A Contrast The appropriation for the United States Civil Service Commission was the direct cause of a most remarkable debate in which both Republican and Democratic members of the House took part while the great supply bill was being considered on April 4. Representative after representative rose to state that the salaries of the members and employees of the civil service commission were much too low properly to uphold the dignity and allow them to assume the responsibility of the work of the Commission. Perhaps the most surprising features of the debate were the frank and unusual admissions on the part of a number of the members that the defects in the merit system were not because of the civil service law, but "in the abuses of the law." Several amendments increasing the salaries of the commissioners. were offered, but were ruled out on points of order. The debate, however, on the amendments is of sufficient interest to friends of the merit system to be given rather extensively as follows: Mr. Sims of Tennessee. Mr. Chairman, I suppose there is no question that the civil service law is now the accepted policy of all political parties in the United States. It has lately been extended to cover about 50,000 fourth-class postmasters and also to the vast number of employees that will be necessary in order to carry out the law for the physical valuation of the railroads. I do not understand why these commissioners are paid less than the chiefs of bureaus in the departments. I can not conceive of anything more important than the duties of the civil service commissioner at this time. It seems to me that throughout the country-at least, it has been my experience that the people have an idea that the civil service law is not intended to be enforced and that it is in fact not enforced. Now, we have had examinations in my district and all over the State of Tennessee recently of applicants for appointment as fourth-class postmasters, where the salary is from nothing up to $999 per annum. The appointments are to be made from the three highest on the eligible list, certified by the commission to the post office department. I think I have received from half a dozen to 50 letters from every point where an appointment is to be made in my district. They seem to have the idea that members of Congress actually determine who of the three highest is to be appointed, although they may all be of one political party. I have always thought and believed that the civil service law was intended to be carried out in letter and spirit. Now, if there are six on the eligible list, you may just as well let the department select from the six as from three if you are going to disregard the object and purpose of the examination. I understand this examination is made for the purpose of ascertaining those who of the applicants are best fitted for the discharge of the duties to be performed. Mr. Page of North Carolina. The gentleman has just outlined the process of the certification of the three eligibles to the post office department and the appointment by the Civil Service Commission of fourthclass postmasters. Who, in the gentleman's judgment, should determine as between these three that are certified? Why should three be certified if the one best qualified or the one who makes the highest rating is to be appointed? Mr. Sims. I have always understood, Mr. Chairman, that it was to give the appointing power some opportunity to determine the fitness of the applicant from administrative and departmental reasons as well as for educational qualifications, and therefore the ap pointing power was permitted to appoint one other than the highest as indicated by this test. But I have never understood that administrative or departmental reasons were to be determined by a member of Congress or by a Senator. Mr. Page of North Carolina. I understand, as the gentleman does; but in the gentleman's observation, not in the examination and supplying of the eligible list for fourth-class postmasters but in the selection from the eligible list of clerks in the departments in Washington, is the same practice followed under the law to certify three highest names from the list? Mr. Sims. Yes. Mr. Willis of Ohio. Is it the practice, especially in the postal service, to which the gentleman has alluded, that the appointment goes, after examination is had, to the man who receives the highest grade? Does the gentleman mean to convey that idea? Mr. Sims. I mean to convey the idea that when we read statements given out by the post office department to the effect that that will be done in every case, unless for administrative or departmental reasons, which I understand are reasons that inhere in the service to be performed, one other than the highest is appointed. I want to say this, Mr. Chairman, in all seriousness: If the civil service law is going to remain on the statute books and be perfected and lived up to, why give a salary to the commissioners themselves which is suggestive of the unimportance of the service to be performed? Why give the chief of a bureau five or six thousand dollars a year and then give to the civil service commissioners only $4,000. . . Of course, an amendment to increase these salaries would be subject to a point of order, if offered on the floor of the House, and I am not going to offer it. But I do think, as the importance of that commission increases year in and year out and its duties are multiplied, there ought not to be a salary provided for the commissioners which of itself minimizes the importance of the service to be performed by them. Mr. Fitzgerald of New York. Does the gentleman think that the great dignity of this posiiton must be taken into account? Mr. Sims. Well, I think the dignity of the commission is certainly as great as that of the commissioner of pensions, and certainly as great as that of many other commissions with much larger salaries. Mr. Fitzgerald. It is greater. Mr. Sims. Certainly it is greater than that of a lot of chiefs of bureaus, who get larger compensation. If civil service is to be the permanent policy of this country, let us carry out that policy in decency and effectually or else abandon it. Mr. Fess. I agree entirely with what the gentleman says, and I realize, too, that the latitude of giving the commission the opportunity of choosing some one less than the highest of the three subjects both the commission and everybody else concerned in the transaction to severe criticism and to the charge that it is done on political grounds. Does the gentleman think it would be a little better not to permit that latitude here? Mr. Sims. I am not practical; I am not an expert. The civil service commission determines the qualifications, so far as it has jurisdiction, but there might be serious reasons in the public interest why all three of them should be rejected and somebody else appointed. But I want to make this point, that service reasonsreasons that inhere in the duties to be performedshould not be sought for in the mind of a political member of the government who would suggest a political or perhaps a personal friend if he had one among the three certified by the commission. Mr. Good. Mr. Chairman, unquestionably no rule can be established for the appointment of persons to office and of persons to enforce any of the provisions of our law that is absolutely perfect. The civil service commission does certify the names of three persons when it comes to the appointment of postmasters, and there is some reason for that-possibly a very poor reason. But I think that reason is abused. Obviously the personal element always enters into the desirability of the appointment of any person to office. A person might pass a very good examination, and yet, by reason of some objections, personally would be offensive to serve in the community where he seeks an appointment. That difficulty is that the party in power-and it has always been so abuses that privilege. The fault is not in the law, but in the abuses of the law. But, Mr.. Chairman, it is not a question of whether or not the rules under which appointments are made are perfect, but the real question is whether or not appointments made in any other way would not be far worse than appointments made from lists certified by the Civil Service Commission, even though the law is abused. Today we have 301,000 people who hold office by virtue of civil service examinations or who have been covered into the service under Executive orders. Most of them have been appointed as a result of a civil service examination, and were it not for the fact that the law limits the amount which these commissioners shall receive I would here move to increase the salaries of these officials. Think of it! We are paying the chairman of the civil service commission $4.500 a year. We are paying the executive clerk in the executive office $5,000 a year; and you may go down through this bill and find clerks-many of them-receiving $5,000 a year -and these commissioners receiving $4,000 a year. Why? The reason is that the men appointed as the result of civil service examinations can not control these commissioners. If they could control them, it would be very easy at times to get increases of their salaries. There is no other department in our Government where we are so niggardly in the payment of salaries as we are in regard to the civil service commission. Mr. Fess. Does not the gentleman think that the lack of appreciation indicated by the salaries here is an evidence again that we are only half-heartedly supporting the civil service system, because we have objections to it? Mr. Good. No; I do not. I think it is because there is no political pull with the civil service commissioners, and that is the reason why their salaries have not been increased. Mr. Sims. I want to call attention to the fact that the secretaries of some other commissions get $5,000. Mr. Good. Yes; and yet the secretary of this commission gets $2,500, and he is a very efficient man. Mr. Murdock of Kansas. And a hard-worked one, too. Mr. Humphreys of Mississippi. The trouble is not so much with the examination and certification originally that first puts the employee on the roll; but after he gets on the roll in the departments and beyond the jurisdiction and control of the civil service commission the grossest kind of favoritism is manifested in promotions, I think, in all departments, Employees are promoted over other employees who are just as efficient, and frequently more efficient, for considerations that ought not to enter into it at all. Whether that is true today I do not know. This administratin has not been in very long, but I have no idea that there will be very much improvement in that respect. Employees do, in some way or other, through favoritism of the chief immediately over them or through some other influence entirely aside from the efficiency of the employee, manage some way to be promoted over the heads of others who are equally efficient, and frequently more efficient. Of course that is not chargeable in any way to the civil service commission, but to the administration of the several departments after the employees are admitted to the pay roll. As an indication of the change which has taken place in the attitude of Congressmen toward the civil service law, the annual attempts to strike out the appropriation for the civil service commission during the last years of Cleveland's second administration furnish a striking contrast to the debate in 1914. On May 22, 1894, during a lively debate on the item providing for the support of the civil service commission as carried in the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill for that year, Representative Grosvenor of Ohio, a Republican, said: "This civil service scheme has been running in this country for a considerable time, and I stated long ago from this very desk that it was simply a system designed to arm the party in control of the Government with the power to turn men out of office at its will, and that the system was an absolute failure upon the very lines on which its friends claim for it the highest degree of merit. "What is the claim? It has been said in this country and substantially all the material support of this system has come from this argument—that a man could not be turned out of office because of his political opinions. It has been claimed--and we have heard the claim here that no man ought to be turned out of any of these places because he is a Republican or because he is a Democrat. And the advocates of civil service reform as administered in this country have been going along blindly in stupid, intolerable ignorance of the fact that they had a law with no provision in it that pretended to accomplish the purpose which they say has been achieved by the law." Again, on December 22, 1896, Representative Baker, a Republican from New Hampshire, led an attack against the civil service commission, declaring that appointments and promotions in the office of the civil service. commission itself had been decided by the politics of the several applicants. The civil service commission asked for an investigation of the charges made by Mr. Baker, but the House did not avail itself of any opportunity to vertify them and it was afterwards proved that they were without foundation. Mr. Baker's speech was in part as follows: "Under no administration have the appointments, reductions and removals of the clerks and employees of the Government been so great or so unprincipled as under the present one, which professes to lead the cohorts of reform. "The civil service commission, as I have said, has entered no protest even against this carnival of plunder under the name of purification, and the commission itself and the organization of its subordinate employees are based upon political preferences and divisions, so that promotions among its employees have been decided by the politics of the several applicants. In short, the civil service commission itself does not in practice enforce the theoretical principles upon which it claims existence." G65 GOOD GOVERNMENT Official Journal of the National Civil Service Reform League. VOL. XXXI NEW YORK, JUNE 1914 No. 6 MONTHLY BULLETIN: CONTENTS THE FEDERAL SERVICE.... THE CIVIL SERVICE THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY.. AN OPPORTUNITY IN NEW YORK CITY (Editorial)..... A PROGRAM AND AN OUTLOOK FOR CIVIL SERVICE IN NEW MONTHLY BULLETIN The Federal Service PAGE 57 58 62 63 Indian appropriation bill reported to Senate.-On May 15 the Senate committee on Indian affairs reported the Indian appropriation bill to the Senate, refusing to agree with the House that 117 physicians should be exempted from the provisions of the civil service law. The Senate committee, however, allowed the House provision creating the new position of superintendent of the five civilized tribes to remain in the bill. The method of appointment provided by the bill places this important office in the unclassified service, as it is to be filled "by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." The committee on Indian affairs did not specifically remove 195 farmers receiving more than $50 per month from the merit system, but adopted an amendment requiring that each expert farmer shall file with the Indian commissioner a "certificate of competency" issued by the "president of state agricultural college" of the state in which the services are to be rendered. It is not clear that this amendment removes the positions from the jurisdiction of the civil service commission although the Senate committee undoubtedly intended to secure Democratic farmers under this provision. the immediate direction of the commissioner of Indian affairs, who needs a corps of inspectors immediately responsible to him in the discovery of fraud and malfeasance." Appointments of rural carriers in Indiana attacked.— Congressman William E. Humphrey, Republican member from the state of Washington, on May 20, charged the present administration with making appointments of rural carriers in Indiana contrary to the published statements of Postmaster-General Burleson that appointments of fourth-class postmasters and rural carriers would be made "in accordance with both the spirit and letter of the civil service law." Mr. Humphrey alleged that none but democrats had so far been appointed in Indiana. In support of his contention he had inserted in the Congressional Record correspondence which he had had with the post office department and the civil service commission and, among other things, a letter from the fourth assistant postmaster general, who wrote that "in no case is a second or third eligible to be selected unless the appointment of the eligible or eligibles standing higher had been shown to be inadvisable from the standpoint of the greatest efficiency in the postal service." Mr. Humphrey also called attention to a list of twenty appointments made of rural carriers in Indiana which he had secured from the civil service commission. Ten of these twenty appointments tified by the civil service commission for each appointwere made by selecting the head of the list of three cer ment. In five cases the second man was selected and in the remaining five the third man on the list received apquesting the reason for the refusal to appoint the highest requir-pointment. In reply to a letter from Mr. Humphrey reman in every case, the post office department stated that: "in the cases mentioned by you good and valid reasons were presented to the department why the appointment of certain eligibles was inadvisable from the standpoint of the greatest efficiency in the postal service. Such reasons are on file with the individual cases and constitute records of the department that are considered confidential." Mr. Humphrey commented upon this reply and attacked the administration as follows: It is understood that the Senate will pass the bill without changing these provisions and that the House will disagree to the elimination of the provision permitting the appointment of physicians without civil service examination. The President recently issued an Executive order allowing the commissioner of Indian affairs to fill six positions of inspector after a non-competitive examination. These inspectors have been created by the bill now pending before the Senate and are to act as the immediate and confidential representatives of the commissioner of Indian affairs, subject to such evidence of qualifications as the civil service commission may prescribe. In adding these places to schedule B of classified positions, which may be filled after non-competitive tests, the President was of the opinion that the "vast human and material interests of a dependent people are committed to the care and oversight of the secretary of the interior under What is the use of the post office department pretending they are observing the civil service when they are violating it every day openly? If these appointments are not made upon the recommendations of congressmen from Indiana let them stand up now and say so. If these appointments for rural carriers in the state of Indiana are not all democrats and made upon the recommendation of the democratic congressman of that district, let him stand up and say so, and if he says it is not true, then I will withdraw any implication that may be contained in the state ment. Congressman Dixon, democrat of Indiana, replied to Mr. Humphrey's attack and declared that the selection of the second or third man from the list certified to fill a vacancy might have been for the reason that the first man lived fifteen or twenty miles away from the route which the vacancy covered, or that the people on the route desired some one whom they knew. Mr. Dixon's reply was in part as follows: The gentleman's statements that all the appointees to rural mail service in Indiana since the 1st of January have been democrats is not true, and I regret that it is not true; as a matter of fact, there have been quite a number of repub.ican carriers appointed in Indiana, but if I could control the appointments made by the post office department they would all have been democrats. These republican appointments were made by the present administration, and, to be frank upon the subject, over the protest of the democratic congressmen. If the civil service law had been administered in our state with any regard to the spirit of that law, there would be a different feeling upon the subject, but with the facts as they are and the treatment that democratic applicants have been subjected to in the past, it is but natural that we should rejoice when we can get even a democratic carrier. I have known of examinations in my district where democratic school teachers and boys recently graduated from high schools have taken these examinations, and republican candidates with lower grades and not as well qualified for the position have been repeatedly appointed as carriers. In the district that I have the honor to represent there are 11 counties and 205 rural carriers, and upon the 1st of January this year there were but 21 democrats and 184 republican rural mail carriers. No one acquainted with the people in that district would say but that in every respect the democrats could pass as successful examinations as the republicans, and they have passed those examinations in the past, and the result is shown in these figures. "For the improvement of the foreign service."-Senator Stone of Missouri on May 20 introduced a bill which grades the secretaryships and consuls in the foreign service and enacts into law the Executive orders of June 27, 1906, and November 26, 1909, requiring that appointments to positions in the consular and diplomatic services be made from persons whose qualifications have been tested by a non-competitive examination. This is practically the duplicate of the bill introduced in the House in 1912 by Congressman William Sulzer and in the Senate by Senator O'Gorman. The council of the League has approved the Sulzer-O'Gorman bill and it is highly probable that the League, through Mr. Ansley Wilcox, chairman of the Committee on Reform in the Consular and Diplomatic Services, will urge the passage of the Stone bill. Fined for civil service frauds.--Judge Anderson sitting in the Federal court in Indianapolis on May 29 assessed heavy fines on ten persons who had pleaded guilty to defrauding the government by the impersonation of candidates in an examination for rural carrier held in Shoals, Indiana. In pronouncing sentence upon the guilty persons, who represented several of the most prominent families in Martin County, Judge Anderson characterized them as "perspiring patriots" and declared that such persons ought to be sent to the penitentiary. He also issued a warning that further offenses of this character would result in a prison sentence. The case of Fabius Gwin, also under indictment for conspiracy, will not come to trial until June 22, as Mr. Gwin, the Democratic leader of Martin County, declined to plead guilty. Resignation of William J. Harris as director of the census.-William J. Harris, ex-chairman of the Georgia Democratic state committee, appointed by President Wilson to be director of the census to succeed E. Dana Durand, has resigned his position in order to enter the contest for the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia. It will be recalled that the nomination of Mr. Harris as director of the census was attacked by Republican senators on the ground that he had never had any particular training for the position and that he was superseding a man of unquestioned ability and efficiency who had not been politically active. The President has not yet accepted Mr. Harris' resignation. Senate committee restores commercial attaches.-The provision for the appointment without civil service ex amination of fourteen commercial attaches in the department of commerce was reinserted in the legislative, executive and judicial appropriation bill as reported by the Senate committee on appropriations on May 15. This is the provision which was eliminated from the bill by the House as new legislation. This item in the supply bill has been opposed by the National Civil Service Reform League and does not meet the approval of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, which has endorsed Secretary Redfield's plan for the employment of commercial attaches but urged that they be appointed under civil service rules. The Civil Service Throughout the Country Los Angeles County, Cal. Judge Finlayson of the superior court recently handed down a decision in favor of the validity of the appointment of Frank E. Doty as chief examiner of the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission. It will be recalled, as noted in the April issue of GOOD GOVERNMENT, that County Counsel A. J. Hill ordered the county treasurer to withhold Mr. Doty's salary on the ground that at the time of his appointment he had not been a qualified elector of the county, and, therefore, had not been appointed in accordance with the state law governing county officers. Mr. Doty immediately brought suit asking for a writ of mandamus to compel the treasurer to pay his salary. Judge Finlayson holds in his decision that the chief examiner of the civil service commission is not an officer "created by or known to any of the state laws" and that Mr. Doty was eligible even though he was not an elector of the county at the date of his appointment. The question of the transfer of Hill without examination from a position in the district attorney's office to his present position as county counsel will, it is expected, be settled by a committee of three judges appointed by the presiding judge of the superior court. This action is the result of the adoption of a resolution by the board of supervisors requesting that such a committee be appointed. Massachusetts The Spanish war veteran preference bill, which seeks to amend the Massachusetts civil service law by granting to veterans of the Spanish war an additional five per cent in their ratings in civil service examinations, has been amended in the House so as to provide that the measure shall be submitted by a referendum to the people before final adoption. This is the bill against which the Massachusetts Civil Service Association has led a strenuous fight for many years and it is believed that there is good chance that the bill will pass the legislature in this form and that the Governor will sign it. The adoption of such class legislation will then rest with the people. Other legislation in which the Massachusetts Association has been interested includes bills extending the classified service to counties and to the penal institutions department of the city of Boston. These bills have been defeated in the present session of the legislature, but will be pressed for passage again next year. Buffalo As we go to press civil service affairs in Buffalo are in an extraordinary condition. Stephen V. Galvin, the secretary of the local commission, who has held office for sixteen years, has resigned; Dr. John B. Coakley and John B. McNeil, two members of the commission, have resigned, and their places have been filled by the mayor with appointees whom the state commission refused to recognize; the third, and most suspected commissioner, Gustavus T. Britt, has refused to resign. For three or four years, or since the advent of the commissioners appointed by the present mayor, there have been rumors of leaks and irregularities in the examinations. In 1911 Commissioner Francis Almy resigned because the then commission voted to pass, and with highest standing, a candidate who had a perfect spelling paper, yet, who, five days later wrote "carosene, catterpillar, celary, predijudge, secratary, vacinate," etc. Commissioner Britt, who was one of those who voted to pass this candidate, is the commissioner most under suspicion now. The present agitation started with an examination for general clerks, April 2, 1914, there being some 400 candidates. It developed on the night of the examination that three of the problems in arithmetic, including one unduly difficult one, had been in circulation around the city hall the day previous, and assistance in solving them sought by two at least of those who took the examination. A letter was received four days later by Mr. Ansley Wilcox, president of the local Civil Service Reform Association, stating these facts, and was transmitted by him at once to the president of the local commission. Three days later Harry A. Bayliss, one of the men who took the examination, appeared before Mr. Wilcox, told him that he and John Johnston had been shown these questions on the day before the examination by Albert Burgard, of the county clerk's office, and that they had asked that day for help in solving them from Principal Fisher of School 51, who was passing through the city hall. Mr. Wilcox laid all information fully before the commission with names. The commission at once started an informal investigation, but rather grudgingly and in a skeptical spirit. They were hampered by having no power to subpoena witnesses. Before they had accomplished anything a Progressive alderman, Mr. Holtz, started an investigation before the investigating committee of the board of aldermen. This committee reported that two and perhaps three of the questions in arithmetic had been in circulation at the city hall the afternoon of the day before the examination, coming from Albert Burgard, but that there was no evidence that they were known to be questions that would be asked in the examinations, no evidence connecting any commissioner or employee with the leak; that they were unable to ascertain from whom Burgard got the questions. Before this investigation was finished a local mathematician, who has since twice been arrested for drunkenness, and is now under examination for insanity, brought the matter before the State Civil Service Commission. The full commission came to Buffalo promptly, with Secretary Birdseye and Examiner Saxton, and as soon as the aldermanic investigation was over began a very thorough public investigation, starting with the information the aldermanic committee had gained, and making a thorough investigation and analysis of the examination papers. Under their examination Secretary Galvin was induced to testify that he had been suspicious of Commissioner Britt ever since Mr. Britt had been put on the commission. Dr. Coakley, president of the local commission, testified that he also was suspicious of Commissioner Britt and that within a few days, in an interview with the mayor, he had said to him that he thought it was to the public interest that both Secretary Galvin and Commissioner Britt should be removed. The State Commission grilled Burgard severely, calling in the effective aid of the district attorney. on the charge that Burgard had committed a misdemeanor in furnishing special or secret information for the purpose of improving the prospects or chances of persons to be examined. So far as known they have not been able to make Burgard remember from whom he got the questions or to get evidence tracing the leak to headquarters. They requested the resignation of the commissioners, however, and Secretary Galvin resigned to the local commission. Commissioners Coakley and McNeil then resigned to the mayor. Commissioner Britt, who refused to resign, appointed one of the office clerks secretary, changed the lock on the office doors and proceeded to act for the commission in certifying payrolls, etc. Under the New York State civil service law, the State Commission, by unanimous vote and with the written approval of the governor can suspend any local commissioners for "incompetency, inefficiency, neglect of duty or violation of the provisions of" the civil service law, and if local commissioners are removed by the State Commission, or resign or are removed by the mayor while under charges before the state commissioners, the State Commission and not the mayor has power to appoint persons to fill such vacancies, who hold office until the expiration of the term of the mayor. Mayor Fuhrmann, however, proceeded to appoint two new commissioners, both of good character, one Charles L. Feldman, recently corporation counsel of the city and Re-publican candidate for mayor; the other Cyrus L. Barber, recently president of the lawyers' club. Both were sworn. in May 25. The State Commission declined to recognize them and referred the matter to Attorney-General Carmody. The mayor, with the city clerk, has laid the matter personally before Governor Glynn. The position of the mayor is understood to be that the clause of the civil service law which gives the state commissioners power to appoint is in conflict with the public officers' law and is not operative. Also that it conflicts with the home rule clause of the state constitution. Mr. Wilcox, in an opinion to the State Commission, holds that the question has been abundantly settled and is really not debatable. Meanwhile, the State Commission is unearthing various reported irregularities and charges among other things, that a brother-in-law of the mayor has been appointed as diagnostician in the health department at a salary of $2,000 per year without competitive examination on the score of peculiar and exceptional qualifications. It is stated that District Attorney Dudley is continuing investigations with a view to presenting charges before the grand jury, if the evidence warrants it. The newspapers report that the Governor will be guided by the report of the State Commission and the opinion of the Attorney-General. New York City Board of estimate requests exemptions.-The municipal civil service commission has been requested by the board of estimate and apportionment to place six executive secretaries of subcommittees of the board of estimate and apportionment in the exempt class. The positions which the board of estimate wishes exempted include: secretary to the committee on city plan, secretary to the commtitee on social welfare, secretary to the committee on port and terminal facilities, secretary to the committee on education, secretary to the committee on markets and secretary to the committee on revision of the city charter. At a hearing held before the commission on May 6 Hon. George McAneny, president of the board of aldermen, appeared in support of this request and Samuel H. Ordway, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Civil Service Reform Association, appeared on behalf of the Association in opposition to the proposal. At this |