The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1922-04-19
CAPITOL cuLLrvos

ecutive order. summarily dismissing
the Director OF the Bureau of En-
craving and Printing and thirty
other officials and experts, with
which the public is chiefly concerned
are:
First, fhe manner In which the
removals were made without warn
ing and without charges, thus sub
jecting them to suspicious which
tended to blacken their characters
and bring disgrace upon them and
upon their families.
Second, The plain violation Of the
civil service law, which provides that
no one in the classified service may
be removed except upon charge in
writing, and permitting the accused
to reply thereto. 1t is an unprece-
dented assault upon the policy and
the principle of the civil service sys-
tenn in which the Republican party
has always protested to believe.
1t is contended that President Har-
ding was clearly within his rights
when he ordered these dismissals.
To this. Senator Caraway Dem,
Ark.), who introduced resolutions,
one requesting the President to give
mis- reasons, and one for a commit
tee OF Investigation. replied:
1.-THE President is not above the
law, although for the argument sake
I m2y concede that he may disgrace
and remove these men from the serv-
ice, and they have no legal redress;
he may exercise the authority vested
in him and override the statute, but
In doing so, If he acts without just
cause. he will more disgrace himself
in the high ONCE he holds than ne
will disgrace these humble citizens
whose rights to make an honest liv-
ing he has sought to destroy"
Democratic politicians are not dis
posed to critize the President IL he
simply removes Democratic Office
holders and replaces them with Re-
publicans, provided the purpose is
avowed and it Is done openly and
legally. The criticism comes when
it is done in a manner that tends to
destroy character and assassinate
regulations. The failure to give
reasons or file charges was followed
by the publication of stories in the
press which placed the discharged
officials under suspicion of various
forms of fraud and dishonesty
and they still number millions of
Believers in civil service, however,
people throughout the country, can
find no justification for the arbitrary
removal of these officials without
charges, whatever may have been the
motive. Their position is that the
departments of the government are
either to be run under the civil SER
vice merit system, or the Offices are
to be filled by political partisans un-
der the old spoils system which re-
suited in the barter and sale of ap-
pointments and the worst forms of
political corruption until public
sentiment was almost unanimous in
getting rid of it.
The announcement that other Bu-
reaus are to be "Hardingized" in a
similar manner has produced a
panicky feeling in all departments,
and the fear that thousands of eff
cient employees of the merit system
will be forced to make way for
Harding Republicans" under a gem
eral enforcement of the spo.ls sys-
TEN, resulting in a general impair
ment of the government service. 7
The morale of the service would
necessarily be destroyed if employees
felt that they were Working for the
Republican party insteal of the gov
eminent.
Harding's Dismissal Order Denounc-
ed as Heartless
The strongest criticism of Presi-
dent Harding's executive order dis
missing the Director of the Bureau
of Engraving and Printing and thirty
other officials there were made by
Senator Caraway (Dem., Ark). in
the Senate and Representative Byrns
(Dem.. Tenn in the House. Among
other things, Senator Caraway said:
Men with service ranging all the
way from 20 to 80 years, services
that had been acceptable to both
Republican and Democratic admins
trations, men agaist whom no charge
has ever been made. either OF in
efficiency or of dishonor, were remov-
ed from their positions and dis
charged from the public service by an
Executive order. l venture the as