New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-12-17
REMOVAL BY EXECUTIVE ORDER.

1t is somewhat surprising TO find the removal
of the lobbying letter carriers criticised in
few newspapers On the ground that it exceeded
the Executive authority. The right Of the
President TO forbid public employees to promote
legislation in their own behalf except through
their official superiors is questioned Civil ser
wants are compared with private wage earners,
who are free TO make demands on their en-
ployers and the well known and most cenSura-
bic habit of city employees, like policemen, fire
men and school teachers, of maintaining an or
ganized lobby is quoted O precedent for per-
sons in the federaIsservice. Does man, it is
asked, by hiring out TO the government forfeit
any of the rights of the citizen commonly con-
sidered iualienabe?
AS 10 the moral aspects of the subject we
think there can be no doubt that the Presi-
dents prohibition is proper Nobody questi ms
the civil servants right TO ask for an increase
of wages. He may ask it from the chief of his
department, who so far as pers nal relations
CO. stands in the place of his employer. He is
not employed by Congress. but by the execu-
tive department, which is the administering
power of the government, and it is subversive
of discipline for man TO go elsewhere to eX-
ert pressure and to promote interference by
Congress with the administrative plans of his
superiors. If he wants changes in the law. he
should seek them through proper official chan
nels. This is recognized in the army and navy
a prime matter of discipline, and the same
rule should apply 10 other government en-
ployes No man need enter the service who
is not ready to conform to its conditions No
railroad superintendent would tolerate con-
tinued appeals to the directors from his de-
cisions concerning conditions Of employment or
concede that he might not discharge anybody at
his own discretion Unless civil servants are
kept strictly within bounds there is grave
danger of their unduly dominating the govern
ment as 1t was long feared that the army
might do. The weapons of peaceful agitation
and political boycott, when used by organized
effort. may be quite effective a military
demoDStrat ton.
In law the Presidents right to prescribe the
conduct of employees and punish disobedience
would seem to be ample. By the Constitution
the executive power is vested in him. He
makes and changes at will the Civil Service
rules. and the Civil Service Commissioners are
merely his aids and advisers in that work. The
courts have no authority to enforce upon Off
GERS obedience to the Civil Service rules made
pursuant to law, but the President has exclu-
sive power over the whole subject, and his dis
erection as 10 what is proper or improper con-
duct on the part of his subordinates is complete.
Presidents from the formation of the govern
ment have prescribed rules of conduct and
forbidden practices they considered detrimental
to the service. II the President may forbid
"perniciouS political activity" and order clerks
not TO attend political conventions. he can order
them to abstain from lobbying. If he can re-
move for dsobedence to one order. he can for
dsobedience to the other. He is the Judge of
the fitness of any employe for his place, and
may make any removal which he thinks would
contribute to the welfare of the service.
Public employment is in general MT a vested
right. In some special lines of service it has
been made so, but the difficulties entaied by the
establishment Of that right for policemen and
iremen do not encourage the lawmakers to eX-
tend its application. It is we'll TO forbid re-
movals in the Civil Service for political rea-
sons but, otherwise, the executive authority
should be free to exercise it's own Judgment
and freely remove a subordinate who does not
fit his place or whose conduct In any way is
preludicial to the work Of administrator. The
citizen when he accepts public employment as
sumes a new character and as no man may be
judge in his own case, so az a citizen he
should not be permitted to agitate politically his
own claims. His right as an employer to fix
his own status as employe cannot be safely
conceded. In becoming a public servant he
! divests himself Ct some privileges as a private
citizen, and is bound to conform to the rules
prescribed by his official superiors
--------