Representative Gorman On Railway Mail Clerks

The Washington correspondence of the Free Press of the 22nd contains the following: "Representative Gorman spoke in the house this afternoon in favor of the bill providing for the restoration of the railway mail clerks who were removed under the order suspending the operation of the civil service law at the beginning of the Harrison administration. He said: 'Mr. Speaker, I should not be willing to support any measure which would in any way impair the efficiency of the postal service. I do not think that this bill, if carried out as designed, will endanger in any way the efficiency of that service; and it is hardly fair to impugn the firmness and official integrity of :he postmaster general by suppos,ng that he will yield to the importunities of his democratie friends and put into this service men not competent to discharge properly their duties. The object of this bilí, as I understand, is to put back into this service men who were dismissed for purely political reasons and whose efficiency was unquestioned. In answer to the claim made by the republicans, that none but efficiënt clerks were dismissed, I wish to say that I am personally acquainted with eleven gentlemen in my district who were dismissed as postal clerks at the beginning of the Harrison administration and before the application of the civil service law, and that the dismissals in some cases were dated April 29, although the men were retained in the service until the latter part of May. Not one of those men in my district who were dismissed f rom their position of clerks was a republican; every man dismissed was a democrat. There was one, a Mr. Caldwell, of Monroe, whose standing was nearly 98 per cent. Not a single charge was made against him except that he was a democrat. That was the response he got from the department, that he had spoken disrespectfully of his political opponents. This bilí, as I understand, is designed to give to men of this class that just treatment which they are entitled to receive at the hands of this or any other administration. It 'is not the design to put into the service inefficiënt clerks, but to restore men who have been dismissed for political reasons - not because of any inefficiency as clerks. The republican administration dismissed every democrat from my district except four, and two of those four have since been dismissed, so that today there are only two democrats in that service from my district. On the Detroit división there are 110 persons employed, of which number fifteen only are democrats, and on the Grand Rapids división thirty-two persons are em ployed. Five only are democrats The total number in the state em ployed in the ninth división are 660 Dersons, of which number "534 ar republicans and 126 are democrats. I want to say one thing more, since this administration has come into power there has not been a single democrat appointed from my district, although many and many of them have taken the civil service examination.