The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-31
The Civil SerVIce-Its Fundamental
ErrOr.


From The N. Y Times.
The indignation excited by the frauds on in
ternal revenue will be comparatively proftess
unless it end in a demand for more than
mere change Of officers. The dismissal and
punishment of proved rascality are well
enough SO far as they go. They are tribute
to the popular sense of justice which the
Government cannot safely withhold. But as
a preventive of further wrong they will
amount to little. Everybody says of course,
that the vacant places shall be filled by honest
and competent men. The Secretary, doubt
less, intends to appoint such if he can. The
difficulty is that, in the present state of the
civil service, the qualifications of integrity
and capacity are available to a very limited
extent. Other considerations override them.
Intrigue and impudence combined with poll
tical support, are mighty, and usually pre-
vail. Availability occupies the place of merit;
and the interests of the revenue are intrusted
to officials taken hap-hazard, with no reason
able assurance that the future will be better
than the past.
In this fact we have one of the countless
illustrations of the losses and disgrace inflicted
upon the country by its failure to organize a
civil service on rational footing. With
vast army of offiee-hOlders, we have, in truth,
ganization would present. The elementary
qualities of efficiency are absent. No training,
no test of fitness, no graduation resting on
ability and character, no provision for promo
tion, no pledge OF permanence. How could
our civil service be better than it is It's
members have no established relation to the
Government; they are the temporary reclpl-
ents of salaries which nod OF the depart
mental head may at any moment termlnate'
AT the best their positions are contingent on
tbe chances of party warfare. No incentive TO
speciaI study or unusual diligence, therefore,
10 afforded them. They were appointed arbl-
4ror;Iv for reasons of which their superior Is
tba cole iudge, and they have the ever-pre-
sent consciousness of being liable to removal
for reasons which all effort on their part may
fail to overcome. If the system were de-
signed expressly to exclude the able the am
bilious, and the energetic, and to offer pre-
miums to ineticiency and laxity of conscience
it would probably be exactly as it is. Anc
80 long as it shall be permitted to remain So
we must look for its fruit in exposures akiI
to those with which the public have recently
become familiar.
This country now stands almost alone in iti
neglect of the conditions essential to an etfec
tive service. England and Russia, perhaps
come nearest in their shortcomings, though
both have taken strides in advance OF the
United States. Fourteen years ago an oticia
topOIb W lue lAlBllSu OON6IhuhohI Jun Pl0o9ou
into sentence a statement which is still ap
plicable heTe:-"A Admission to the civil service
Is, indeed, sought after; but it is for the un
ambitious and the indolent or incapable that il
IS chiefly desired" Marked improvement
have since been carried out. The principle o
competitive examination has been adopted
though It's benefits are kept within narrow
compass by the patronage which retains the
highest offices. OF the systems that prevail il
other countries of Europe we are informed b,
the North american ReUieu, the current mum
Der of which has short INIT sng
gestive article on the subject. In France
the principle laid down by the frs
Napoleon, " that all public Offices sboni,
be filed by the most competent persons
continues in force, despite revolution and des
potism, and is all the time improving in IT
operation. The German States, says tn
Revieso, ''particularly Wurtumburg and Prus
sia, are more advanced than any other countr
in their system of examination" Belgium
Holland, Switzerland, Italy, and even Portu
gal and Spain, exact evidence of qualification
and reward merit with promotion; and
Greece a university education is indispensabl
TO admission. "Ours is probably the onl
country in the world" remarks the ReUieo
"Where q system Of examination and promo