The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-12-16
HARDING TO MAKE CHANGE
IN NAMING OF POSTMASTERS
Ambitious Democrats" Will Be Pre-
vented From Holding Down Jobs

Ambitious democrats Will be Pre-
vented From Holding Down Jobs
A staff correspondent of the Pitts
burgh Press, in writing from. Wash
ington on the question of the appoint
ment of postmasters when Senator
Harding becomes President, says that
ambitious Democrats" will be pre-
vented from serving as the president
will suspend the civil service order
and the Senate will not confirm the
many appointments just sent to the
Senate. This will prove of interest to
Hagerstown as the acting postmas-
ter's name is among the list of "ambi-
tious Democrats" sent to the Senate.
The Press's article follows
Zone fthe first official acts of SEN
ator Harding after he takes the oath
of office as President, March a, is ex-
pected to be an order suspending the
executive order nov in force which
places all postmasterships under the
civil service. Republican leaders in
the Senate will press for this action
it is understood, and it is Beloved that
the new President will readily listen to
the suggestion.
President Wilson, it will be remem-
bered, extended the civil service as it
applied to postmasterships so that
even the first class was included and
if this order were allowed to stand it
would result in the postoffices of the
country being named by Democrats
for years to come. That the whole
affair has been a joke is recognized
here for under the executive order
which exists the present postmasters
would continue in office until they were
removed for cause or by death. In
stances where vacancies have occurred
since the order went into effect the
present administration has made new
appointments without much respect to
the civil service rules, it is pointed out,
although some sort of hokus pokus
was generally gone through with with
which to create such an impression.
Furthermore, the whole business of
appointing postmasters would become
a sort of farce, if the order were al
lowed to stand, it is said, because the
Republican Senate would refuse to
confirm Democratic postmasters GER
titled to succeed themselves by the
civil service. The new President will
be urged to suspend the order as it af-
fects the first, second and third class
postmasterships, leaving the fourth
class jobs still under the civil service
where leaders believe they rightly be-
long, because they are of minor i'm
portance and not considered as worth
much in the way of political impor-
lance"
The refusal of the Senate to con-
firm the appointment and the suspen-
sion of the civil service order will
prevent Palmer Tennent from being
postmaster at Hagerstown after next
March. Several thousand other ambi-
tious Democrats whose names have
been sent to the Senate within the
past week will likewise be prevented
from holding Federal positions.
The Republicans claim they have not
forgotten the action of the Democrats
when they came into power following
the Taft administration All Republi-
can nominations sent in by President
Taft were buried away, they aver, I'M
til after the Inauguration of Mr.. Will
son, and they now propose to give the
present administration a dose of its
own medicine.