Evening star., 1939-02-15
Murphy Considers
Civil Service for
Deputies
Step Studied as Means
Of Tightening Up on
Appointments

Aroused by the irregularities the
Warning case has disclosed in the
United States marshal's ONCE here,
Attorney General Murphy is consid-
ering recommending that deputies
be put under civil service in order
to tighten up the procedure by which
they are appointed, it was learned
today.
The Attorney General told press
conference a week ago that the
Department of Justice proposed to
move in and clean up conditions in
the courts wherever the circum-
stances warranted, and while he
has not commented publicly on local
developments, it became known to-
day that they have occupied his
attention to the point where he has
| begun study of methods of approach
to the problem and that civil service
| figures in these.
Bill Introduced.
The Attorney General, who spon-
sored State civil service in his ad-
ministration as Governor of Michi-
gan, 1t was pointed out by officials,
is in a position to press for civil
service for those of his aides who
are now exempt, as he is a men,
ber of the committee just named
by President Roosevelt to study Sc
lection and promotion procedure
for all the principal classes of en-
ployment that are still outside the
merit system. This committee, head
ed by Associate Justice Stanley F..
Reed and including also Justice
Felix Frankfurter. is to hold its first
meeting Saturday.
New legislation would be required
to put the deputies under civil serv-
ice, and bill to accomplish this
already has been introduced by Rep
resentative Ramspeck of Georgia,
chairman Of the House Civil Service
committee, who said today that he
was hopeful that definite action
would be taken.
He commented that Civil service
won't guarantee honesty" but that
1t unquestionably would work i'm
provement in the appointing system,
which now is based on political pref
erence. He recalled in this connec-
ton that when prohibition agents
were put under civil service in the
Coolidge administration that about
so per cent of the 2,4OO patronage
employees with which the agency had
been stated were disqualified. many
because of previous criminal rec
ords.
Once Under Civil Service.
Mr.. Ramspeck added that two or
three years ago he received a letter
from former associate in the House
who had been appointed to the Fed
eral bench in which the jurist said
that he would favor civil service both
for deputy marshals and for assistant
United States attorneys, explaining
that the housecleaning among these
officers that inevitably followed a
change in administration tied up the
courts for about six months while
the new men were becoming ac-
quainted with their work.
deputy marshalS formerly were
under civil service, President Grover
Cleveland bringing them in by ex-
ecutive order. An Attorney Generals
ruling in the Mckinley administra-
ton held that this method of cov-
ering in was illegal, but in the face
Of that ruling President Theodore
Roosevelt continued to make civil
service appointments. The positions,
however, became subject to patron
age again in President Wilson's first
term. Congress exempting by law
deputy marshals and deputy col :
lectors of customs. who also had
been put under civil service by
Theodore Roosevelt. President Will
son in signing this bill said that he
did it regretfully.
Chairman Ramspeck also has in
troduced bill to restore deputy COL
lectors to the classified ranks.