Evening star., 1899-04-08
CIVIL SERVICE LAW.
Mr.. Siddons Upon the Controllers
Recent Decision.
OPINIONS BY TEE COURTS CITED
Effect Of the Ruling Upon Appoint
ing Officials.
GENERALS VIEW

Mr.. Il. L. Siddons, secretary of the local
Civil Service Reform Association, bad this
to say to a Star reporter regarding the
recent decision of Controller Tracewell, in
which Mr.. Tracewell holds that he will not
question the validity of appointments made
in defiance of the civil service rules and
regulations:
The decision from a legal point of view
is extraordinary. The controller, in effect,
lays down the doctrine that the rules and
regulations of the civil service made by
the President under and by virtue of the
specific provisions of the civil service law,
and for the purpose of carrying it into eff
feet, have not themselves the force of law,
and an infraction of these rules in the mat
ter OF an appointment will not be a violation
of any law. but a disregard in the
method of his selection of rule etc. 1t
is not to be wondered that the controller
cites no authority for this contention of
his, for the whole current of respectable
Judicial opinion is opposed to him.
"A recent decision of the Supreme Court
OF the United States is in point. 1t went
up from the Court of Appeals of the Dis
trict of Columbia. and is known as 'Ex
psrte kolloch, 165 U. s., 526 ct seq In
this case criminal Indictment was attack
ed because it charged the defendant with
vsoiating a regulation made by the COM
missioner Of internal revenue under the au-
thority of what is called the oleomargarine
law, and thus violated the law itself The
court. IN Its opinion. says: The regulation
was IN execution Of or supplementary to,
but not In conflict with the law itself and
was specifically authorized thereby in eff
fectuation of the legislat ton which created
the offense' And the court sustained the
Indictment
Judge Cox of the District Supreme
Court, in deciding the Woods case, said:
There can be no doubt as to the power of
Congress or any other legislative body to
70 or,th H.
power to make rules and regulations within
certain limits. which, when made, will have
the force of law And in that case he held,
in effect, that rules promulgated in nur-
suance Of the civil service law had the
force of law, but those not authorized by
IL to be established were ultra wires and
void. Finally the Attorney General, in the
course of an opinion given August % 1909
said The civil service law January ie
1888. chapter 81 provides substantially that
the rules promulgated by the President for
carrying 1t into effect shall have the force
of law -'' w
The law provides that the civil service
commissioners shall aid the President in
Preparing rules for carrying the act into
eHect, and that no person shall enter or be
promoted in the classified service excent In
conformity with said rules. Now Controller
Iracewell tells US that he will not regard
appointments made in direct violation of
@ rnese rules, because in his opinion appoint
nents SO made are not violations of law.
lawyer capable of such distinctions had
oetter concern himself less with the purity
OF the stream of civil service reform and
more more with the task of arriving at accurate
legal Judgments "'e
assume that this deliverance of the
controller gives all the excuse needed for
general d1sregard of the civil service law.
and the best thing that can be done is for
the PRESIDENT to recommend its repeal to
the next session of Congress- 1t will not
De long thereafter that we shall learn
whether the voice of the politician is the
voice of the people, % 'Ae