The Washington herald., 1912-12-06
Statement Of Representative
{. Fitzgerald Indicates Posi-
ton Of Party.
DISCUSSION IN The HOUSE
Acrimonious Passage Over Civil
Service Policies EnIiVens
Day in Congress.
By Joseph p. AMIN.

That a certain group of Democrats
in the House, gradually Identifying
themselves as the "old Guard" of their
party. are hungry for political spoils
and will exert what influence they
command on President Wilson to pro-
cure as much patronage as possible Is
becoming clearly apparent.
I That these same Democrats are not
prepared to carry through their econ
omy programme to the extent Of
threatening to embarrass President
Wilson's administration as they did
President Taft's, is indicated in tho
Legislative. executive. and judicial APP
preparation bill. which was up for con-
slderation in the House yesterday.
! The first conclusion was strongly sub
stantiated in remarks by Representative
Fitzgerald of New York, chairman Of
the House appropriations committee.
in the course of a colloquy with Repre-
sentative GilIett OF Massachusetts, a
Republican member of the same COM
mittee. The second conclusion was
drawn by Mr. GIllett in a lengthy criti-
cism OF the attitude OF the Democrats
last year and a sarcastic comparison be-
tween the legislative bill of 1928 and
that of 1913-l4
i Out for Spells.
Well" said Mr.. Fitzgerald. in the
course OF a verbal passage with Gillett.
Il am not hungry for spells, neither are
my constituents. / have a great many
patriotic and competent citizens in my
district who believe they can materially
improve the character of the administra-
ton by being made a part OF it."
with fixed salary interposed
Minority Leader Mann of Illinois.
And l hope to give them an oppor-
tunity to demonstrate what they can
do. That does not mean that the classi-
| fied service is to be utterly demoraliZed,
although in my opinion. there are some
positions in the classified service. filled
by Republicans. who were covered there
| by an executive order which would be
greatly improved by having a change in
the occupants"
There are two significant features OF
Mr.. Fitzgerald's brief declaration. He
treasures the civil service that he does
not wish to see II utterly demoralized
action of President Taft a few weeks
before election in placing under civil
| service protection some 1900 fourth
class postmasters whose jobs would have
been legitimate spoil for incoming Demo-
cratic hosts but for the executive order.
| Chairman Fitzgerald does not speak for
| himself alone. 1t is to be supposed. for
I
| Charlie Murphy. of Tammany, New York,
who doubtless has lot Of hungry mouths
| TO feed as the result Of the Wilson vic
| tory in New York, will not be displeased
| by Mr.. Fitzgerald's confession of faith.
And 1t is no secret that hosts of Mr..
| Fitzgerald colleagues from the solid
South. and many from other sections.
| would not be averse TO a broadening of
| the patronage horizon. They have more
| than 10000 applicants 10 satisfy. with
about 1000 jobs. And 5000 jobs will go
farther than 1000.
No Serious Shake-up.
1t is not to be implied that this fore
| casts a serious disturbance of the civil
service system. Gov. Wilson's past rec
ord and public utterances all would be
violated by any act on his part which
! led to a repression from the present
| status of the service. On the contrary,
| President Wilson is much more liable to
! push the idea OF civil service reform to
| the ultimate degree in his administration.
! The incident of yesterday is interesting.
| however. as Indicating what the policy OF
| the Appropriations Committee is, and
| in that ii forecasts a possible hostile at
titude toward the departments in the
| event of President Wilson'S expected
stand in protecting the service.
| The necessary reforms in the civil serv-
| ice gave rise to extended discussion in
/ the House yesterday. Representative Gil
| lett saw fit TO Crlticise the Democratic
| members of the Appropriations Commit
] tee severely because the bill now under
! discussion, and which appropriates for
| the first complete fiscal year of Presi-
dent Wilson's administration, provides
for 80 additional jobs and carries with II
| a number OF increases in salary. This is
! in decided contrast to the legislative APP
Precipitation bill OF last session, which
| carried virtually no increases in salary
or positions. and which called for a lump
! sum reduction.
| Mr. Gillett took the Democrats severe
| their failure to advocate logical meas
! ures for reforming the civil service and
| wedding out a number of abuses which
| have grown up In it Thereupon Rep
| resentative Burleson, a member Of the
| subcommittee which framed the bill,
jumped TO his feet and pointed out that
Mr.. Gillett had been for years chairman
| Of the committee on reforms in the civil
| service under the Republican regime
! and that no such measure as Mr.. Gillett
| now advocates had been passed in that
time.
should Have Reclnssified.
Now what we ought to have DONE"
said Mr.. Gillett. was to have reclassi-
| fed the whole service. Redistribution
is one of the crying needs of the civil
service. There are some of those clerks
who are too highly paid. There are
some who are paid too little. There Is
la bill which was considered by the ap-
preparations committee few years ago,