GOVERNOR, 1903
bodies shall be kept free from undue influence. On the 24th of March I was officially invited to be present at a session of the legislature. No other governor ever received such an invitation. The members of the legislature received me very graciously and I made an address in the course of which it was said:
It would be a breach of courtesy, and it would ill become me to make reference to any legislation before you or which may come before you. The constitution provides a method by which the governor may make his recommendations. It is wise that that method should be pursued. I may, however, say a word about our mutual relations. We are both, in-so-far as we may, edeavoring together to work out results for the good of the people and the commonwealth. I may say that if the governor should use his power for the purpose of enforcing legislation it would be an interference with our principles of government. On the other hand, if the legislature in its legislation attempts to carry it out by other methods than those of the executive, to that extent it interferes with those principles.
Here is broached a theory of government very different from and much more nearly correct and safe than that acted upon by Roosevelt and Wilson in our national affairs. In the days of Thaddeus Stevens the Congress endeavored to impose upon the President. In more recent days the President is making rapid strides in the way of encroaching upon Congress. Both ventures are based upon impulse rather than upon reason, and they are equally dangerous to our institutions.
In my opinion pretty much all of the value of civil service reform consisted in the principle of permanence of tenure and, therefore, in no instance was there a removal from the routine offices because of factional or political differences. There was much pressure for the removal of Frederic W. Fleitz, assistant attorney general and Colonel Lewis E. Beitler, the deputy secretary of the commonwealth and others, because of political disobedience, but they were all retained. The heads of departments were called together
