"For the same reason that a leaf goes over Niagara. It is because the opposing forces are overpowering.' A high officer of the government “said to me, as we drove upon the heights of Washington : 'Do you mean that I ought not to appoint my subordinates, for whom I am responsible?' I answered: 'I mean that you do not appoint them now; I mean that if, when we return to the capital, you hear that your chief subordinate is dead, you will not appoint his successor. You will have to choose among the men urged upon you by certain powerful politicians. Undoubtedly you ought to appoint the man whom you believe to be the most fit. But you do not and cannot. If you could or did appoint such men only, and that were the rule of your department and of the service, there would be no need of reform.' And he could not deny it. There was no law to prevent his selection of the best man. Indeed, the law assumed that he would do it. The constitution intended that he should do it. But when I reminded him that there were forces beyond the law that paralyzed the intention of the constitution, and which would inevitably compel him to accept the choice of others, he said no more.

Much the same experience convinced Mr. Windom, at the end of three or four months, of the necessity of such provision. He ordered that "all information obtainable, concerning such rules and regulations in the departments, be prepared and laid before him." An experienced observer wrote from Washington, in July, respecting this: "Those of his subordinates, on whom this duty was laid, were very glad to give him all the assistance in their power. As soon

as anything can be done, I think we shall generally have rules like (those of the New York and Boston customhouses) "introduced and applied to all the custom-house appointments, and, probably, also to the treasury department itself." 2

"When the president gets at work on a civil-service scheme," said this correspondent, "he will not have any more earnest helper than Secretary Windom, who may now be ranked on the side of good government in all its aspects." The remarks of a newspaper correspondent are not to be received as official declarations, of course; but are here introduced as representing the cordial approval of the public at large, the press, and government officials, which such

1 Address of George William Curtis, before the American Social Science Associ. ation, at Saratoga, Sept. 8, 1881.

2E. H.," in the Boston Sunday Herald, of July 17, 1881.

movements commanded. But Secretary Windom is himself on record on this point, and his own words are worthy of attention:

“I am a good deal more of a civil-service reformer than when I entered the secretaryship of the Treasury, three months and a half ago. In the last one hundred days a few thousand men in search of office have taken nine-tenths of the time of the president and his cabinet advisers. This time is due to the fifty millions of people rather than to the office-seekers."

2

In

The death of the president, with the consequent withdrawal of Secretary Windom, has, it is true, interfered with the sequence of these plans; but they are none the less interesting as marking the rise of the reform sentiment. the War Department "the fact that so many of the officers are imbued with the spirit of military education and training has excluded the spirit and many of the evils of partisan intrigue." In the Navy Department, regulations to govern the appointment of civil engineers on civil-service reform principles have been adopted. The admirable and fearless administration of the department of justice, under AttorneyGeneral MacVeagh, is what might reasonably have been expected of that officer, who had, before his accession to the cabinet, an outspoken record on civil-service reform. As has very truly been remarked:

"Taken in connection with the appointment of Postmaster-General James, the most conspicuous representative in the country of civil-service reform reduced to practice, Mr. MacVeagh's presence in the cabinet was one of the most promising signs of the times."

In the State Department the principle of civil-service reform has, as is well known, long been a recognized feature. An order of the president, dated March 14, 1873, provided for "examinations upon subjects relative to the official service required, stated in writing." Among other subjects included are international law and the regulations for the consular service of the United States.

One conspicuous exception to these instances will at once occur to the reader, in the Department of the Interior, under

1 Address at Long Branch, June 23, ISSI.

2 See "Civil-Service Commission report," April 15, 1874, p. 45.

3 Same report, p. 39.

More extended reference will,

Secretary Schurz's successor. however, be made to this later on.1

It is no slight consideration in favor of the practical nature of the reform, that it has been subject to twelve years' careful study, discussion, trial, and criticism. It is by such a process as this that we come to possess a knowledge of its actual capabilities and limitations. It is through such a process as this that the specific plan of legislation, now before congress, has been developed and shaped.

1 See Chapter 6, p. 39.

CHAPTER IV.

IT IS NOT UNBUSINESS-LIKE.

MANY who are favorably inclined to civil-service reform, but "doubtful of the practical success of the measures proposed," have questioned this; and in such a way as to lead one to believe “ that in their minds it is an objection of great weight." This is formidable until we remember that if civilservice reform means anything, it distinctly means this very thing, the conducting of the government on business principles. Let us see: in a successfully managed mercantile house a clerk or salesman is selected with direct reference to his possessing qualifications suited to his special duties, and not from his holding certain religious or political views. Just this is true of the reformed civil-service.1 Is it of the present spoils system? In a well-conducted business establishment a clerk whose long experience has made him increasingly efficient is not rotated out of office to give some one else a chance, but retained indefinitely during good behavior. True again of the reformed service, but just the opposite of the truth in the spoils system.2 Again, in a business establishment such as has been supposed merit is recognized, and, as a consequence, stimulated and cultivated. The employé nearest the foot of the ladder feels that should a vacancy occur he is in the direct line of promotion, and, if found efficient, is sure to rise. This suggests another effective

contrast.

But are competitive examinations a feature of ordinary business establishments? In the earlier years of the reform the champions of the present system were accustomed to become very merry over this feature, and one well-known politician, formerly a member of the senate, expressed himself very strongly in disapproval of the fine-spun theories of "them

1 See Pendleton bill, sect. 2, rule 6.

2 See the resolution embodying this idea, passed at a meeting of the Providence Board of Trade, Sept. 24, 1881.

66

literary fellers." But the public at large has learned, long before this, that the principle of competitive examinations rests on no fanciful theory, but on sound experience. This is perhaps best seen in the case of the New York Post Office, which for several years, under the skilful administration of Mr. James, now postmaster-general, has become almost a synonym for excellent service. Mr. James, to use the language of a recent government report, saw in the first place that it would not do to let everybody in for whom a place was applied by some man of prominence or influence." "He set his foot down in the beginning, so far as this, that no person should be admitted to a place in the post-office "without a preliminary examination." He found that the preliminary examination' ""did not remedy the evil; that, in the first place, as great pressure was brought to bear upon him in regard to selecting the persons who should submit to examination; and, in the next place, he found it very hard, without the spur of competition, to make the examinations thorough. So he has adopted the system of competitive examinations." 2

3

Again, there has been disapproval expressed at the alleged literary nature of such an examination. Of what service will it be to a man who is to weigh sugar to be able to read the Greek drama in the original, or to one who superintends the mail service in a large city to have his mind stored with the various grades and qualities of sugar? Of what service indeed? But if the objector had inquired, he would have found that his apprehensions were groundless. No such absurdities are committed. In fact, the competitive examinations are based on a principle of the highest importance in practical business, ― the direct adaptation of means to ends.1

1 "The system," says Mr. James, "has worked so well that it would now be impossible to discontinue it." Civil Service Record, No. 5, Sept. 19, 1881. See also pp. 16 of this pamphlet.

2 Senate report, no. S72, 46th congress, 3d session; appendix, p. 35.

3There are certain kinds of information which every official needs: how to read, to write, to apply the elements of arithmetic. As we rise in the grades of the service technical or official information becomes indispensable. This may be peculiar to an office, as in the mint, the assay office, the postal service, the custom house." (Mr. Eaton's pamphlet, p. 55-56.)

4 The Boston Advertiser of Sept. 17, 18S1, pointedly says: "There is nothing more preposterous than this attempt to make out that the issue is a question of 'business qualifications' versus competitive examinations. There is not a person who has given enough investigation either to what is known as the spoils system, or