The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-07-30
And Republicans Are Beiag
I1emoted to Force Them
70 f1esagn.
rf,harIes - smltIIl

good OF the eeEkAce, ~ AAtNAs -a-s-- =
drst try-out IN West Virginia at Park
ersl,tirg where q Democratic success
d, a T9ostnaster Frank smiEl has
been recommended ~ Senator sChilton.
al the requestof the pOstOiice departs
.hent-afor the good Of the service
il now making Its initial bow In this
city.
The modus operandf ts slightly
inherent. Here It takes the shape Of
"demotions for the good Of the ser
vice. ana heads Of departments and
clerks by the Wholesale have been de-
noted by the wholesale. the most
sweeping change taking place In the
pension department.
The singular part about t-singu-..
lar to the unsophisticated-is that
only Republican employees ofathe gov
eminent are denoted, and only Demo
cratic employes~are promoted to their;
places. The hfgh-handed scale on
which this operation was performed
ON the pension department. clerical
rolls has raised such row and rum
pus that It has been brought to the
attention OF President Wilson, not by
the employees afEected, for they dare
not for the fear Of losing the lesser
Jobs that have been given them but
by the Civil Service Commission, IT.
self, which called on the president in
q body. 1t was given out that they.
called in q body for the frst time 10
nav their respects" But the truth is
that they called TO ascertain from the
president whether the civil service ~
to be made the handball of politics by
this administration. 1t might not
probably was not, stated as .brusauely
as that; but that was the general
tenor
The plan behind this dennotion bus:
mess lis a very shrewd one, and pleas
ingly looked upon by its orlginatorsi
as about the niftiest little Joker in
the deck when It comes to taking the
tricks from the civil service laws.
The pervading idea is to SO demota
Republican emp loyes that the de-
NOTED will in course of time, and for
the sake OF self-preseryntion resign
from the service, which Is precisely
what the denotes desire him-or
them-to do. 4r
The average pay OF a government
clerk in Washington is $500, and how
they manage to,exist on that sum no
one excepting the good Lord himself
is suspected of knowing But they do
it somehow, and many of the old and
experienced ones might we'll be called
on by ME- Bryan for enlightenment
ON the subject of how he can live on
ST 900 a month. In the pension de-
partment demoting shakeup most of
the men affected are $500 men, and
the few of them who have been res
ceiving a little more than that now
find themselves on the $500 wage
scale.
No animation, so far as the public
is aware. either oral or written has
the new president given on the ques-
ton OF the civil service as it affects
the employees of the government here
and evcrywhere,e else His only men
troning of patronage was his declara
ton in the early days of his term that
cabinet officers would have charge of
the distribution of patronage in their
departments. Whether he
meant that they could go the limit
aud beat the civil service laws and
its SNUG commission around the
stump he did not specify but evident
ly the cabinet members, or several OF
them, at any rate, have put that in
on IT, Burleson. post
master general, was the first to put
the boots to the civil service, and he
has been doing things to 1t every
since without let or hindrance from
presidential headquarters. Others
arc following suit. Bryan is not only
busy with the patronage OF his own
department, but with every other de-
partment whenever he can get a
Democrat appointed, he gets him APP
pointed, and every appointment he
makes, or influences somebody else to
make, and out-and-out Bryan man is
named. It mas begun to attract sus-
picion on the part OF the friends of
President Wilson who are. by no man
lner Of means. especial admirers of the
grape juice diplomat from the chau-
tauqua belt
From all that is going on it begins
to look that when Wilson Presumed
TO sldestep all obligations OF patron
age distribution by pretendingstO lay
all Of it.~er very great part of It,
on the shoulders OF the members OF