Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1870-12-16
The Civil Service Reform

The subject of competitive examinations
for the civil service will undoubtedly come
up for discussion very soon in Congress.
In the course of his last annual report the
Secretary of the Treasury says:
lam fully convinced that any more perma-
nent tenure of office would materially impair the
efficiency Of the revenue system. There are
many thousand men employed in the customs
and internal revenue service, and however care
full the preliminary examination might be, the
evils which now impair the efficiency would IN
doubtedly exist.
That is to say, it viii be difficult if not
impossible, to have the proper men put in
the proper places. and difficult to get an i'm
proper person out of place he has once
got. But the great fault with the present
way Of doing things Is, not 50 much that in
efficient men get into Office as that everybody
thinks there must be change ofofices with
every new administration to reward political
services, which operates as constant dis
couragement and renders all attempts at
qualification for promotion abortiye.
No general examination can ever be of-
fectaal in testing the fitness of a candidate
for particular employment. Nothing but
actual trial can do that. man may be
good mathematician. and a good classical
scholar, and vet be entirely lacking in the
necessary qualifications for the performance
of the routine work of "a public office. 1t is
nevertheless true that system which re-
quired rigorous examination of the quail
feations of candidates for employment in the
civil service. would he much more likely to
secure good officers than system which did
not: and the advantage gained for the coun-
try in having such a system would be much
more in oyerthTowirg the doctrine that to
the yictors belong the spoils, and the present
demoralizing system Of distributing Offices.
We can never hope TO be free from the dis
graceful wrangle for spoils' which follows
each change Of administration, until son
such reform is introduced. While the final
test of actual experience should always be
applied, and no person allowed to stay in an
Office who proves himself unfit, even if he
has passed an examination, it would secure
for trial men Of at least average intelligence
and learning. who soon could and would fit
themselves for the place they might hold
and would prevent suchoccuTenc5sas theiol- /
lowing. which We find related in New
York Tarer
Our tariH used TO admit auimals free Of DUTY /.
v hen they were imported f.r breeding purposes.
sai su Sttempt having iesu made az the Gus
tom House. enc day. % obtain free permit Tor /.
a donkey. s. imported, the Deputy Collector re- /
fused il On the ground inst donkey was mule. F.
The Collector was appealed 70, bot lie hal 70 /
confess the- he ii not know what donkey Was /
except f.url-iEelv spcsAing, sui there WAS not .
an official u the Custom louise who dill The /.
dictionaries were consulted and she Culy one /
that afforded any Information was Worcester,
unabridged. who says that donkey is 3 mule .
or 40 lss Every body might bee supposed csUS-
lleof telling Whist oakum means, yet, when Ar.
Toucey was Secretary Of the Navy BE hal 81
idea that cakum was the material out c.. wllcn
ropes we're Manufactured AMI It s uQt long
since thai su expert 10 lhe Custom House in
sisted ol putting Ten per cent. dis'rimiua- ng
duty 20 .ueosklm imported from London, oa
the gruuo5 that +; was grown In countries east
Of the Csre0f Good Hope ami half dozen Of
his fellow Jerks sustained him iu has decision.
II any cauiiiate for competitive examination
bad proved hu.alf 50 ignorant Ca So simple
sui i,.r :; would doubtless have proved at,. TO
BE hopes fur au aTpciutment