The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-17
Senator Bristow Says There Is
Too Much i'm Washington.
Interesting Debate Over Limit
ings Terms of Clerks.
MEASURE DID NOT PASS
Suggested That System of Re-
tirement Be Adopted.
Pipe Lines Must File Schedule
of Rates.

| Washington, D. c., June 1.-THE
attitude of the senate was plainly de-
fined concerning the future of gov
eminent employees in the course of
debate a few days ago. The Hepburn
amendment limiting clerks to ten
years of service was defeated without
| the necessity of a roll call. Practi-
| cally every senator who spoke on the
| subject opposed such a plan. How
| ever every senator laid stress on the
| need of efficiency ratings, and the
| amendment offered by Senator John
| Sharp Williams was thought to meet
| the ideas of a large part of the sem
| ate.
The Williams amendment would re-
Quire the establishment of standards
of efficiency to be determined by ex-
| aminations. Every clerk would enter
the service for a five-year period, at
the end of which he would be exam
ined If he failed to reach the mini
mum mark he would be dropped. If
| he reached the maximum he would
be promoted, and those failing be-
tween the two marks would be sub
| ject to the discretion of the appoint
ing officer.
Senator Bristow of Kansas said
there was a lot of "deadwood" in
the government service which ought
| to be cleaned out. In the course of
debate he said:
at seems to me that the question
which confronts congress is whether
or not we shall devise some system
| by which employees, when they reach
the Incompetent period of life, when
they can no longer work, shall be re-
tired and the method of their retire
ment.
st do not think there is any doubt
but what the departments now are
filled with a good deal of what is
termed 'deadwood,' and there is pres
sure being brought to bear on con-
gress in the organization of clerks and
the Hobbies they employ to get a civil
pension list established. The strong
est argument that is being made for
a civil-pension list is the fact that the
departments are full of employees
who have grown old and are 1ncap-
able of rendering efficient service,
longer the time which elapses since
the establishment of the civil-service
system, the more congested Will the
departments be with these incompe-
tent old clerks.
LAS between a term and a civil
pension list, L should favor the term
of service. 1 do not believe that the
people of the United States are under
obligations to keep during the re-
mainder of their lives men who have
had generous compensation for their
services while they were in good
health. / am in thorough accord with
the expression of the senator from
Mississippi (Mr. Williams) when he
says that if the time comes when it
is deemed desirable to put on the pen
sion roll the aged employees of the
government, who have been receiving
libral compensation during the years
and years in which they have been
employed, he will vote to put every
man and woman on the pension roll
when they reach the same period and
the same condition in life"
The interstate commerce commission
has held that pipe line companies trans
porting oil between the states are COM
mon carriers, with the obligations of
such, and ordered Is of the largest oil
pipe lines to file schedules of rates by
September L, and to comply with the
provisions of the interstate commerce
act.
The Uncle Sam Oil company of Kan
sas is included in the list of lines af-
fected by the order.
It is the conclusion Of the commits
sion that congress in designating oil
pipe lines as common carriers meant
precisely what was said in the statute.
The commission holds that the obliga-
lions of common carrier are impress
ed upon a pipe line engaged in the
transportation of oil in interstate COM
merce, even though such pipe line was
built over it's privately acquired right
of way, and transports only it's own
Oil.
Senator Hepburn of Idaho and Mrs |
1SaDeU w rreu Ban OF Larned, KAN !
were the principal speakers at the flag |
day celebration here given under the |
auspices of the Woman'S Relief Corps |
of the District of Columbia
Senator Hepburn caused some excite |
mem while Mrs. Ball, who is patriotic |
instructor of the W. r. c., was illus |
trating the evolution of the American |
flag by showing the different flags used |
in this country before the Stars and |
Stripes were adopted. Mrs. Ball con- |
cluded by showing a white flag with a |