The Portland daily press., 1899-07-17
T*G CIVIL SERVICE.
Secretary Gage replies % H,s
Critics.

New York, July I5.-Secretnry OF thu
Treasury Gage has written Ietssr In re
ply 70 published letter addressed to him
py the secretary OF tho National Civil
service Reform league. Secretary Gage 4
reply, which Is addressed to the league
Will appearsin the coming issue of the In.
dependent. The Secretary OF the Trea.s-
ury says; II shall consider only few OF
the allegations, and II these are shown to
Go not founded In truth l shall leave the
public to judge OF the reliability of his
state'nents as TO the rest. He says: Fol
lowing the incoming Of the new adminis-
ttation, however, there were sweeping
cnsnEes IN the force OF agents and clerks
many districts. The new appointmsnfs
We're made In open disregard of the civil
ical reasons
This Statement is misleading, and
thsre1ore untrue. Not clerk, not an
agent 10 the services OF the intsrnnl revo.
nue. bureau has been removed fer political
reasons. 1t may he doubted, however, II
your secrstary Intended to refer 10 clerks
anu agents In the language no used. He
speaks or rents sand clerks known COM
monty as deputy collectors There are
no such clerks and agents"
Secretary Gage says that II the remarks
OF the secretary OF the league were intend
ed 20 apply TO deputy collectors of inter-
nal revenue he knew when writing ttat
TIL re had Teen n contention as to the le.
gal rights OF collectors TO appoint their
deputies
With all the assertions Of right and
power made by the coIleo.rrs to appoint
tieie own deputies, a aim which has
been pnt In practice in ceeSain cases, it
tin II mains true that the roStEeining In
huence Of the treasury dapartment h as
been such that out Of q total of 0i3 such
applicants, S5J deputy COLLECTORS were ap-
pointed and, on My 29h last, hsld their
positions, nnder the provisions OF the civil
service rules, which he, (tBe secretary OF
the league) charges the treasury depart
ment with entirely 'disreg riding Ihe
I'll not thus ACCOUNTED for incicds thosa
temporary appointments r1nde with this
consent or ths civil sersi5e commission
In cases where they weYs unable to fur
ni5h sllgiblss. Tns renaintsr may be
snld % be those appointments which are
alleged 60 have bssn made Ia c1ntrayen
ton OF the civil sersica law. But they
were inads In view OF s5rtion 3.fAS. re-
vised statutes, an authority ingoked by
coileo.crs Tor their independent action In
the premises and, as he VOL must know,
In some instances sustained by tho
courts.n
In regard to statement OF ths sscre-
tary Of the league thst .siHcs the open
ing OF the W with spain, the number
II appointments in the Washington
offices q the treasury department through
competition under the civil service rules
have bsen insisnilic int. - Secretary
Gage says: Suppose that only fourtssn
clerks have been drawn FROM the COM
Missions eligible Hist; rs the secretary Of
the Civil Service Reform league he must
know that there are eli1ibles under the
civil service law other than thuss whose
names stand on ths li9ible Hats OF til
civil services commission. How many
soldiers eligible for reinstatement have
been restored as oppor. unity offered?
dow many t-ansfsrs, under The law, have
heen made from other departments 70 the
lenedb of the service, ntfordiug some pro-
motion to deserving mi oxperieucel
clerks just as eligible to appolntment by
transfer as anY OF thu eandi iatss whose
nsmes are OH the waiting hist of the oom-
Che data bab a olsa tess 20 s la9s
appointment to the classified serFice II,
the treasury departments has been made
either by taking seligibles' from the
commissions lists by reinstating eligi-
bles' CT by transfer OF 'eiigibles,-in one
OF these three ways and none other
Ho confusss tals question wish qnits
another question, l. o., The appel atment
of temporary clerks made necessary by
the late war. these appointments haso
absolutely nothing to do with the cues
tion of whether or not tais department
has violated the civil service law.
Let mo say that when the act of
March 81, 1873, was passed providing for
60 additional clerks In this department..
1t contained no specific provisions as to
whether the appointments to the class In
dicated WAS TO DO made in strict accord
with the civil service law. On July 2,
1888, however, Colgrsgs provided that
those employees should be appointed with
out compliance with the conditions
prescribed by the civil service act. Even
after that law was passed this depart
lnent construed its provisions to mean
that the appointing power could go where
1t wished for clerical material, barring,
OF course. tho commissions list. Instead
or resorting to the country at large for
this temporary force conceived it to be
my privilege under the law 10 transfer
from the regular departmsnt serVIcs n
number OF experienced and valuable
clerks. They had coms into the treasury
department In strict accord with the civil
service law and when they weIe trans
feTred to tie Temporary roll they left va
caneies which could only DO filed Ia ac-
cordance with the OWL service law,
Can no IND anything in this action
inimieai TO tae spirit Of the civil seryics
actY,
Secretary Gage says that he believes
In the principles which the Civil Services
Reform lsagus Is intended to foster aad
protest. and that no keenly regrets thas
instead OF receivirg sympathetic encour-
agsinent only oApAons criticism Is a3-