Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-18
THE CIVIL SERVICE
Commissioner Cooley's Letter
to Mr.. Dana.
ATTACKS ON PRESIDENT
REFUTED BY OFFICIAL FIGURES
FROM THE RECORDS.
Mr.. Roosevelt Has Acted More in the
ATTACKS ON PRESIDENT
Mr.. Roosevelt Has Acted More in the
Spirit Of the Law Than Any
of His Predecessors.

A letter recently written by Richard II.
Dana of Boston to Afford Cooley civil
service commissioner. has elected reply
which will. it is believed. cause consider
able comment as bearing on the record of
President Roosevelt as a civil service re-
former.
Mr.. Dana told Commissioner Cooley that
he was surprised at the attacks on the
record of the President in his civil service
reform attitude. and said he had always
supposed that the President had done
great deal of good to the community and
for the benefit of civil service reform. He
furthermore asked Mr.. Cooley to favor him
with review of certain allegations which
he noted and for a candid expression OF
opinion on the matter. Commissioner Cooley
replied to this letter as follows:
Il beg to acknowledge. receipt of your
letter of October 3, and to express my ap-
probation of the opportunity it offers
briefly to outline the work of the commits
sion during the last three years.
''rhe democrats In their platform de-
clared:
1.-The democratic party stands committed
to the principle of civil service reform, and
we demand it's honest, just and impartial
enforcement. We denounce the republican
party for it's continuous and sinister en-
croachments upon the spirit and operation
of the civil service rules, whereby 1t has
arbitrarily dispensed with examinations for
office In the interest of favorites, and en-
ployed all manner of devices to override
and set aside the principles upon which
the civil service Is based
Both Platforms Repudiate Spells Plank
For this reputation of the spoils plank
Of the Chicago and Kansas City platforms
I have nothing but praise Both great
tfaI t0 {Lo v,~i,,o iy>1n
of civil service reform. The charge that
the republican party-presumably meaning
President Roosevelt-has arbitrarily dis
pensed with examinations in the interest
of favorites and has employed all manner
of devices to set aside and override the
principles upon which the civil service is
based, discloses either deliberate mendacity
or gross ignorance on the part OF It's
authors. Nothing of Importance has been
done by the President except with the
concurrence of the civil service commits
sion.
"If, therefore, the rules have been vio-
lated, as charged in the platform, every
com missioner who has served under Pres
ident Roosevelt has been guilty of such
fragrant conduct as to call for his I'M
parchment; and among those VINO should
have been thus impeached are the late john
Robert Proctor, a democrat and an ex-con-
federate, from Kentucky, for ten years
president of this commission, whom shall
always remember with affection as one of
the most OlSlnteTeSleu f-dHo ING
public servants it has been my good for
tune to know; William Dudley Foulke, now
a member of the council OF the National
Civil Service Reform League, whose devo-
ton to the cause is too well known to need
comment, and James Rudolph Garfield,
whose appointment on the commission was
generally regarded as an ideal one. AS
you very justly say in your letter, Presi-
dent Roosevelt has done more work of
high order for the permanent good of the
reform perfecting details, improving meth
DDS. closing back door entrances into the
service, Furnishing evasions, and so prepar-
ing the ground for better and larger work
in the future than any one of his prede-
cessors. In point of fact, the classified
service has been extended very materially
and the rules have been enforced with
vigor and an impartiality never before
known. Furthermore, the machinery of the
system has been perfected and revision
of the rules made which has met the ap-
prevail of even the most radical civil service
reformerS.
As to Exceptions.
1.-The editorial charge of the Boston Her.
aid that President Roosevelt has suspended
the rules for the benefit of individuals more
than sixty times, while Mckinley suspended
them only once or twice. produces an i'm
preston utterly false to make one
wonder how reputable journal could have
published it, The records show that Presi-
dent Mckinley made eight thousand excep-
lions, an average of two thousand a year,
while Mr.. Roosevelt has made sixty-one in
three years, or an average of twenty a
year. Mr.. Clevelands administration was
prolific in gain for civil service reform, and
he has universally very properly been re-
garded as the strongest friend of the re-
form ever in the White House up to the
time Mr. Roosevelt became President, yet
during his second administration, for rea-
sons which were in large part entirely
justifiable, he increased the excepted list
by two hundred positions during four years,
r
Roosevelt has excepted, as the records
show, twenty year, or only Az per cent
of the number excepted by Mr.. Cleveland.
The classified service is much larger now
than during the Cleveland administration.
The cases in which the rules have been
suspended form less than one-twentieth of
l per cent of the appointments made In the
last three years, one appointment out Of
every two thousand. They comprise, for
example, White House steward, Navy
Department coachman, a superintendent of
the Government Hospital for the Insane and
other cases where, for special reasons, the
application of the rules was considered i'm
practicable. The record of the President is
absolutely clear on this score The plan OF
making exceptions for individuals, rather
than excepting whole classes was in
augurated at the suggestion of Commits
sioners Proctor and Foulke for the express
and specific purpose of reducing the num-
Der of excepted places, and not to provide
positions for fayorites.
Comparison of Exceptions.
ut must be understood that exceptions
were made for individuals under previous
administrations; but instead of making
them in the way contemplated by the act,
they were made under the guise of except
ing whole classes. A comparison of ex-
ceptions made, therefore, should show the
classes excepted under previous admins
trations, and the special exceptions made
under the existing administration. The
back doors now closed which previously
have myself Joined In recommending a
considerable number of exceptions, and in
no instance have been aware Of the poll
tics of the person whose exception was
recommended. Inseveryi case / have made
the recommendation for reasons affecting
the efficiency of the service 1t must be
conceded by every fair-minded man that
the positions excepted during the Cleveland
and Mckinley administrations were almost