The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-21
DISMAY IS THE RESULT
OFFICE HOLDERS SHOCKED BY
 CIVIL SERVICE ORDER.
Thousauds in the Governments Employ Who Are Immediately Interested
 Are Pitifully Agitated Over
 Recent Pronunciamento.

Recent Pronuncianents. ! wast inston. Oct. ao.-tspeclal)--- Nothing has happened since the voice of the civil service reformer was first 2 raised in the land so shocking to de- A voices of civic righteousness, nor has anything occurred since the comfort ling aegis of the civil service law en- folded the Government employe in Washington which has so shaken his com posture and affrighted his dreams. as the executive order of October II by President Roosevelt giving to himself and the members of the cabinet the rigtt to dismiss employees without a1- lowing them hearing.
 | It was enc of the sensational acts of the Roosevelt administration. There is no point of view directed to the civil service system which the order has not sharpened. Heretofore President Roosevelt. with all of his proneness to spring the unexpected, has with re- he was a civil service commissioner, pursued consistent. even tenor of word and de for the maintenance of the cause of civil service. reform.
 The idea that he would ever have so changed the civil service rules as to take from an employe of the service summariiy discr arged the privilege of hearir g and defense would have been secuted as preposterous. The oppo- nents of the system as it IS hedged | about by the rules of the civil service commission who make no bones of al- lowing the spells to the victors and the class O. It's adversaries who look upon It as impracticable ;.nd as susceptible of abuse and as harmful as the power of appointment with the right of re- mova1 for any cause the appointing power may deem sufficient, are rejoic- | fr.rr ktz welt as an< amrle vfndication of their contentious. They regard the order or almost practical overthrow of the civil service system If not a mortal blow to its most vital part. Meanw hi1e the thousands of persons In the Government service who are im- l mediatsly concerned by the order are pitifully agitated. If 1t has done noth- ing else, it has tended to overawe the clerk into miserable and furtive servility which must be sickening to every consideration of self-respect As 1t has been, the system has too much | already emasculeted the manhood that | cherithes honest conviction, and now to aggravate the lsmentabie environ ment of the clerk with constant menace of summary dismissal at the caprice of an autocratic chief is quite enough to frighten the mind of the employe away from the proper discharge of his duties. | of clerks smirking dissemblers has turned them Into cowed creatures who go about with fear ana trembling, ai- most with "bated breath and whisper ing humbleness" in the presence of ex- ecutive greatness
 It Is admitted that there Is much to be said. and much is being said. in be- half of the order and the protection it gives to superiors from the insolence of their interiors. Suppose the Presi- dent or the cabinet officer is the auto- crat and final judge of the conduct of the clerk, Is it not best when the con- duct of the clerk has been so heinous and outrageous as to be intolerable that authority should have the. power to act instantly? Why wait upon the delay O. the civil service regulations when there is any self-convicted rascal who ought to be immediately turned out7
 Ostensitiy the Roosevelt order was intended to advance the discipline of the service. If to inspire ever-present fear of authority in office is an aid to discipline in office. the order has al- ready accomplished it's purpose.s It is agreed that cabinet officers have long felt that their owR duties and preroga- tivcs were little more than merely clerical, especially under the overshad- owing personality of such & President as Theodore Roosevelt. Hence 1t was with uEIelBned 0eIlEnI ana enInuSlaSt1C uhanin ity that the cabinet chiefs agreed to the ruling that lifted them to positions of rulers in law and fact.
 Hereafter sny clerk who is shame fully urgettlemarly or unladylike, or whc does grossly unseemly and dis graceful things in the presence of the cabinet officer or the President. or who dares to make faces at any of these | chiefs, will be dismissed and suppressed and extingulshed forever. It is na- turally inferred that the order was determir ed and unanimously agreed upon with the main view to get rid of eyesores in the departments, each cab inet officer having his share of such carkng cares. Democrats who are Democrats from conviction and who are not afraid to make known their party allegiance rejoice almost as much as the executive chiefs over the grand bouncing order
 Another interesting phase of the commentaries provoked by this episode is contained in the argument that the logic of the order goes far beyond the mere range of vision of the cabinet of- ficer. It is that lt reaches every civil officer of the Government who has in charge the employment of others in the service of the Government for whose efficient performance of duty he Is re- spons ible.
 It is also interesting to note that
 
 only a few days ago the President gravely rebuked Captain J. E. B. Stu art, recently appointed by the President to he office of Collector of Internal Revenue for the Eastern District of Virginia, for the authority he assumed in readjusting the clerical status of his office Captain Stuart found under him a number of Democrats. Some of them he reduced In rank and consequently in pay and others he discharged, all be- cause they were Democrats President Roosevelt compelled the restoration of the discharged men.
 Captain Stuart honestly it is be- lieved. deemed the conduct of these men in remaining Democrats under him and President Roosevelt was fla grant misconduct; and he removed them. For this act he came very near losing his job at the hands of him who berlowed it.. Captain Stuart was very much surprised and grieved, but as suddenly came the reprimand there has come to him consolation from the same source; his hot humiliation of yesterday is turned into the more soothing flush of triumphant vindica- tion of today.
 The last assault upon the civil ser l.vA-