and their patrons, as well as your Executive order of July 27, 1897, received hearty praise, and that your Administration was spoken of throughout in a tone of commendation, with the confident hope that the things which are still causing anxiety will be adjusted in entire consonance with the principles of the merit system.
I am also glad to say that we found in Ohio much more active sympathy than we had expected. Before long there will be an organized civil service reform movement in Ohio, which will afford you energetic support, and give General Grosvenor and his associates something to think of.
Pardon me now for making a few suggestions which spring from the sincerest desire to continue that auspicious state of feeling. There are reports in the newspapers which represent you as considering the policy of forestalling the coming debate in Congress by making further exemptions of “confidential” or “fiduciary” positions from the competitive rule. About this, permit me a few observations.
There are many positions so designated—and if further exceptions are made, a great many more will be so designated—that do not in any essential respect differ from other ordinary clerkships. There is, besides, no reason in the world why the occupants of certain positions, filled upon competitive examinations, should not be held to give bonds. The two things go perfectly well together. There is no well regulated service in any civilized state in which executive officers such as collectors or postmasters are permitted to appoint any of their subordinates at their discretion. The higher places under them are simply filled by promotion from lower grades, as they always can be quite satisfactorily. And nothing is more certain than that, if in our service such discretion is permitted, the appointments will be dictated to the executive
