The evening times., 1899-07-14
FRIDAY, JULY Il, 1899.
prewer Must Go.

Civil Service Commissioner Brewers at
tempt to justify his obnoxious conduct in
the GalIinger case at Concord only en-
phasizes the demand which Senator Chand-
Ter is going to make upon the President
for his removal In a statement prepared
for publication, Commissioner Brewer
says:
Senator Chandler knows nothing about my
relations with the President, and no more about
The Civil Service Commission than does the man
in The moon. j am not filling this position NJ
my own request, or through my own seeking,
hut simply and solely because William Nc
klulpy sent for me and urged me to take II.
II President Mckinley should decide TO take
the a6vice OF Senator Chandler and Governor
BH>rl. and ask me for the chair j have occu-
pied tor the past eighteen months, il would he
almost pleasant to me as to Senator Chand-
Ter.
Commissioner Brewer is a quite re-
markable person indeed. He does not hesi-
tate TO show his contempt for laws he is
solemnly sworn to enforce or his opposi-
tion to the principle upon which those
laws are based. We have no idea what
are the relations" between him and the
President, but, whatever they may be, il
is certain he depends wholly upon them to
protect him from the proper punishment
SO justly merited by his lack of even a
pretence of respect for the dignity of his
Office and its grave responsibilities. We
are inclined TO believe, however. that the
remarkable Mr. Brewer belongs 10 the
AIger type of men and politicians-those
who might possibly dare to threaten their
chief with the exposure of his responsi-
bility for their conduct should he show
any disposition to remove them from Of
fee for cause. And We greatly prefer 10
believe that all such persons are slander-
Gus than that their relations" with the
President OF the United States are such
as to tie his hands in the presence of in
solent violation of law
Aside from the insult which his insinua-
tion and veiled threat offer Mr.. McKin-
ley, the President should act with yigor
in the case CT Brewer, because the tenor
Of his remarks shows plainly that he is
opposed to the test of fitness being applied
10 employees in the civil as in the military
service. 1t is well established by the history
CT the administration of laws that those
entrusted with this duty can very easily
modify to their liking, if they do not Who'll
ly annul by actual non-enforcement, such
statutory enactments as do not meet their
views or suit their purposes. Mr.. McKin-
ley is a professed civil service reformer.
The platform on which he was elected
pledges him and his party to rigidly up
hold the spirit and the letter of the civil
service rules. He cannot keep this pledge
through the instrumentality Of such an
agent as Brewer.
The spirit of Commissioner Brewers
explanation is a more shameful and inso-
lent defiance of the Civil Service law than
even the Objectionable conduct which
made necessary the explanation. Mr.
Mckinley can no more afford TO ignore the
affair than Senator Chandler can afford tc
refuse to vigorously press his charges
against Brewer upon the Presidents at.
tention. The Civil Service Commission
ought to be purged of Brewer in all posi-
bic haste, and the President is the only
one who can do the purging.