The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1904-05-20
WOMAN RESTORED
BY THE PRESIDENT
Clerk Reinstated After a
Il 70 Years Delay.
HAD PAID FOR APPOINTMENT
Then Resigned to Testify gainst Brok-
ers in Office, and Was Not
Reappointed.

| BY the Intervention Of the President a
technical wrong of grave Importance
has been righted, after a delay Of more
I than two years.
The tale IS full of human interest. 1t
| had its inception during the Mckinley
Administration and the person con-
| cerned is a young woman who is the
sole support Of her family. At the time
she held the position Of a laborer under
one Of the departments. eking cut her
pittance ~ teaching in her unemployed
hours. At length she approached one OF
her sUperiors. an assistant secretary in
the department where she was en-
ployed, and asked small berth fo-- her
father, a --eteran of the Mexican and
civil wars. a second or third time she
approached him and then made the Sc
rious error Of offering money for his in
nuence- The Indignant officer took her
to task most severely, and in a day o
two the true character Of her offer be-
gan to dawn on her.
Took Advice of Pastor.
She then went to her pastor and told
hi mthe circumstances, on whose 5dyise
she again sought the Assistant Secre-
tary. and admitted that the reason she
had made the proposition was that she
had secured her own position by the use
Of money. This matter was taken cogni-
Zance OF. and il was decided that an IN
vestigation was In order. The Govern
ment had long suspected the existence
Of a gang Of office brokers. but had not
hitherto obtained any positive evidence.
IA was agreed that the young woman
should appear for the Government in a
prosecution To do this II was thought
best that she should resign, with the
distinct understanding that she should
be Teinstated at the conclusion Of the
case.
All Of this the young woman lived up
10, at the greatest sacrifice to herself
not only in a pecUniary sense, but as IL
involyed severed relations with some of
the oldest friends Of her family She
never faltored. and the Government ac-
comphshed all ii desired She then tried
to. support herself outside of the seq
vice for n time. but at length was com
PEELED TO ask for the promised restora-
ton. In the meantime a year had
elapsed, and she was confronted with
the civil service rule of limitation of
the time in which a reappOintment could
be made. 1t appeared. from an eXami-
nation Of the record. that the Civil Ser
vice commission, on whose reCOmmcn-
dation any regular reinstatement must
be made. had had her case before il
during the year. and voted to make "A
favorable recommenda ton; but she had
not taken advantage of this. So when.
driven by need, she at last returned and
asked to have her old place back. the
only way of granting her request was
through having the President suspend
the one-year rule on the ground Of ex-
CeptiOnal circumstances.
President Intervenes.
This the President has done. and the
order has Seen signed which suspends
the one-year limit, and the young wo-
man will receive her old position. This
is a parellel case to the famous Shidy
case wherein Civil Service Commits
sioneT Roosevelt promised protection TO
a clerk in the Milwaukee postoffice for
telling the truth about frauds there. a
promise which was kept though the
clerk at one time had himself been in
yolved in the frauds.