REPORT OF THE COUNCIL A Spoils Drive in the Federal Service It is doubtful if, since the passage of the United States Civil Service law in 1883, there has been a more insistent effort made on the part of party spoilsmen to overthrow the merit system in the Federal civil service than has been made in the last year and a half. The League has been compelled to exert its utmost energies to meet their attacks. It has done so with some measure of success. When the Republican administration took office in 1921, it found a large number of purely administrative offices, such as postmasterships, collectors of revenue and their deputies, a fair field to be exploited. The President while resisting much of the political pressure exerted upon him by party workers, still permitted the spoilsmen to get a definite foothold in the new administration. Evidences of an organized effort to undermine the merit system appeared almost at once. Elmer Dover, who had been at one time private secretary to the late Mark Hanna, and for many years an active political worker, was appointed assistant secretary of the Treasury in charge of the collection of revenues. He had official control of the personnel of the Customs Service and the Internal Revenue Service. Word was given out by Mr. Dover soon after his appointment that his mission in the new administration was "to Hardingize the service." In order to justify the program in the public mind. statements to the effect that it was impossible, under existing civil service laws, to get rid of incompetent or inefficient employes, were circulated generally through out the country and were given substantial support by the backing of the heads of departments. As a matter of fact all that is necessary to remove an inefficient employe is for the head of the department to prefer charges and give him an opportunity to reply. The department head is the sole judge of the matter and there is no appeal from his decision. With such secretaries as Hughes, Mellon, Weeks, Denby, Hays and Hoover in the Cabinet wholesale changes solely on a political basis were not easy to bring about, but under the influence of such men as Daugherty, Dover, Work and Bartlett justification was found for manipulation of the service and in some cases for the dismissal of employes without regard to the provisions of the law which require a statement of reasons therefor. One of the first acts of Mr. Dover was an attempt at a complete reorganization of the customs service, particularly in the office of the Collector of the Port of New York. The Customs Valuation and Review Bureau in the New York office was abolished and experts who had spent years in building up that Bureau to a relatively high state of efficiency were scattered to the four winds. The actual work done by the Bureau was of necessity continued, but under a different type of organization, and placed in the hands of men of less experience to the detriment of the service. Mr. Dover's attempts to "Hardingize" the service led him into serious difficulties with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who wished to retain the services of experts in his bureau. A list of 150 so-called Democrats, published in the newspapers, who were alleged to hold key positions, was entirely discredited by proof of the fact that many of them were Republicans and by a public statement from Secretary Mellon himself in which the statements made in the published articles were repudiated. As the ultimate result of the controversy the President announced his acceptance of the resignation of Mr. Dover and the spoils raid was definitely and effectually stopped. The Attorney General appeared before the House Committee on Appropriations on March 6, 1922, and stated in a public hearing that he was "thoroughly convinced that the civil service is a hindrance to the government." He continued: I would rather take the recommendations of a political committee, either Democratic or Republican, a self-respecting committee, for the appointment of a man or woman than be compelled to go through the requirements of the civil service to secure an employe. They are hardly as ambitious, hardly as energetic under the civil service as are those not under the civil service. On March 31 announcement was made of the issuance of an executive order by President Harding which brought about the removal of over thirty employes of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. No cause or reasons of any sort have ever been stated by the President or any other governmental official for these removals other than the bare statement that they were made "for the good of the service." Three of the positions named in the order as having been abolished were created by act of Congress and could not be abolished by executive order. The order stipulated that Louis A. Hill, a subordinate employe of the Bureau, was "appointed to be Director, and John Perry to be Assistant Director" of the Bureau. This was done notwithstanding the fact that by act of Congress the power of appointment to these and all other positions in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing rested in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew W. Mellon. The executive order of the President, moreover, delegated to Louis A. Hill, his appointee as Director, the power of appointment of all subordinates to fill the positions. vacated by the order, which was also contrary to law. It was a cruel order and many of the employes who have been thus summarily removed have since found it difficult to secure employment. Shortly after the issuance of this order, and while it was under discussion on the floor of the Senate and the House of Representatives, John H. Bartlett, appointed to be President of the United States Civil Service Commission and subsequently First Assistant Postmaster General, issued a public statement in which he said that the original sponsors and founders of the civil service system had cited $1,800 as the maximum salary of positions to be included under the examination system. He complained of the fact that the system had reached higher and higher officials "until now. it reaches those who are paid as high as $5,000." He said, "It would seem to be reasonably sound doctrine that in a government by the people when a new administration comes in with a fresh mandate from the people to carry out certain policies it should have the privilege, in fact a perfectly free hand, to select all those higher officials to whom must be intrusted the administrative policies and executive discretion." He added that a new administration in order to accomplish great reforms must surround itself with administrative and executive officials in sympathy with these reforms and policies. It was to face this situation that the League called a mass meeting in Washington on April 27 to make a public protest against what seemed to be an organized drive to seize certain higher places in the competitive classified service and to use them as political spoils. The successor of Will Hays as Postmaster General, Dr. Hubert Work, stated to a committee of the League that he believed the examination of candidates for office as Presidential postmasters should be taken out of the hands of the Civil Service Commission and that the Post Office Department should hold its own examina |