Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-04-19

did not make any bones about max
ing such statments. They were per-
fectly frank, and they gave their col
leagues to understand that, in ad-
dition to refusing to allow those nom
nations to be confirmed by the en-
ate in its executive sessions that
latter on, they would start a harrow
over the alleged "ciyil' service reg
ulations and that they would rncov-
er the real reasons for blanketing
in a protective way the p~ostmasters,
inspectors and about 10000 other
federal employees whom Mr.. Taft had
~strategically placed under the "civil'
service some time before the disas-
trOus election that swept him and his
party out of power. Now they arc
up against it, for Senator Charles e.
Townsend Of Michigan, intends to
carry the war into Rome and make
things generally uncomfortable for
the other side. That he will be sup
ported by senators o, mis- own politi.
cal faith goes without saying.
But whether he will or will not be
helped ont in his fight against the
confirmation of President Wilson's
nominations, the fact remains that
those who thought they 'smelled a
rat" in the thousands upon thons-
ands Of office-holders who were sud
denly and suspiciously placed upon
Uncle Sans payrolls, and thus held
apparently secure in their respective
fat jobs by the alleged civil service
regulations. have kept on Investigate
ing until they have smoked out the
truth about those appointments. They
have discovered, through the confess
sion Of the civil service folks that
'quietly' pumped into s%inecures
without undergoing the necessary
Formally Of the usual competitive *
aminations, which other less favored
and less fortunate applicants and as
p%irants have had to undergo. Whilst
many very worthy men and women
have been informed that, under all
circumstances they must stand com
petitive examinations, even for such
small positions as rural free delivery
carriers, or even as messengers, the
favored ones have had no examina-
tons to scare them, and no civil ser
vice regulation bugagoo to brighten
them-they have Heen covered in"
NY an executive order. And it may
be news for some of the p%rogressives
to learn that Mr.. Roosevelt issued
many of such executive orders, thus
enabling those to whom they were
given to escape the perils and pit
falls of the civil service cxamina-
tons. However. I am anticipating
the disclosure that will be made on
this fruitful subject at an early day.
The elimination of that smoking
out process will be the death knell
Of the civil service humbug, and the
appointment to official positions of
thousands Of worthy men and women,
who are now in the cold, and whom,
under the present unsatisfactory sit
u%ation, President Wilson and his
cabinet find it absolutely impossible
or impracticable to place in any po-
sition. Those Executive orders"
have hit republicans for several
years and have discouraged lots of
fit candidates from presenting them
selves before the examiners. So, it
is plain that both political parties
have suffered from that d%isgraceful
imposition, an imposition for which
the civil service commissioners, or
their able and impartial examiners
are in 10 way responsible.