The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-01-13
HOW PERRAULT
LAID MEN OFF
Civil Service Commission in
Possession of All Details.
NO WORK FOR The EMPLOYEES
EXCUSE MADE BY SURVEYOR
GENERAL FOR HIS ACTION.
NO WORK FOR The EMPLOYEES

week. as told in the telegraphic dis
patches Of this paper, the commission
has written the secretary Of the in
terror recommending the surveyor gen
: erals dismissal, and stating that it
considers the case one of the worst in
its history and calling for removal from
ONCE IN accordance with rule l of the
civil service regulations, which pro-
vides as follows
Any person in the executive civil
service Of the United States who
shall willfully violate any of the
! provisions of the civil service act,
or of these rules, shall be dismissed
from Office.
: IN its letter to the secretary of the
interior the commission states. From
hrst TO last, there has been on the part
OF Surveyor General Perrault such a
notable lack of truth and fair dealing
that the commission finds itself IN
able to attach weight to charges pre-
ferred by him..
1T will be remembered that a couple
OF years ago the commission recon-
mended the removal of the surveyor
general on charges similar to the one
now made.
The particular case which has pre-
I clpitated the conflict row on is that
OF Robert McCracken, who was en-
ployed IN the Office of the surveyor gen
eral at salary of 81 900 at Boise. Ida.
ana who charges that without his
knowledge or consent he was arbitrari-
~ transferred from the annual appro-
prlatlon to the mineral fund
Was Practical Dismissal.
In the cases which the commission
/ Drought to the attention OF the secre-
tary previous to the present one, and
upon which charges were based, this
was the procedure adopted by the sur
Veyor general to separate other en-
pIoyes from the service, as it is dis
cretonary with the surveyor. general
when an employe on the per diem roll
| snail work, and in McCracken'S case il
was practically a dismissal
McCracken, in his statement to the
commission which was received in the
early part of last week. brings out
| some very interesting matter with ref
| erence to the administration of the sur
! Veyor general According to his state
] ment, the chief clerk of the Office. Bam-
Iord A. Robb. has never taken the civil
| service examination prescribed for the
| position he holds. His predecessor. it
/ Is alleged, rendered his resignation at
| the expiration Of the term of the for
mer surveyor general, and Robb re-
celVed a temporary appointment from
Perrault, and by successive temporary
appointments of three months each
held the position for eighteen months.
when President McKinleys order Gov
cred him into the service.
This order provided that certain tenn
porary appointments might be made
permanent in the discretion Of the an
pointing officer McCracken also al
leges that the father Of Chief Clerk
Robb gets every contract for survey |
ing plating, etc, in the states of /
Washington, Idaho and Oregon. and /
that the surveyor general had given a /
position in the Office to a woman no /
toriously Of ill-repute, and whost char /
acter and reputation were well known /
to him.
Real Cause of Removal.
McCracken states that the real cause
Of his removal became apparent to him
when, in the interview with the sur
VeyOr general at the time he was an
prised of his transfer" the surveyor
in boisterous and abusive manner
applied harsh epithets TO him and &C
cused him Of being the damned cur
who has been furnishing the newspa-
pers with information concerning this
office"
In explanation of this outburst Of the
surveyor general, McCracken alleges
that in confidence he had.informed Spe-
cial Agent Burke of some of the abuses
which existed in the Office, and that
Burke had Immediately communicated
the information to the surveyor, and
ne (McCracken) afterward learned that
Burke ID Perrault stood in" with
one an II =, and whenever the former
determined to inspect the Boise Office
he would send word in advance.
The present status Of McCracken as
an employee of the government is a lit
tie hay. He did not report for duty
after his transfer. as he states he knew
it would be useless to do SO. and upon
a statement Of his case by the sur
veyor general to the commissioner Of
the land office, Binger Hermann, the
latter instructed the former to prefer
charges against McCracken for delin-
qUency.
The statement of the surveyor gen
eral is accepted by Commissioner Her
mann. who has always upheld Ferrault
in his conflicts with the commission.
but it is thought by the civil service
commission that the secretary will or
der an exhaustive investigation Of the
entire matter. and if 50. they are con-
fident Of Mr. PeTraults removal
Official History of the Case.
The record of the surveyor general
previous to the McCracken matter.
and which was called to the attention
of the secretary of the interior, is as
follows:
On Nov. I. 1891. Mr.. Perrault entered
upon the discharge of the duties of
surveyor general Of Idaho. and on the
same day suspended from duty Paul
'. Lehman, craftsman: James H
stenOgrapher. and Dave /
J. Cohen, j. P. Chinn and Mrs. Alice /
5. HOwey, transcribing clerks. for the
alleged reason that the amount of work
to be executed did not justify their re-
IGNITION. In the report made to the com
Of the general land Offices
the same reason was given. 1t an
Deared, however, from the estimates of
appropriations for the fiscal year end
ng June 80, 1898. that the amount Of
work to be executed in the surveyor
office did not permit of a re-
AUCTION in force. and this was speedily
confirmed by the action of the sur p
ieyor general himself. who appointed a
temporarily on the very
iame day he suspended the five en-
9loyes named above. although one of
hese was Stenographer. Other tenn
1orary appointments for longer or
shorter periods followed. In addition
o this. three persons received perma-
tent appointments as the result of GER
iticatiOns issued by this commission.
The five suspended employees appealed
o the commission, calling attention to
he fact that they had been informed {
" both the surveyor general and the :
of the general land Of
ice that their suspension was not dine o
o delinquency or misconduct on their 7
'art, but merely because of lack of b
york. 2
Request was made of the civil service