The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-14
DECLARES FOR CIVIL SERVICE
SECRETARY GAGE lays BE IS
FRIEND OF THE SYSTEM.
Denies Responsibility . Or Apparent
Violations of the Lw In the
Treasury Department.

New York, July 13.-Sccretary of the
Secretary McAneny o, the National
Civil Service Reform league. criticising
Mr.. Cages defense of the president
recent civil service orfer, said:
There is no more sincere advocate
of the merit SISTER. than / am, and
soon after reaching this office | in
sisted that the Collectors be urged to
comply strictly y it'll the law in max
ing appointments. In most cases they
have accepted that instruction, but out
OF some twenty collectors there are
perhaps four or five who have main
tanned that the law confers upon them
the sght to appoint their deputies, and
the courts have upheld them. 1 am
assured that quite so per cent of the
collectors have complied with the law.
When the matter brought on litigation,
the president withdrew some of the
Offices in dispute from the operation of
the law. 1t is not correct or just to
say that the advice of the treasury
produced no apparent effect.
AS to the intimation that many ap-
pointmentS have been made in the
treasury since the opening of the war
with Spain" without regard to the
civil service law, Mr.. Gage said that
he was informed by Mr.. Deland, who
represents the civil service commission
in the departments, that perhaps $50,
instead of many hundred men, had been
appointed in the time mentioned, and
that all were appointed with the ap-
prevail of the commission, and We're
eligible for appointment
Many of the clerks employed to get
out the bonds authorized by congress
were taken from the eligible registers,
but all were dispensed with after the
work was closed, according to law
None of these clerks or any others
were transferred into the classified
service, and no others had been trans
ferred without the approval of the COM
mission.
Mr.. Gage said that it was not fair,
in criticising the action of the de-
partment in making appointments from
the competitive list, to exclude the bu-
reau of engraving and printing. which
employs the largest number of persons
in any one division of the treasury
service in Washington.
''At the head of that bureau" said
Mr.. Gage, lis a Democrat, kept there
by the strict regard of the head of the
department for the civil service law
and the merit of the incumbent
'Worthington c. Ford was not re-
moved. When l took office he came to
me and said that whenever his place
was wanted q hint to that effect would
be all that would be necessary to get
him out. He was a good officer, but
there were reasons, not affecting his
integrity, that led me to inform him,
after while. that his resignation
would be accepted l think there was
some public benefit from the change
made in that office, but if Mr. Ford had
desired to stay, he would not have been
removed"
AS for the complaint by Mr.. Nc
Aneny, that the secretary has wrong
fully permitted the payment of salaries
to persons appointed irregularly, Mr..
Gage said:
THE interpreter of the law for me
is the comptroller of the treasury.
When the vouchers for the pay of an
employee have been approved by the
subordinate officers who know of their
employment, and the auditor has found
the account correct. it goes to the
comptroller if there is any further ques-
ton If he says that under the law
they shall be paid, 1 would be i'm
peached if 1 refused to pay the clerks.
If he should decide that the clerks
should not be paid and 1 should pay
them, would also be impeached."