REMOVALS.

It is interesting and important to study the question of removals in the classified service. While no hard and fast line can be drawn as to the number of removals which is natural and allowable and the number which is excessive and denotes partisanship, still it is possible within rather wide limits to gain a rough idea of the way in which the law is being observed in different departments by seeing whether the number of removals does or does not approach to an abnormal percentage therein.

DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE.

The following are the figures for the departmental service at Washington for the entire period during which the law has been in force, a period of nearly seven years:

Periods.

Portion of year when law first went into effect, under President Arthur.
Last year of President Arthur's administration

Total during President Arthur's administration.

First year of President Cleveland's administration.

Second year

Third year

Fourth year...

Total during President Cleveland's administration... First year of present administration.

The resignations and removals have to be given together because it is impossible to differentiate the voluntary from the forced resignations. Of the 133 removals and resignations during the first year of the present administration 91 were of persons appointed during the previous administration. In other words, of the 1,109 appointees who came into the departmental service through civil-service examina. tions during Mr. Cleveland's administration 91, or a little over 8 per cent., were removed or resigned during the first year of the present administration. Similarly, of the 378 appointees who entered the service through these examinations during President Arthur's administration about 35, or between 7 and 8 per cent., were removed or resigned during President Cleveland's first year, the proportion being about the same. During the last year of President Arthur's administration 25 removals or resignations occurred, or between 6 and 7 per cent. All of the force had at that time been appointed under his own administration, and it is evident that the difference between the percentage in this case and the percentages during the first years of President Cleveland's adminis

tration and of the present administration affords the probable measure for removals which could by any possibility have been for political reasons. This difference is barely one-half per cent. It is so small that it may be entirely disregarded, for it is likely to have arisen from other than political causes. When only 8 per cent. of the appointees of one administration are separated from the service during the first year of a succeeding administration, the year in which under the old system the greatest number of removals for political reasons was made, it is safe to say that political considerations have practically disappeared as factors in making removals in the classified service of the Departments at Washington. Doubtless in a force of 8,000 employés, where changes are continually being made, some of these changes are made for improper reasons; but this is true of any system and of any business, public or private.

In the departmental service at Washington the figures show that the question of politics has been practically eliminated in making removals, and for the last seven years the law, as a whole, has been faithfully and honestly observed in the Departments, although having been subjected to the strain of two changes of administration. In the above figures those for the small division of the Pension Bureau which includes the special, medical, and principal examiners-less than 200 in all-have not been included. Owing to the peculiar character of the law in reference to these officers they show a far less satisfactory state of affairs than do the other departmental positions.

The figures in the first column of the foregoing table give the total number of appointments made from the lists of the Commission. This number gives a very rough idea of the total number of removals and resignations made in the classified service, both of persons appointed from the Commission's lists, and of those already in when the classification was made. The Commission can only give the number of removals with certainty of those people appointed from its lists. The difference represents the number of removals made of men who were in the service at the time of the various classifications. However, the correspondence between appointments and removals holds true for certain years only, as of course it ceases to obtain if a considerable number of re-instatements are made, or if new places are created, or old ones abolished by law. Therefore the deductions drawn from the number of appointments must be considered as being merely approximate, espe cially for the first year of Mr. Cleveland's administration, when there was a considerable reduction in the number of places, and a consequent surplusage of discharges over appointments.*

The departmental service, as originally classified under President Arthur, included in the neighborhood of 6,000 persons. During the

*The direct reverse will be the case for the year now begun, for some 700 new places have been added, and hence there will be a very large surplusage of appointments over removals,

last year of President Cleveland's administration it was increased, so that at the beginning of the present administration it included some 8,000 persons. Taking this into account, and assuming that the number of appointments and removals roughly correspond with the limitations above indicated, it will be seen that during the last year of President Arthur's administration there were over 6 per cent. of removals. During the second year of President Cleveland's administration nearly 7 per cent.; during the third, a little less than 6 per cent.; during the fourth, about 5 per cent.; during the first year of the present administration, about 5 per cent. These percentages, however, are probably, for the reasons given above, in all cases somewhat too low. It is likely that the figures based upon the removals of persons appointed through the examinations come nearer to representing the average in the Departments. In any case, however, it is perfectly evident that the law is and has been well observed in the departmental service at Washington.

When President Arthur classified the departmental service it included, as above stated, some 6,000 persons. In his time 378 persons entered the service by examination. When President Cleveland came in he therefore found over 5,600 employés in the Departments who had been appointed prior to the classification of the service, and less than 400 who had entered through the examinations. Under President Cleveland the classified service was extended so as to take in somewhat less than 2,000 additional persons, and 1,109 entered through the examinations. Deducting those who had been removed, there were at the beginning of thepresent administration in the classified service of about 8,000 people some 1,275 who had entered through the examinations, somewhat less than 2,000 who had been included in the classified service during the administration of President Cleveland, and somewhat less than 5,000 of those who had been in the service originally when it was classified by President Arthur. Every year, of course, sees a greater proportion of persons in the service who have entered through the examinations, and every year, therefore, sees a greater proportion of the Government clerks at Washington whose appointments have been made wholly without regard to political considerations.

POSTAL SERVICE.

So much for the departmental service. When we turn to the customs and postal services the result is less satisfactory. In the departmental service the Commission is on the ground itself, and has its own boards, acting with entire independence of the departmental chiefs. It is therefore able to guaranty honest and non-partisan results with reasonable certainty. In the local offices, however, it is unable to exercise anything like such constant and rigorous inspection, and is obliged to depend upon boards which are not paid by it and which are not really responsible to it, but, on the contrary, are paid by and are responsible to the very appointing officer whom it is their duty to supervise and, if necessary, check. Under these circumstances a good postmaster or

collector of customs will obey the law, and see that it is enforced as rigidly as is the case at Washington; but if a postmaster or collector of customs is hostile to the law, and determined to prevent its honest enforcement, while the Commission can largely thwart his efforts and can prevent anything like as much damage being done as was done under the old spoils or patronage system, it is yet unable to bring about by any means such good results as are shown above. The following tables explain themselves:

Removals and resignations during the first year's term of service of present postmasters, appointed by President Harrison, in the classified and unclassified service at the following fourteen post-offices.

Removals and resignations during the last year's term of service of postmasters, appointed by President Cleveland, in the classified service at the following twelve post-offices.

Removals and resignations during the first year's term of service of former postmasters, appointed by President Cleveland, in the classified service at the following seven postoffices.

The figures of these tables can not be accepted as accurate in the way that the figures for the departmental service are. In many offices it was impossible to get at any satisfactory figures whatever, owing to the way in which the records had been kept by the postmasters or other appointing officers. A careful investigation was made about the close of the last fiscal year either by the Commissioners themselves, by the chief examiner, by the secretary, or by some of the employés of the Commission, into nearly all the post-offices and custom-houses. In several instances the incumbents had just taken office and had been in so short a time that figures concerning them would have been of no value. In a number of instances where the old postmasters had just gone out or were just going out, it was impossible to get at figures which would have been even approximately accurate. In yet other instances the circumstances were so peculiar that to tabulate the figures without explanation would merely have been misleading.

However, as above shown, reasonably accurate figures were obtained for fourteen offices in which the appointees of the present administration had served from four to twelve months; for twelve offices where the figures were taken for the concluding period of the terms of the previous incumbent, and for seven offices where there were figures for the first year, or thereabouts, of the term of the incumbents under the previous administration. Wherever the figures given are for less than a year, especially if they are for less than nine months, the figures for the percentages must be taken with much allowance, especially in dealing with the beginning of the incumbent's term, for often nearly all the removals made during the first year would be made during the first six or eight months. Moreover, in certain post-offices, that at Denver, for instance, most of the resignations are due to the fact that the locality offers exceptional business advantages to young men, which makes it difficult to keep them in the Government service.