The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-20

continued in limited degree.
1t is the statutea mot the department.
that puts the clerks of new free de-
livery Offices into the classified service.
Their transfer is a. matter Of rule. No
rule then prohibited transfer at any
time, and no transfer was made with
out the sanction of the civil service
commission, though it objected to
the practice. No rule even at this day
forbids transfer at any time in the eX-
actly parallel case where small I'M
classified offices are classified by being
consolidated with larger classified Of
fees.
Mr.. Porter states that the commits
sion twice presented the matter to
President McKinley's attention first
on June 20. 1898, and again on June II,
1900-recommending him to modify the
rule so as to prohibit transfer until af-
ter six months service. That is true.
President Mckinley took no action ex-
cept to approve the policy. laid down in
the letter of the postmaster general in
which he said:
Admits Irreguiarity.
9tssAlthough the number Of cases has
been limited, as thus indicated, the
exercise Of the authority without full
review and except for conclusive rea-
sons ins:the interest Of the service is
rightly open to- objection, and, accord
ingly, instructions were given which
prohibited the practice and permitted
appointments of this character only in
emergency and after being submitted
to the chief of the department.. OF
this instruction your commission was
fully advised. )ss
i, g Il concur with your commission in
the judgment that, wherever it is prac-
ticable,s9 admission to the service
should be made only upon examination
and after application of the approved
tests of merit, and for. this reason I
greatly regret that from July 1, 1899,
to Dec. 10, 1900, for want of sufficient
register of eligibles provided by the
civil service commission, it has been
absolutely necessary for this depart
ment, in meeting the requirements of
growing service, to make 896 appoint
ments of postof1ce clerks and sub
carriers of temporary character with
all the embarrassment of afterwards
superseding trained persons with I'M
trained persons
This is my reply to Mr. Proctor,
made not now, but on Dec. 81, 1900.
So far as l know, that reply was never
answered, and for obvious reasons. 1t
stated that the practice, so far as it in
volved any abuse, had been and would
be stopped. I have but to turn to MI.
Procter's recent letter for the proof.
He says:
"3The number Of persons thus en-
tering classified, positions by appoint
ments in small offices and subsequent
transfers increased from two in 1897
to twenty-five in 1898, twenty-six in
1899, and reaching the maximum num-
Der Of sixty-one in 1900, and decreas-
ing to fifteen in 1901, eight in 1902
and two in 1903
"The only other point of Mr.. Proc
ter's letter which calls for any atten-
ton from me is his statement respect
ing the rural free delivery division, as
follows:
Nearly all Of the clerks and mes
sengers in the rural free delivery SER
fed service were in positions in Wash
ington, D. c.. One hundred and
thirty-three Of them were appointed
prior to July 1, 1901; 26 were appoint
ed in the four months Immediately
preceding the classification; and Sc
were appointed in the 26 days preced-
ing classification. How many of these
were appointed for reasons other than
the needs of the service it is, of course,
impossible for the commission to de-
termine; but that the service was
packed with employees In the interests
of the individual is indicated by the
fact that the number of appointments
in the month of the classification was
more than twice as great as for the
preceding four MONTHS
BIames Payne, Too.
with few words Of plain state
ment I shall leave Judgment to be pro-
nounced on this gratuitous imputation.
The rural delivery appropriation for
the fiscal year ending June 80, 1901,
was $1,750,000; for the fiscal year end
it,cr : Z !
$4,000 The number of routes in
operation July l, 1900, was 1,276, and
July 1, 1901, was 4,3O1. In the next five
months before, the classification the
number increased to $1,000 Was double
the appropriation to be applied, double
the service to be provided, and double
the work to be done without any in
crease of force?
'eThe truth is that when congress, by
making the large appropriation of So
100000 for the fiscal year of 1902,
settled that the service was no longer
experimental, the department set
about organizing it on a permanent
basis. 1t carefully calculated how the
appropriation should be apportioned,
how many clerks were needed at head
quarters to keep up with the work,
etc.. With the greatly increased APP
preparation and service the force
was inadequate to the requirements;
the clerks were working over hours,
and it was nuder these circumstances
that the additional appointments were
made How much ground there was
for Mr.. Proctor's unworthy innuendo
may be judged from the fact that of
the Sc appointments to which he re-
.fers Al were women clerks, 4 were
transfers, 6 were designations for di-
vision headquarters in the field, and 5
all told were original appointments of
men for the department.! A vast deal
of politics, surely, in the appointment