Says It Is Vicious

Washington. Ang. 30. -Civil Servica Commissiütiír R josevelt, in an interview on civil service matters, said that the commissiou was uow oq a far better footing than ever before for efficiënt work. This was due to the tact that the commission, under legislation pu3hed by Senators Lodite and Cockrell, hereaftei would huve it own torce of clerks, instead of being dependent on clerks detaüed to it by the sevoral governraent departmenta. The civil service comniissioner denounced the Bynum bilí for the reinstatement ot the Democratie railway mail clerks dÍ3missed prior to the classification of the railway mail service under the civil ser vice system in 1889 as a thoroughly vicious partisan measure. Would I.ead to Keprisals. He said: "If it should become a law it would be a precedent for the enaetment ol similar measurea whenever a change ol administration took place. It is introduced purely in the interest of the spoils monger and is a thoroughly vicious bill in every way. Then I Wish to cali attention to the recent decisión of the attornej general, which permits solicitation fot political purposes by letter in government buildings. If this opinión holds, the commission must immediately request thu passage of a law to prohibit such solicitation. The commission has always insisted that solicitation tor political purposes was illegal whether done in person or by letter in a government building. It was owing to this interpretation that we were able to very nearly break up the practice during the last presidential campaign. Con vlet ion of Two Officials. "As the aftermath of that campaiga we have procured the convictlon of two governmeut official, oue a postmaster in Ohio and the other a deputy internat revenue officer of Keutucky, but we have never had a case tried in tne courts where the accusatioa was that the solicitation was by letter. Nine-tentbs of the good done by the law will vnnisa if solicitation by letter is allowed, and although the commission will of course do all it can te protect employés if they are molested in any way for refusing to contribute, it is imperativo that we should be giren powei to prosecute any attenipt at political assessessment in a government building either by letter or otlierwise." Wants the Clasulftod Service Extended. The commissioner expressed the hop that there would be a great extensión oí the classified service and that there would be a great reduction in the nutnber of places now excepted, on one theory or an' other, from tüe operation of the civil service rules, including not only the departments, but the postoffices and custom houses throughout the country, and in this couuection he called .attention to several instances in whicn old and efficiënt employee had been gotten rid of by indireets methoils.