence to the demand Of the spoilsmen
for the revocation of that order
1t Is we'll to examine into the allega-
ton to see if it is well founded. I'm
der the executive order revising the
civil service rules, issued May 6, 1896,
there were brought within the rules
S1,372 places. But of these there were
1903 places in the navy department,
in the navy yards for the most part,
which had been virtually included by
the action of Secretary Tracy in 1880,
by his order preventing removals for
partisan reasons and requiring ap-
pointments to be made after investi-
cation directed towards competency.
There were also 5,536 places in the
life saving, marine hospital, revenue
cutter service and other treasury
bureaus that have been for years, I'M
der both party administrations, within
the spirit Of the rules. This leaves
20,773 previously at the disposal Of the
spoilsmen, but taken from them by
that order. This is nearly the number
withdrawn either by President Harri-
sons orders of extension, Secretary
Tracy's rules for the navy department,
and the railway mail service employees
brought IN by Harrison's suspension Of
Cleveland's order of December. 1888,
numbering 1903.
Again it is an erroneous impression
that Mr.. Cleveland, in his two terms,
made extensions that exceeded in the
number of employees included those
brought within the lists by Arthur and
Harrison. Making the transfers to
Harrison's term Of the railway mail
service and navy yard employees, and
leaving to Cleveland the number en-
gagged in the field service Of the war
department, previously practically
within the lists, we have 32,9S7 places
brought within the rules by executive
order or departmental action under Re
publican administrations, and 1882
under the two terms Of Mr.. Cleveland.
This is Independent Of the natural in
crease of the number classified by
virtue Of admissions after eXamina-
ton to fill vacancies and places new
ly created under acts Of congress, the
number of which is 1872. making the
total number 1854. Nor is it true
that the last order Of Mr.. Cleveland
covered with its protection Democrats
only. OF the 2,709 employees Of the
government printing Office included,
1878 had been appointed by Mr.. Pal
mer Mr.. Harrison's appointee, one Of
the rankest Of the spoilsmen, and S42
had been appointed by Mr.. Benedict,
his successor. Assuming that each
selected men Of his own party, the
order Of May, 1896, included two Re
publicans to one Democrat. In these
days Of Republican anti-civil service
leagues and Gallinger- Grosvenor at
tacks, mildly encouraged by papers
that pretend to sustain the reform, it
is we'll to have the facts on which to
form judgment instead Of the exag-
gerated assertions Of the ravenous but
baff1ed hunters for spoils.