The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-09
DECL ARESCIvI
 SERVICE LAW IS GRADUALLYDYINC
National Civil Service Lea que Secretary Attacks Ru-
 ral Credits Bill Rider.


 New York, May 9.-George T. Reyes, secretary of the National Civil Ser vice Reform League, Wall Street, gave out to-day copy of a letter sent by the League to- every member of the Senate at Washington, protesting against 'an outrageous patronage ri der'' in the Rural Credits bill which | exempts from the operations of the Civil Service law every employee of the Federal Farm Loan Board, includ- | ing ordinary clerks. Attention is al- so called to the record of the Sixty l third Congress in repeating fbit by | bit'' the National Civil Service law. The : letter, written by MT, Reyes says in 1 part:
 On behalf of the National Civil Service Reform League, earnestly | urge that section 3 of the pending Rd- | raI Credits bill be eliminated. This is 1 the section which provides that all l "attorneys, experts, assistants, clerks, | 1aborers, and other employees, and all registrars and appraisers" of the Fed era1 Farm Loan Board shall be ap- pointed without complying with the requirements of the Civil Service law
 The bill specifically provides that these subordfnate places are all to be treated initially at least, as unclassifed offices. The effect is only to subject sIt4S sO1 C41S 44SW ye1CC U the most serious menace possible, namely, the influences of partisan pol itfcs in the entire organization of the subordinates of the Board. It will be impossible to keep these influences out if the places are in the uncIassif1ed service. Every one knows this to be true. The adoption of the amend ment, in other words, will expose the new rural credits system of the coun- try to the corrupting and extravagant influences of the spells system. Nothing could be more surely fatal to the sue Eeess of the new system than this re- suit. On it's merits and aside from it's character as a rider, it is neither neces-# sary nor in the slightest degree ex-a cusable. No more serious menace, to the new rural credits system, for ex- ample,s could be imagined than that it's administration be tainted with poli-g tics, and no surer way could be found to make that menace real than by 1 lopening the entire subordinate force to partisan Appointments. as the rider in the Rural Credits bill does.
 For the great majority. if not, in fact, for all Of the places, not the slightest difficulty will be encountered in securing efficient men of practical 1 experience without political ties and obligations through examinations con. ducted by the Civil Service Commits I sion with the aid of the experts which it can employ. If any exceptions are. necessary, it would be within the Presidents power to make such excep- tions by Executive order under the Civil sSefvice law. This power to classify offices or put them in the pnclassified service should fbe left to the President. as has been the prac- tice under the Civil Service law for thirty years. In explaining the presence of this outrageous spells item in the bill, Sem ator Hollis referred to the exemption of the employees of the Federal Re- serve Board. It is true that these employees were exempted by act of lCpngress without just cause. The best answer in favor of the elimination of suchl spells provisions is the state ment of Senator Hollis that the Fede- ral Reserve Board is using the machin- cry of the Civil Service Commission to lsecure a great many of its employees. The Federal Reserve Board needed the protection of the Civil Service law against the pressure of spoi1smen.
 In reviewing the record of the Sixty third Congress the League touched on the exemptions from the Civil Service flaw made in the cases of employees under the Income Tax law; employees l of the Federal Resenve Board, attor- neys, special experts, and examiners of the new board provided by the Trade ECornmission bill and fourteen positions of commercial attaches credited to American ministers abroad.