Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1886 — REPLYING TO THE CHARGES. [ARTICLE]

REPLYING TO THE CHARGES.

Civil- Service Commissioner Oberly Puts Forward Some Facts of General Interest. A Document Which Will Be Read with Interest by the General Public. Civil-Service Commissioner Oberly has published a long letter in reply to charges made against the commission by Republican Senators. The principal charge which was made against the commission was contained in the following remarks made by Senator Plumb during a debate in the Senate; “The Senator from Connecticut says the commission is doing its duty, and I am not disposed to dispute it; but if the commission is doing its duty, the law is utterly failing in doing its duty, and is entirely different from what it was supposed to be when it was enacted. The Commissioner of Pensions was before a committee-of the Senate some weeks ago, and had something to say about the operations of the law. In his bureau he said he had got seventy-six or seventy-seven clerks through the medium of the civil-service commission, and of these seventy-one or seventytwo were Democrats that he knew of, and he was not positive of the politics of the other five.” Then the Senator adds: “Either he was a very good guesser, or the commission made a very good guess, or perhaps they both guessed well in regard to the politics of these men, or the law is somewhere at fault.” Senator Ingalls then took the floor, and the charges made by the distinguished Senator from Kansas are summed up as follows by Mr. Oberly: “The civil-service commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, has, by using its Democratic clerks and examiners, ascertained the politics of applicants for the position of special examiners in the pension office, and after obtaining this information has refused to permit Republicans to pass the examinations, but has passed Democrats, and in this way has packed with Democrats the register of persons eligible for appointment as special examiners, thus giving to the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions an opportunity to select and appoint Democrats only. “It has also been charged that, with the intention of making easy the work of obtaining Democrats for the grade of special pension examiner, the civil-service commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, has made an older that in response to every requisition for eligibles of this grade the whole list of eligibles shall be certified to the Democratic appointing officer. It has been stated in this connection that the civil-service commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, certified to the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions at one time the names of 405 persons who had been examined for special pension examiners who had been examined and graded by the commission and its Democratic examiners and clerks.” The Commissioner then says: “No Democratic Senator contradicted the charges thus made against the Civil-Service Commission as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, and no Republican Senator better informed than Senators Plumb aud Ingalls took issue with those gentlemen. In view of these facts the silence of the CivilService Commission concerning the charges made against it on the floor or the Senate, and now being repeated by the public press, has been, it appears, construed into an admission by the commission or the truthfulness of those charges. Therefore a statement of the facts of this matter is submitted in this paper.” Mr. Oberly then states that tho appointments made by Commissioner Dudley during the year 1884, which were made under the civil-service rules as then administered by a Republican commission, all or nearly all were Republicans, and that they numbered 150. “Were these Republicans special examiners unfairly obtained?” “How could they have been? At that time the civil-service commiss on was Republican in its majority, and honest—of course. The Secretary of the Interior, to whom the commi sion certified the whole eligible list for the uses of the Commissioner of Pensions, was a Republican, and honest—of course. The Commissioner of Pensions, who selected the names from the list, was a Republican, and honest—of course. The civil-service examiners who conducted the examinations, and graded all the applicants, were Republicans, and honest—of course. Therefore, is not the conclusion irresistible that by the processes of the civil-service act nearly, if not an entire force, of Republican special pension examiners was obtained?” At the close of his letter, Mr. Oberly sums up his statements as follows: “Now, let me ask what has been shown in this paper. Clearly that eighty-nine of the 150 special pension examiners obtained by the machinery of the civil-service act in 1884 were obtained from certifications of the whole list of eligibles made by a civilservice commission Republican in its majority; that these eligibles were procured by examinations conducted by Republican civil-service examiners, and that the great mass, if not all of the 150 special examiners selected in that year by the Republican Commissioners of Pensions were Republicans. What else has been shown? Clearly that of the 159 special pension examiners selected by the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions in 1885, about seventyfive of the 150 appointed were Republicans, that seventy-two were Democrats, and five of unknown politics. It has also been shown that of the special pension examiners obtained by*the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions fifty-one were obtained from lists prepared by the Civil-Service Commission while it was Republican in its majority and by Republican civil-service examiners and clerks. “The other Democratic special pension examiners obtained by the Democratic Commissioner of Pensions were obtained, it is true, alter the Civil-Service Commission had become Democratic in its majority, but not one of the Democratic pension examiners was ever obtained who had not been examined by Republican civ 1service examiners, and whose name had not been put upon an eligible register made by Republican clerks under the jealous eye of a careful and competent Republican chief examiner. •‘ln th? it may be stated that

the Civil-Service Commission, as now constituted, with a Democratic majority, is not responsible for the practice of certifying the whole list of eligibles to the appointins officer. That practice was commenced bg the Civil-Service Commission when it way Republican in its majority. The CivilService Commission was not Democratic in its majority until after Gen. Black, as Commissioner of Pensions, had selected 123 of his special pension examiners, and the remaining twenty-seven special examiners were appointed from eligible registers supfilied by examinations conducted by Repubican civil-service examiners. “And more than this: The Civil-service Commission, since it became Democratic in its majority, has discontinued the practice of certifying unconditionally the whole list of eligibles, and has declared that only four names, taken from those graded highest on the eligible register of pension examiners, shall be certified for the purpose of filling a vacancy in that grade; that certifications shall be made for the purpose of tilling vacancies in the grade of special pension examiner in the same way that certifications are made to till vacancies in any other class or grade. “Thus it is made manifest that Senators Plumb and Ingalls have made false charges against the Civil-service Commission as now constituted with a Democratic majority; that the.y have shot venomous arrows at Democratic officials and have hit their own friends. “In concluding this paper I desire to say that the Democratic Civil-service Commission will not permit anxiety for the success of their party to induce them to wander into any of the by-paths that lead away from the broad highway of the civil-service reform movement.”