Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-10-08

Special 70 the Register.
WASHINGTON, d. c., October T.
Mrs. Florence C. Bratton, who seems
to have become something of an issue
in the First West Virginia district, was
appointed to a place in the city post
office here by one of the numerous
tricks through which Republican politi-
clans of the Elkins and Dovener stripe
manage to evade the civil service law.
AS is well known she was transferred
from the M%oundsville Office, has never
served there, but merely having been
given a nominal appointment there so
as to give opportunity for transfer to
the Office here. This was of course a
purely technical compliance with the
law.
The practice is to appoint political
favorites to postoffices about to be-
come free delivery offices. These ap-
pointees, on the change to free deliv-
cry, come into the classified civil SER
vice, and may be transferred to any
other branch of the service. BY this
method it is possible to get positions
for favorites in the departments here
without a civil service examination,
thus upsetting the civil service law
completely. The civil service commits
sion regularly examinations
for clerks in postofices about to be-
come free delivery offices, but these ex-
amtn4fjOnC ORC moro form o1 foronc~ tho
places being already filled, and no one
taking the examination standing a
ghost Of a show of appointment.
Mrs. Bratton is n o the only person
transferred from West Virginia postof-
fees to Washington. Elsie j. Ander-
son was similarly transferred to the
local postoffice from Sistersville; George
w. Jones, of Martinsburg, obtained a
place by transfer in the postoffice de-
partment, and Edward I. Allen, of the
same place, was promoted to postofice
inspector. The Republicans make a
great spread in their platforms on de-
votion to the civil service law, but
when it ZONES to evading it they are
devoted mainly to its breach and not
its observance.
Only Two are Laws.
Senators Elkins' friends are making
considerable ado about the Senator's
success as a pension agent. 1t APP
pears, however, that Of the one hundred
and twenty pension bills introduced by
the Senator just two have been enact
ed into law. AS to the pensions which
have gone through the regular course
in the pension bureau, for which the
Senator claims credit, most of those
would have gone through anyhow. No
old soldier who has a meritorious claim
needs the assistance of any pension
agent, Senatorial or otherwise, to push
his claim through. What Senator FL
kins has done could have been done by
anyone else just as well.
Their Desperate Efforts.
The Republicans are pouring money
as well as Illegal voters into West
Virginia, and the last effort of the
campaign will be to see what Doodle
will accomplish. West Virginia office
holders here have been worked pretty
heavily for contributions through the
West Virginia Republican Association,
an organization of ~officeholders which
has been very active this year, and
which is a pretty expensive affair to
be connected with. 1t has a large mem
bership and has paid a heavy assess
ment into the Elkins political treasury.
This is another Republican method of
getting around the civil service law for
bidding campaign assessments on gov
eminent employees.