The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-06-14
Coil SerUice Commission Ar
raig5S administration Of
Local office as Opposed TO
the Pablo Good.
MERE BUREAU OF
THE DEPARTMENT
SNany Wrongful Appoint
mentS Cited, and Protests
Quoted-P Payne Replies BY
Citing Certificates of Com
mission.

Postmaster General Payne made pub
lie yesterday the report of the Civil Ser
vice Commission on the conditions in
the Washington postofice. The report
does not mince matters and contains
statements which viii make a number
of postoffice officials wonder what is
going to happen.
1t is directly stated that the Wash
ington postof1ce was made practically
packed with political appointments, that
1t carried people on its payroolls who
were illegally appointed, that political
favorites were transferred to it from
offices in which they had never served,
that a woman obtained a good appoint
ment but did no work, that politicians
forced proteges on the postmaster when
he did not need their services, and that
generally, political needs rather than
Government requirements were con-
sidered in making UP the personnel of
the Office
The rural free delivery Office is said
to have been packed with clerks, car
riers. etc, who were rushed in there
that they might be advanced later to
lucrative jobs, and a remarkable in
crease in the number Of rural free de-
livery appointments the month before
the service was classified is cited II
is fatty stated that the rural free de-
livery service was so misused. in order
to promote the interests of individuals,
and incidentally, Mr.. Proctor declares
that these favorites of the powers prov
ed on trial to be inferior TO the people
who obtained their appointments hon
estly. as the result of competitive ex-
aminations
Postmaster Merritt, of Washington, is
exonerated from connection with the
manner in which his Office was used TO
further the ends of INSCRIPTIONS poll
ticians- Mr.. Proctor says that Mr.. Mer-
rift was forced. by his official superiors.
to take the undesirable and unnecessary
appointees, TO whom he could do no
more than make strong protest
Recently the protests of Mr.. Merritt
have borne more weight, and his Office
is gradually being cleared of the dead
wood with which it was encountered
The report says, in part;
Merritt Exonerated.
I'm answer to the question whether
all of the employees outside the force of
carriers were regularly in the service
and entitled to their positions, the re-
pert shows that appointments to COM
petitive classified positions in the
Washington postofice during the admin
istration OF Postmaster Merritt have
been made in close conformity with the
spirit and letter of the civil service
rules, except when transfers from out
side Offices of persons appointed for the
purpose Of classification, and improper
assignments Of laborers to classified
duties, have interfered with the proper
method OF appointment.
AN inspection of certihcations taken
at random shows that the postmaster Sc
lected for appointment 50 out of 100 per-
sons whose names were certified TO him
from the registers of the commission,
although the requirement of the civil
service rules would have been met by
the selection of one from each certiica-
ton OF three names, or only 80 out of
100.
Dates From 1897.
I'm 1897 a practice was adopted by
the Postoffice Department, and contin-
ued, for the purpose and with the eff
feet of evading the requirement of the
civil service law and rules that ap-
pointments 10 classified positions shall
be based upon competitive examina-
ton. The method employed was to ap-
Rod s<F
fees shortly before the classification
OF those Offices by the establishment
OF the free delivery service, and to
transfer TO other Offices and depart
ments the persons so appointed shortly
after their classiication-the effect OF
the combined appointment and transfer
being to admit the persons designated
TO positions which would have been fill
ed by open competitive examination.
The number OF persons thus entering
classified positions by appointments in
smaller offices and subsequent trans
fers increased from in 1897 to % In
1895. % IN 1899, and reaching the maxi
mum number of 81 In 1900. and decreas-
ing TO Is in 1901, In 1902, and 2 in
1903 The last ten were appointed six
months prior TO their classification. The
total number of such appointments and
transfers was 1873.
Heath's Promises.
THE commission. on February s.
1898. called the attention of the de-
partment TO the evil which would re-
suit. and requested that the practice
be discontinued The First Assistant
Postmaster General. on February 10,
1898. replied in letter in part as fol-
lows:
81 have to say that, in compliance
with your suggestion, it is the purpose
Of the department in the future to con-