The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-30
IT VIOLATES The LAW
Civil Service Commission on
Ohio Assessments.
WITHIN THE PROHIBITION
Republican Methods Condemned by Ex
Senator Edmunds - The Legal
- Phases of the Matter Are
Reversed

Washington. Oct. ga long official
statement reviewing the legal phases
of the political assessment question
and holding that the soliciting of cam
paign funds by letter comes clearly
within the remedial provisions of tha
civil service law, was made public by
the civil service commission to-day
The commission made the statement
because of circulars sent out by w.
f. Burdell, as the secretary of the
financial committee of the Ohio repub-
ittng contributions from federal en-
ployes. The commission says that tha
Ohio circulars bring up clearly the
question SO long awaiting judicial de-
termination as to whether soliciting OF
contributions for political purposes by
means of letters addressed to federal
officers or employees at their Offices
constitutes an offense under the 18th
section of the civil service act The
commissions ruling, or brief, now
made public was submitted by Presi-
dent Proctor of the commission to ex-
Senator George F. Edmunds of YER
mont, who was chairman of the SEN
ate judiciary commission at the time
the civil service act was passed. The
latter in his opinion, to which the
commission gives particular signifi-
canoe. says:
Il entirely agree with the conclusions
stated in the brief. 7 think it is clear
that the solicitation of such political
aids by means OF the postcffice ia
distinctly within the prohibition OF
section XII. of the act to which you
refer. The language of the section is:
That no person shall, in any room or
building etc, solicit in any manner
nt hn
son being in room or building shalt
solicit, but it is that no solicitation
shall be made in any such place, no
matter where the person, making the
solicitation may be. If, for instance,
a person on the street outside the
treasury department should send
written offer to some person employed
within the building to pay price for
robbing the vaults or committing
other wrong. it would be clear that his
offense was committed within the
building, for the writing OF the offer
would be entirely incomplete until de-
livered to the person to whom it was
addressed. l think 1t impossible.
therefore. to- maintain that such acts
as you refer to are not within both
the letter and the spirit of the act OF
congress-
After quoting this letter, the COM
mission reviews at length legal dictions
opposite to the question under con-
sideration and says that from the con-
clusion is unavoidable that. '"The writ
ing or sending through the United
States mails Of letter addressed to
an officer or employe of the govern
ment at his office, asking for con-
tribution Of money for any political
purpose constitutes solicitation of
money for that purpose" and that
since such solicitation has its full eff
feet only upon the delivery of such
letter to the addressee, which deliv-
cry occurs within a government build
ing, and hence comes within the mean
ing Of the express terms of the stat
ute VI
Continuing, the commission says:
THE intention of congress as ex-
pressed in the 18th section of the civil
service act was to protect federal en-
ployes in the discharge of their Off
cial duties from political assessments
by any one. The mischief to be sup
pressed was the official and quasi-offi-
cial solicitation Of clerks for political
purposes, or, when officers, used their
stations to intimidate subordinates,
quasi official, when outsiders made use
of federal buildings for purposes de-
moralizing both to the efficiency and
discipline Of the service. The statute
does not deal with the mode of solic-
iting, but the fact itself and 1t would
have been most unusual if congress
had undertaken to specify the differ
ent forms of soliciting. 1t is not suf-
fioient for the party manager to keep
from troubling in order to avoid the
legal penalties, while at the same
time he commits all the harm which
congress intended to prevent The
evil has been aggravated by the large
number of circulars sent to em3loyes
of the government through the mill
tary agency being a very convenient
one. That these very circulars were
definitely in the mind of congress as
a main source of evil here sought 20
be remedied, is clearly inferrable from
the fact that numbers of such circu-
lars were actually presented and read
and the fact Of their being sent
through the mails to persons in the
government employ clearly alluded to
during the debates from the senate
prior to the passing of the BILL