Civil Service Reform 191 



years has been provided for at the rate of $2,000 

 a year. Many of the clerks under the secretary 

 now receive $1,800, so that it would be of course 

 an absurdity to reduce him in salary below his 

 subordinates. Scores of other officials of the Gov- 

 ernment, including, for instance, the President's 

 private secretary, the First Assistant Postmaster- 

 General, the First Assistant Secretary of State, 

 etc., have had their salaries increased in successive 

 appropriation bills over the sum originally pro- 

 vided, in precisely the same way that the salary of 

 the secretary of the Commission was increased. 

 The 53d Congress was Democratic, as was the 

 President, Mr. Cleveland, and the secretary of the 

 Commission was himself a Democrat, who had been 

 appointed to the position by Mr. Cleveland during 

 his first term as President. The rules of the House 

 provide that there shall be no increase of salary 

 beyond that provided in existing law in any ap- 

 propriation bill. When the appropriation for the 

 Civil Service Commission came up in the House, 

 Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, made the point 

 of order that to give $2,000 to the secretary of the 

 Commission was to increase his salary by $400 

 over that provided in the original law of 1883, and 

 was therefore out of order. He also produced a 

 list of twenty or thirty other officers, including the 

 President's private secretary, the First Assistant 

 Postmaster-General, etc., whose salaries were sim- 

 ilarly increased. He withdrew his point of order 

 as regards these persons, but adhered to it as re- 



