The Washington times., 1904-11-15
MT. Ware Resigns.

Eugene r. Ware has resigned the
posi- of Commissioner of Pensions.
This is well-well for Mr. Ware him
self and for the Bureau of Pensions.
His service as the chief of the office
which represents the nation in its re-
latlons with its veteran defenders has
been an unqualified failure.
An unqualified failure-that IS
broad phrase. Yet it stands unas-
sailed by a single benefit TO the pen
sion system which can fairly be traced
TO his hand. O her men have failed
H. the Office, but he is the only one
whose incumbency has borne no other
fruit than this: That an Office force
which passed into his control as a
compact, reliable, methodical body
has been made by his mismanagement
uncertain. mistrustful, and disorsan-
tied.
The causes are not tar TO seek.
APPOINTED as a lawyer and a vet
teran. he has held that pensions TO
his clerks who were. veterans awards
To them for services forty years old
should be deducted from the salaries
paid them for services performed to-
day
Himself man of siXty-three years,
he has made occasion to inform the
older clerks of the bureau who were
veterans that the Government could
md no use for men sixty years old.
Assuming an arrogance which no
President has ever attempted TO as
sumo. he has denied his clerks the
right of appeal to him in controversies
affecting their Office records.
BY condemning one of his clerks on
a monsu0us charge unsustained by
even the layman's good ground for
BELIEF the reference is to the at
tempted removal of Clerk Roberts for
the alleged writing OF certain anony-
nous letters-he has been prevented
from furnishing q man merely sus-
pected only through the Intervention
OF the Secretary OF the Interior.
While commencing with formal or
GERS the mistaken virtue OF a clerk
who had taken no leave OF absence
for many years, he has himself been
absent from his DESK more than five
months out OF the first eighteen
months of his service.
Preaching order and subordination
60 his Office force, he has undertaken
10 circumvent his chief, the Secretary
OF the Interior. by aling with the Al
torney General direct a brief in appeal
from Adhesion by the Secretary, and
has recn saved from so humiliating
misstep only by the magnanimity of
the Official he planned thus TO over
ride.
interfering with the decisions OF
his law clerks and boards OF review
as no Commissioner OF Pensions had
ever interfered with them. he has been
reversed as in error" .oftener than
any other incunbent of his Office.
Al the head OF a great bureau and
an example TO his clerks, he has made
addresses 10 his associates in the
bureau so lacking in dignity, so un-
worthy of any person in any post OF
authority, that the clerks themselves
have sought 10 suppress his indis-
creuons by means OF general silence.
Worst OF all-fOr It's effect on the
sFrvice-he has instituted q scheme
OF promotions 90 be based upon once
proficiency exclusively. and from the
very arst has acquiesced in so many
evesioEs OF the system that it has be
come mere means of preventing
reasonable applications for promotion.
whilc lbs quality as a merit system
has been wrecked by his own hands.
This resume of Mr.. Wares service
Is not a series of charges. Il is the
revelation o. his record as it is en-
tered upon the books of the Depart
mont oil the Interior or noted I'm the
ales OF t3te newspapers. IL is IA series
o. bluuders without parallel i'm the
history OF administrative government
iu Washington. Its single redeemine
quality is that none OF his errors has
seemed 20 De based upon venaIlty OF
spite.
Tho community viii term Mr.
Wares conduct in these premises
series of mistakes costly. painful
Ignorant mistakes. But no amount OF
charity can alter the verdict that these
mistakes have made his administra.
tior Of the Pension Bureau an un-
qualified failure. Washington bears
him ao lll Will On the contrary. II
wishes him the best fortune possible
when DE returns 20 the labOrs he laid
down 70 become Commissioner Of Pen,
sions II viii DE none the less re.
Eeved, however. that his retirement
safeguards the bureau against further
stumbling Of the same dear AMI dan
gerous character.
Privileged Citizens.