The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-04
SPIRIT OF TEE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions ofthe Leading Journals
upon Current opios-Compied Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
ONE MORE ARGUMENT FOR A BETTER
CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM.

NOW that the question OF CIVIL service re-
form has passed the stage of vtuperation and
reached that of argument it may not be un-
interesting to bring before the public
department of the Government where the
essential principles of Mr.. Jenckes' plan have
been in operation for over a quarter of q CEN
tury. In the United States Coast Survey we
have an example of the results of permanence
in Office, of promotion determined by service
and abilities, and of pay graduated by the
value of services, and see their results in the
devoted labor so arduous as to require the
highest talents of both body and mind of its
members, and in the esprit de corps melting
the officers to their best work-showing how
well this system of work is suited to the ext
gencies of our public service.
The Coast Survey had its nominal begin
ming almost at the creation of the Govern
ment, but its real work began when 1t came
into the hands of its lamented chief, the late
Alexander Dallas Bache. Under his supervi-
sion, the corps grew from the dozen officers
who confined their efforts to certain special
points on the shore TO body of more than
one hundred. AS the survey rose to impor-
tance after President jackson began the sys-
tenn of rotation in Office, and developed under
the cautious policy of a chief who knew
enough to shelter it from politics, it was so
fortunate as to escape the evils of that system.
This branch of the public service is orga-
other department of the Govern
ment. 1t has but three grades-atd,
-Su5-dsS5StGnt and dsSiStdnt-so that the
chances of promotionsare quite limited. The
pay of none of these officers exceeds that of
a captain of infantry of the same length of
service. During the past decade the pay of
the aids has not averaged over 5000 per
annum, and that of the two highest grades
has been on the average less than $1,000
salaries not calculated it would seem, to
induce men of ability to seek or retain posi-
tions in the service. The duties are severe,
equalling, if not exceeding, in exposure and
hardship those of the soldiers or sailors life.
The field parties remain the whole year at
their work, employed on different parts of
the coast at different seasons
There are those who will imagine that such
a life might have something of sportsman
adventure about it. They will soon be dis
enchanted if they accompany party into
the field. Let them start with the chief of
the party and his aids, after an early break
fast, for days work which is to last until
fve and drag with him through some miles
of swamp, determining the position of each
lagoon and each bosky island. Let him
sleep in a storm-shaken tent, miles away
from all the conveniences of life and repeat
this year after year, and look forward to it as
the work of his lifetime, and then estimate
its fascination. 1t needs no more extended
description to show that this is work which
in itself is not highly desirable; that its re-
muneration is not such as to attract man
into it with the hope Of soon accumulating a
fortune; and yet no service in any country
has been more fortunate in the character of
its officers, none where the labor is more
faithful and devoted, none where there is so
little difficulty in selecting satisfactory candi-
dates for any position which may become
vacant. Young men of education, who would
be insulted by the offer of any other inferior
position in our civil service, eagerly accept
the chance of the place of aid, with its pay
less than a common laborer earns, though
their work may be one continued hardship
until their promotion comes
We do not have to look far to find the main
cause of this wide difference in the condition
of this branch and the other divisions of our
civil service. We find it in the nature of the
tenure by which the officers hold their posi-
tions. Each appointment being for life, or
during good behavior, every member of the
corps is sure that diligent service is the only
claim to his Office, and that while he gives
this nothing can ever forfeit his position.
Further than this, the young men know that
although, during their time of schooling,
which lasts from six to seven years, they re-
ceive but small pay, and occupy quite subor-
dinate positions, they have only to wait
and work to achieve the highest
position which their corps can give.
There is some advantage in the limited
extent of the promotion. An able officer
arrives at the highest stage of the rank of the
corps during his youth, and feels then that
the promotion of the future is the elevation
in the esteem of his compeers which able
work alone can give. The grades of rank are
enough to express the successive stages in
the educational progress of the officer, with
out affording an opportunity for the incum-
bent of any position to be continually seek
ing promotion, an evil which is likely to exist
whenever a whole lifetime may be spent in
successive advancements.
There are those who have asserted, some
of them no doubt with conviction that it was
more than good war-cry, that any civil-ser-
vice system which embodied the idea of per-
manenee Ill Office and systematic promotion,
based on value of services, would lead to the
formation of an aristocracy of Office holders.
Expressed in this way, the well-informed
reader is apt to laugh at the assertion, and
think it unworthy of argument; but to credit
the propounders of this argument with some
thing better than the silly idea their words
express, we will suppose they mean that
body of office-holders, intelligent,
trained in the art of association, secured
against the world while they fulfilled their
tasks, might prove too powerful for safety.
With their influence, they might have some
thing of the same dangerous power now held
by such large systems of corporations as the
national banks Although the temptations to
political efforts on the part of the officers OF
the Coast Survey have been, on the whole, ss
great as they could be expected to be in any
department of the civil service; although, as
a remarkably intelligent body, it would have
had great opportunities if such position
conld Give them we have vet to hear that the