Evening star., 1933-06-23
HOUSE DEMOCRATS
DEMAND 4,60O Jobs
Farley to Confer With Civil
Service on Revoking COP.
"Cover-in" Orders.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

Postmaster General James A. Farley
was appealed to today by group of
Democratic members of the House to
recommend to President Roosevelt revo-
cation Of executive orders issued dur
ing the last IL years by Republican
Presidents covering into the civil serv-
ice approximately 1900 offices and in
cumbent Republican appointees.
In the delegation which called upon
the Postmaster General, recognized as
the Presidents chief adviser on politi-
cal appointments and patronage. were
Representative Joseph w. Byrns OF
Tennessee, majority leader of the House;
Representative James v. McClintic of
Oklahoma, Representative H. P. Fulmer
of South Carolina, Representative c. V.
Parsons of Illinois, Representative M. j.
Hart of Michigan and Representative
Sandlin OF Louisiana and number of
others.
The Postmaster General listened
carefully to the recommendations of
the members of the House and promised
to lay them before The President for
his consideration when the Chief Ex-
ecutive returns to Washington.
Views to Be Sought.
Mr. Farley said, too, that he would
in the meantime take up with the Civil
Service Commission these recommended
tions to get the views of the commits
sion as to what effect on the civil
service and the merit system a whole
sale revocation of these orders cover
ing jobs and the incumbent employees
into the civil service would have. He
did not indicate what his own recon-
mendation to the President regarding
the proposal to rescind the executive
orders of the last three Republican
Presidents would be.
Generally speaking, however, it is not
considered likely that all the demands
of the Congressman with reference
to the civil service will be approved,
though some of them in modified form
may be accepted.
The Democratic Congressman are
demanding a clean sweep of Repub-
lican appointees. They insist that the
Democrats should be given a chance to
fill Offices to which many of the Re-
publicans, if not all, were appointed
without passing examinations. In a
general way, they propose to make
vacant all these positions and then
to permit the appointment of Demo-
Gratis, or at least to give Democrats a
chance to pass examinations for the
jobs and be appointed. They propose
also an allotment of the jobs to the
States and to congressional districts,
with the Congressman presumably hav-
ing something to say about who will
be appointed to fill the jobs.
Swamped by Applications.
Members of Congress, Senators and
Representatives alike, of the Democratic
persuasion are literally swamped with
applications for Federal Office of one
kind or another, running from chauf-
fer and messenger, to Ambassador rep
resenting the United States in foreign
countries
The demand today far exceeds the
earlier demands. This is partly due to
the fact that the administration failed
to fill many Offices during the session
of Congress just closed, busted as it
was with huge problems of legislation,
and also with the problem of getting
the legislation successfully through
Congress. A patronage club is an eff
fective weapon when welded firmly
The increased demand is due also to
the passage OF the administrators
program of legislation and the pres
ent nerd of setting up new organiza-
tions to administer the laws But so
great is the demand for jobs that the
Democratic members Of the House are
now engaged in a search for all the
additional places under the civil serv-
:ce they can find and obtain by dis
lodging Republicans.
Totals of Three Presidents
Figures obtained at the Civil Service
Commission showed that last Winter the
total number of Government employees
covered into the civil service by Presi-
dent Hoover was 2,717. A small number
Of persons in addition were covered into