Rule of Three

Rule of Three Out of the White House with a great fanfare of headlines last week issued a civil service reform that was supposed to make every deserving Democrat quake in his boots. President Roosevelt was proposing to take all postmasters out of politics and put their jobs on "a strictly civil service basis." For this purpose Post-master-General Farley had prepared a sweeping executive order which the President signed along with a recommendation that the next session of Congress enact permanent legislation to the same end. Without bothering to study the President's order closely Democratic leaders throughout the land groaned in loud dismay at what they took to mean the summary loss of their best patronage. But still with them was a helpful device known as the Rule of Three. Postmasterships are divided into four grades depending upon the annual receipts of their offices: first class, receipts above $40,000; second class, $8,000 to $40,000; third class, $1,500 to $8,000; fourth class, below $1,500. At the last counting there were 1,122 first-class postal jobs, 3,425 second-class, 10,485 third-class, 32,672 fourth-class--a total of 47,704. By law the President appoints the first three grades, mostly on the say-so of interested Senators or Representatives. The fourth grade comes up through a competitive civil service examination to the Postmaster-General who does the naming from a list of the three highest eligibles for each job --the Rule of Three. Historic years in civil service reform: 1883--Civil Service Act passed under Chester Arthur. 1893-96--Grover Cleveland fought his great fight to expand the classified service. 1912--William Howard Taft put all fourth-class postmasters under civil service. 1917--Wilson required civil service tests for all postmasterships, with appointment limited to the high man. 1921--Warren Harding revoked Wilson's "high man" policy, inaugurating the Rule of Three which left the President free to choose from the three top men. Heretofore Civil Service Commission field agents have investigated the local standing of applicants for the higher postmasterships, forwarded reports to Washington on which ratings were based. By putting their heads together the Postmaster-General and the local Congressman could always pick the man who would do the party the most good. Presidential appointment followed as a matter of course. In last week's order, the President decreed that postmasterships shall be filled by: 1) the postmaster already in office, or 2) a Federal employe with a civil service rating, or 3) a candidate who has taken "an open competitive examination to test his fitness." It was this new civil service "examination" that loomed largest in the President's order. But Postmaster-General Farley hastened to explain that the "examination" would be nothing more than filling out under oath a questionnaire about business experience. And by the unchanged Rule of Three, any of the three top men in the "examination" remains eligible for appointment. Moreover, should he so wish, the Postmaster-General was still authorized to throw out the whole first list and call for another from the Civil Service Commission. Real net effect of the "reform" is to strengthen the Postmaster-General's grip on patronage against grasping, ignorant local machine bosses. President Roosevelt did not appoint a single postmaster during the last session of Congress. Since March 4 postmasterships have exceeded all other job applications. Last week's executive order would permit the Civil Service Commission to weed out the army of job-seekers but, under the Rule of Three, would reserve for party leaders the right to pick the winning candidate. Mildly praising the new order, the Civil Service Reform Association warned: "Unless the President issues an executive order requiring the selection of the first person on every list he will never keep postmasterships out of politics."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.