The age-herald., 1899-06-09
THE PRESIDENT REGRETS HIS ORDERS Civil SarViCe Ruling Will Not Go Un-
 challenged. HE WILL SHIFT THE BLAN E Did Not Consult Commission But De-
 Pended on Politicians. ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN Now in Employ of Government Secured Their Positions Through Compet-
 tive Examinations White
 House Being Renovated
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN

iaant,s civil service order will not be al-
 lowed to 20 unchalIenged, and if congress
 does not take action the order Will De
 carried to the courts. The ablest lawyers
 in the house, who are not mere spells nun ters hold the opinion that the order re- gently issued by the president is illegal and can not stand test before the supreme court They claim, and this claim has never been denied in the past, that once positions which do not require the sane ton of the senate to fill, are put under
 the civil service regulations they can not
 an act of congress.
 The law establishing the civil service
 regulations gives to the president the dis cretionary power to extend the law from time to time, but makes no provision about a president at a subsequent
 time abrogating any part of the law. In
 other words, the law does not become
 operative until a president carries the law
 Into execution. The law only becomes a
 law when it's provisions are carried out.
 In the opinion of Mr. Moody, of Massach-
 usetts, and Johnson, of Indiana, the presi-
 dent has broken the law when he exempted one position from it's protection that had been placed under it.
 I understand that the president greatly
 regrets the extent his ruling or order has
 gone and was misled by those who assisted
 him to frame it. It will be very lucky for him if he can get out of the dilemma by at- taching the blame to some one else.
 Some of his cabinet pretend to be aston
 ished at the extent of the order and claim
 that the president himself was ignorant
 as to how far it went He did not consult
 the Civil Service commission and depended
 upon the politicians about him to keep the
 order within bounds.
 While the president at first claimed that
 the order only exempted some three or
 four thousand places, he has now become convinced of the truth of the claim that it exempts over nine thousand and lets down the bars through removals and pro- motions to thousands more. Criticism is pouring in upon him from quarters that he had expected support, and such repub-
 lican journals as the Chicago Tribune, and
 such men as Moody denounce the order as
 a breach of good faith The whole order
 is triumph of the politicians, more com- r plete than could have been expected. TThe
 plete than could have been expected. The
 to get but few exemptions, is now found to have the bulk of them
 Over thirty-ive hundred places alone in
 lne engineering department are removed from the protection of the law. Every
 civilian on river and harbor work is ex- cepted, and under the order can be re- moved without cause. Every bit of work on improvements now going on in rivers on locks and dams, in harbors, and navy yards is classified as work "in the field" With this exemption it will not take long for congress to have men fitted for such work removed and political henchmen put
 in their places.
 Examinations Necessary What is true of the engineer corps is likewise true of the ordinance department The civil service regulations were extended to these departments among the first for the reason that examinations were found to be necessary in order to get we'll equipped men for this class of work There are no departments where the order will | hit harder. One of the assistant chief en- gineers here told me that the people com plain at the slowness of river work now but with political appointments only they would think the work at the present time and in the past, most rapid. The whole idea and work of the engineer corps for
 years has been to get river and harbor improvements taken out of politics Just as they were successful the president over turns the entire system and makes each
 river in the country a political sewer. More than this, the appointing power is lakeH out or the nanuS or the engineers and of the men responsible for the work and given to the secretary of war Just what the secretary knows about time keepers and assistant dam tenders on re-
 mote rivers which he never saw is not found in the order, which reads in this con- nection:
 That appointments to these positions
 shall be made on registration tests of ft- ness prescribed in regulations to be issued by the secretary of war"
 One of the chiefs of ordinance illustrated the effect in his department by saying that the hands of the clocks in his department 1 had been turned back fifty years by the
 order. Not only are foremen, weighers
 and skilled laborers employed in the ordi- nance factories exempted, but every labor CT employed on piece work
 The presumption that the law will not
 be carried out as rewritten by Mckinley in every way possible is not to be imagined The men who got him to issue the order stand ready to put political buns into ev- cry place now occupied by skilled laborers if the latter do not happen to be active in politics.
 There are 10000 men in round numbers to- day employed in the government service
 who secured their places through examina-
 ton and fitness who in six months will be looking for work. The men who will be appointed to their places will have. or need
 not have, anything more than paltry pull with the nearest barkeeper or ward heeler The legality of the presidents action is l based on the order issued by President Harrison when he removed the postal rail- way clerks in order to get republicans ap- pointed in the places held by democrats
 The cases are not analogous by any means and President Harrison was clearly within the law. President Cleveland had issued
 an order putting the railway mail clerks
 under the civil service regulations, but this order was not to become effective until the following July. Mir. Harrison came into of fee in March, and before the order of his predecessor became operative he abrogated 1t. as he had the right to do from legal standpoint.
 White House Being Renovated The White HOuSe Is heinz renovated and