Evening star., 1909-07-01
T0OMUCHNEWD BROOM HARVARD WINS TW|CE|
Conuressmen Talk of Com Captures Race OF Fours and
merce and Labor Ruction Freshman Fights.
WANT TO KNOW REASON SUPERIORITY Is MARKED|
Absolutely Understand Time Made Slow and Neither Grew
the Situation Shows Distress,
CAUSE FOR THEIR ATTITUDE EVENT TO BE R0WED AT
Appears Be the Favor
Denartment nrod.,
Grad. rmc,.rcv Coach Predict
congressman Talk of Com
merce and Labor Ruction.
WANT TO KNOW REASON
Absolutely at Loss to Understand
the Situation.
CAUSE FOR THEIR ATTITUDE
Recall Cortelyou's Effort to Make
the Department Model Of High
Grade Efficiency.

Members of Congress are absolutely at
loss to understand the present ruction
In the Department of Commerce and
Labor. They are astonished at the state
ments. apparently emana;ing from high
and responsible official sources. to the eff
feet that dry rot pervades this branch of
the government service. They wonder
when they read the assertion that whole
sale fneff1ciency In the bureau will be
punished by wholesale dismissals.
And there's reason for this attitude
on the part or the lawmakers. They
have not forgotten. whatever may be the
case with other folks. that only six short
years ago George Bruce Cortelyou the
organizer and system exponent under
whom Card-Index Hitchcock learned the
tricks of the trade was soundly spanked
by the appropriations committee of the
House of Representatives for presuming
TO skim the cream from the depart
mental service in Washington I'm his eff
forts to make the Department OF Com
merce and Labor a model of high-grade
efficiency.
Other cabinet members complained that
Mr.. Cortelyou was impairing the efficiency
Of other departments of the government
In the effort to improve his own. They
kicked to such an extent. moreover, that
the appropriations committee. when Mr.
Cortelyou was before 1t, called him down
good and hard. They told him that while
his efforts to make the new department
model of its kind were praiseworthy.
ne must not do 1t at the expense OF other
branches of the government service. and,
anyhow they didn't approve of one cabi-
net officer. with a good range of salaries
At his command. outbiddng his colleagues
.or the services of competent clerks.
Mr.. Cortelyou was so put out as re-
suit of the lambastins he received at the
hands of Chairman Tawney and bis asso-
ciates that he went to President Roose-
Welt with his tale of woe, and the Presi-
dent took hand in the game. When he
and Mr.. Cortelyou got through with the
organization of the Department OF Com
merce and Labor 1t was said-and the
saying went uncontradlcted-that they
thought they had the best and most COM
petent and efficient force in the govern
ment service.
Coneressmen Ask Questions.
Now" the members of Congress who
know these last rotated things ask,
what, in the name Of sin and corrup-
ton. is the matter with the Department
Of Commerce and Labor? How is 1t that
in six short years that department has
dropped from a state of the highest eff
cheney TO the dry-rot stage claimed for
II at present? Was Mr.. Cortelyoa wrong
when he thought he had organized an ef-
ficient department or are Messrs. NaEel
and McHarg wrong now in preparing tor
their threatened wholesale housscieaning
of the so-called dead wood ana unde7
sirabies?
Members OF the House who have been
In Washington for years and who nave
seen fiocks Of cabinet members come anu
70. and come and go suggest that Messrs.
Nagel and McHarg are merely overWork-
ing the new broom business BIT. Iney
think that the Department of commerce
and Labor undoubtedly should nave a
greater percentage of competent and Ell
ficient clerks on its rolls than any other
department Of the government service.
Want to Know other Things.
And they want to know, II the Depart
men Of Commerce and Labor is in the
state that is claimed for 1t. what under
the sun must be the hopeless condition OF
all the other and older departments OF the
government? They think that the recent
loud howls from this particular depart
ment constitute, as Civil Service Com
missioner Black has said, libel on the
civil service commission. and. more than
that, a pointed reflection on George B.
Cortelyou and his assistant at that time,
Frank Hitchcock.
Also they would like to know the real
facts i'm the case so that they might un-
derstand whether Cortelyou was right and
Nagel wrong, Nagel right and COrtelyou
wrong. or whether neither of them knew
what he was talking about.