The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-07-19
Pushing It Too Far.


fl his entertaining correspondence
from New York in the Philadelphia
Press, Holland" represents some of
the best friends Of civil service reform
in that city as having privately ad-
mitted that the extremists who are
at the head of the Civil Service Reform
league and who have lately been nag
cling like maniacs at the president be-
cause of his recent executive order
making necessary exceptions and eX-
emptions in the federal civil service
have done moro in the past four or five
years to create reactonary feeling
against this reform than could have
been accomplished in twice the time
by all the professional politicians in
the country. He adds:
This morning we have received an
object lesson through the experience
oc a postmaster no. far from New
York, this postmaster having been him.
self one of the most conspicuous of
civil service reformers and a member
of his state civil service board. A
that some one in the office was a thief.
A watch was set, and on Friday af-
ternoon, the thief was caught, with the
stolen money on his person. 1t so hap
pened that this employe had been un-
satisfactory to the postmaste" for a
long time. He tried to discharge him
last winter, and found himself blocked
by the civil service law. That effort
to discharge this employe is on record
and the postmaster points to it in
vindication of his judgment and be-
lieves that it removes the reproach
which otherwise would be upon him
for this scandal
THAT is not the only thought that he
has in connection with this experience
In a letter received from him this
morning he says: 1t has gotten TO be
fact that YOU can't remove an en-
ploye now unless you convict him of a
crime or prove something very serious
against him. The civil service system
is now carried with altogether too high
a hand by the Federal commission, and
want to say to you what is an open
secret that the departments are all
afraid Of it. find men who are ardent
civil service reformers, who are getting
a little cool toward Il civil service that
tends toward making life tenures in
public positions. When examinations
have provided fit men for appointment
/ don't believe in making it impossible
70 weed out those who, after practical
trial, are found unfit by disposition or
| intellect or character for their places.
THE first officer of this government
to adopt civil service was General
| James. when postmaster in this city
| He did that some years before the ma
| tional civil service law was passed. He
| says that there has been and can be
no improvement on the civil service
| system that Dorman b. Eaton favored
and George William Curtis supported
| and that system gave to the responsible
| heads of departments, or to officers like
| pCstmastcrs, the power of absolute re-
| moval, power that Curtis himself said
could not be seriously misused If the
| power of appointment depended upor
| the faithful observance of civi! servicC
| qualifications, namely, merit and fit
ness, and General James is not the only
one of true civil service reformer.
here who fear that the excessive yea
and the arbitrary methods displayed
by civil service leagues and commits
sions may i'm the end do harm 10 th'
system by causing a reaction from th'
popular support that true civil servic,
now has"
1t cannot be denied by any fair
minded man, however much of spoils
man he may be- that the gross abuses
which characterized the so-called spoil
system under which public employment
was often held by the man with in
huence as a commodity in trade, sub
ject to brokerage charges, rebates an
all kinds Of political jobbery, opene
the door TO just complaint. The inten
behind honest advocates of civil ser
vice reform-namely, to raise tn
morals of the public service, secur
J higher character and efficiency and re