Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-15
CIVIL SERVICE GAINS
Mr.. Foulke Talks Of the Improve
ment Made.
MERIT SYSTEM MORE FIRMLY FIXED
Credit Due to the Present Ad-
ministration.
Y INSULAR POSSESSIONS


| committee, makes an investigation of the
| operations under the classified service of
| the government during the twelve months
| past special investigating committee,
| of which Mr.. William Dudley Foulke of In
| diana is chairman, is now conducting the
usual inquiry at Washington.
| Mr.. Foulke expresses the opinion that
| year by year the merit system is becoming
| more firmly fixed in the approval of the
| public, and that the system is now more
| generally accepted as an irrevocable fact
| than ever before.
| What progress has civil service reform
| made since you were. here ten years ago
making similar inquiry?'' a Star reporter
| asked Mr.. Foulke today.
A Good Many Gains.
| I've have made good many gains dur
| ing these ten years." replied Mr.. Foulke.
| 1T was during Harrisons administration
| that L was here before, and we had good
many criticisms to make of the shortcom-
/ ings of that administration. Yet Harrison
4 made a very important inclusion shortly
| before he went out of office in the free de-
! livery post offices, just as Cleveland had in
| cluded the railway mail service before he
| went out. All of our gains had been lega-
| cies from departing administrations. They
| preferred to give us the places by will
| rather than by deed, like many who endow
\ our DeneNOlelI INSTITUTIONS. lie carnegie
| of civil service reform has not come.
| And, then, Cleveland, during his last
| term, made that blanket order, of which
| many republicans complained SO much,
| some of them even saying that he did it to
| give trouble to his successor, but this was
not fair to Cleveland. The order was made
| good while before the election; he was not
| a candidate and | do not think he was
| especially anxious to protect the democrats
| who were then in office, simply because
| they were democrats. L have doubt it
| was his genuine desire to promote the merit
| system which led to the order. L have a
! strong impression that when he went out
| Of office the places in the classified service
were pretty evenly divided between the two
| parties. l think even more would have
| been done during Clevelands administra-
ton by Postmaster General Wilson to class
| ify the fourth class post Offices by making
| them branches of larger offices if Congress
| had not stood in the way. Congress is
often reluctant to give up it's own patron
| age, and nothing can better show how
| that patronage is abused than the report
| of the committee of the House in regard
| to its own employees, where it was shown
| that men We're paid who did nothing, and
| others who did the work were compelled to
| divide their salaries with political favor
| ties, and generally the utmost confusion
| and inefficiency prevailed. That is what
| the spoils system is sure to lead to- and If
| you compare that service with the depart
| ments at Washington, the large post Of
| fees and the railway mail service there
| is no difficulty in deciding which is the
| best
! Under the Present Administration.
What do you think has been gained or
| lost to civil service reform during the pres
ent Administrations
| "A great many civil service reformers,"
| replied Mr.. Foulle, have been very blue,
| saying that we have gone back a long way
| since Mckinley became President; but L
think myself that have gained quite as
| much as We have lost The great cause of
! complaint is said to be the Presidents order
| of May, 1899. 1t was claimed at the time,
| and believed by all of US, that more than
| ten thousand places had been taken out of
| the classified service by that order. Recent
! developments show, however, that the num-
! Der is not so large. About thirty-four hun
dred places were excepted from eXamina-
| ton by that order, in addition to about five
| hundred by the order of July, 1897, which
| makes about four thousand places in all.
| In addition to this good many places in
the outside service of the War Department
! which were under a system of registration
controlled by the civil service commission
| were taken away from the commission and
| were to be put under some system of reg
istration to be provided by the department
| itself. General Alger was Secretary of War
| at the time, and the civil service reformers
| did not believe that they were likely to get
| very efficient system of regiStra ton un-
| der his administration; but Mr.. Root came
in shortly after the order was issued, and
| he is a supporter of the merit system; so
| lildI THESE 1JldCeS were not generally thrown
| back into patronage at all. Moreover, the
| number of places thus removed from the
| classified service was not nearly so large as
| was supposed. 1t was then considered that
| there We're about 6,500 of these places: but
l believe that is twice as much as the ac-
| tual figures.
| Places to BE Restored.
Besides, we have the best of hopes that
| the bulk of these places will shortly be re-
| stored to the classified system, and if so,
| the loss to the classified service by the or
| der of May, 1899, instead of being 10000
places, will not be half that number
| Il think that the relaxation of some of
| the civil service rules and the violations of
| law which we hear of are much more inn
| portant matters than the number of places
excepted. For instance, there is a rule
which allows transfer from one branch
| of the service to another upon a mere
| pass examination. This rule was greatly
l the law. When a small post office was
about to become a free delivery office it
was sometimes stocked with new employees
sent out there for the purpose of becom-
| ing classified without taking competitive
| examination, and Immediately after classi-
| fcation those appointed would be trans
| ferred to one of the larger post Offices or
| perhaps to one of the departments here
| Such a plan, if followed out everywhere
| would upset the entire system of competi-
| tive examinations. But the matter was
! brought to the personal attention of the
| Postmaster General and such appointments
are no longer made. We are in hopes that
| modification of the rules will be adopted
preventing them permanently for the fu-
| ture.
'The rule allowing reinstatements with
| out any time limit, where employees have
been dismissed upon charges believed to be
| untrue, is subject to great abuses. 1t is
| said that men are sometimes restored in
| considerable numbers, as in the bureau of
| engraving and printing, without much in
i OQ q q fn ho royyjn, Co1,or g
| democrats are replaced by republicans in
| this way now republicans may be replaced
| by democrats in similar fashion, If that
party should ever come into power. This
/ would lead right back to the old plan Of
i rotation in office.
Then. again. there are too many tenn
| porary appointments. There are good
/! many laborers who are said to be per-
| forming classified work and who get in
without examination. This Is one Of the
| subjects our committee is to investigate.
| We also expect to examine into the cases
i of political assessment levied upon em-
ployes contrary to law and to other forms
laAs