Evening star., 1903-07-20

:
comment on the peculiar candor which
made no acknowledgment of the removal
of all just ground of complaint then and
seeks to suppress the truth about 1T now
Nor need l inquire whether this is due to
the fact that after being greatly eXer-
cised about the mote in the department
eye, namely, lis transfers in three years
among over 100000 employees, the critic was
painfully reminded of the beam In his own
eye, namely, $40 forced appointments. out
side civil service rules. In a year and
half, because Of the commissions failure to
meet the requirements!
The only other point Of Mr.. Procter's
letter which calls for any attention from
me is his statement respecting the rural
free delivery division as follows:
Nearly all of the clerks and messengers
In the rural free delivery service who were
| covered into the classified service were in
positions in Washington, D. G. One hun
! dred and thirty-three of them were ap-
pointed prior to July l. 1901; twenty-six
were appointed in the four months 1mme-
diately preceding the classification, and
| fftysix were appointed in the twenty-six
days preceding classification. How many
of these were appointed for reasons other
than the needs of the service 1t Is. of
course, impossible for the commission to
determine but that the service was packed
| with employees In the interests OF the in
| dividual 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.
with few words of plain statement. l
shall leave judgment to be pronounced on
| this gratutOus imputation. The rural de-
livery appropriation for the fiscal year
ended June 80 1901. was $1.15OooO; for the
fiscal year ended June 30. 1902, 1t was just
double. s2,JOOOOO. The number OF routes
in operation July 1, 1900, was 1915 and
July l. 1901, 1t was 4.3O1. In the next five
months before the classification the num-
har i,,or sa1 70 1nlJh1 10 ha q n.
preparation to be applied. double the service
to be provided and double the work to be
| done without any increase of force?
No Longer Experimental.
The truth is that when Congress, by
making the large appropriation of S3.JUO,0W
for the fiscal year 19O1-19O2. settled that the
service was no longer experimental. the de-
partment set about organizing 1t on per-
| manent basis. 1t carefully calculated now
the appropriation should be apportion"d,
how many agents should be employed in
the field, how many clerks were needed at
headquarters to keep up with the work, &c.
With the greatly increased appropriation
and service the force was Inadequate to the
requirements, the clerks were working ov: II
hours. and it was under these circum-
stances that the additional appointments
We're made. How much ground there was
for Mr.. Procter's unworthy innuendo may
be judged from the fact that OF the 56 ap-
pointments to which he refers IL were Wo-
men clerks. were transfers, q were desig-
nations for division headquarters In the
field and ), all told We're original appoint
ments of men for the department. A vast
deal of politics. surely, in the appointment
of IL women. Another fact deserves re-
mark. Nearly two years have elapsed since
the appointments. You have been Post
master General year and half and you
have not dropped one of them. If the serv-
ice was packed how faithless you have
been to your duty! This needless critic
hat blow aimed
as well me.
1T may have been a sad case of mis-
taken judgment but Congress by law de-
volved the organization of the rural deliv-
ery service and the appointment Of all it's
force on the Postmaster General and not on
Mr. Proctor. For several successive years
it made constantly increasing appropria-
tions to be expended absolutely at the
Postmaster Generals discretion, without
condition restriction. So far as l now
recall, there is not a parallel case running
through a period of years in the history of
the country. This great confidence imposed
high obligations on the Postmaster General.
He made his regular reports to the Presi-
dent and to Congress. and they approved
his action.
When as already indicated, 1t became
clear that the service was to be enduring.
he addressed himself to the task Of prepar-
ing 1t for a permanent footing. This in
volved bringing it within the classified serv-
ice and Of extending the civil service rules
to 1t, so far as they were applicable. But
inasmuch as the first requirement Of the
rural carrier was to have horse and
wagon (horse and wagon not being amena-
BILE to competitive academic eXamination),
and inaSmuch as other special conditions
existed the regular rules could not be lit
orally applied just as they were: they had
to be modified to adapt them to these con-
ditions Under the direction Of the Presi-
dent the department was engaged for
some weeks with the civil service commits
sion In framing system and body of rules,
and in view Of Mr.. PrOcterS remarks it is
only fair to say that in this work he proved
practicable that he had to be overruled both
by his own associates and by the adminis-
tration. and had to be substantially elimi-
mated from all part in the construction of
the framework. The burden of the work
on the part of the civil service commission
fell on Mr.. William D. Foulke, who is as
strong and rational in his practical sense as
he Is sincere. earnest and intelligent in his
devotion to civil service reform.
THE principle governing the OrganiZa-
ton of the rural delivery and the attitude
and spirit of the department were stated in
my annual report for 1901. as follows:
On Permanent Basis.
with it's (rural deliverys) acceptance as
fixed and enduring service the wisdom of
placing 1t on permanent basis and OF
bringing it into full harmony with the gen.
eral principles of the postal establishment
cnfOrces itself. In authorizing rural de-
livery as an experiment Congress adopted
no directing mandate and simply made the