Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1871-01-25
Civil SerYice Refnrm.

The subject of Civil Service Reform
is again being agitated, and its advocates are
profuse in predictions of the good results
that will follow its adoption. The wild
hunt for office" will be summarily stopped ;
those who dispense or control patronage will
get rid of an intolerable nuisance public
business be brought to superlative state
of perfection; and the National Capital
transformed into an earthly paradise, instead
of being sink of corruption. The first OF
these ends might possibly be attained, but
we think there is not only good deal of the
impracticable, but large amount of hum
bug in the whole scheme. Persons holding
civil offices for protractcd period of time
do not always discharge their duties most
efficiently and faithfully The service
has often been benefited by pushing super
annuated fogics ''of their stools, and put
ting new, live men in their places. There
is also vast deal OF CANNON in the notion
that Senators and Representatives are nearly
bored 20 death by office seekers for If
the President or Cabinet officer sees fit to
make an appointment without first consult
ing them, fault finding and denunciation fol-
low as matter of course, by these same
Senators and representatives. Nor is it
likely to put a stop to the nepotiSm and IA
voritism, which is alleged to prevail. On
the contrary, if office tenures are made to
continue for life, those who dispose of or
control patronage will just as surely provide
places for relatives and friends, and will be
the more anxious to do so, iu view of the
life tenure. But the riost serious objection
to the measure is its anti democratic and
ntirepublican tendency. 1t would newt
ably result 10 the formation of exclusive
clrcles-an aristocracy of position-similar
to that now existing in the Army and Navy
1t would be a retrOgrade movement-a step
backward for this civil service" idea is
mainly borrowed from England, where com
Portable places are thus provided for the
younger sons of great families, whose chief
merit lies, not in qualifications, but in the
fact that they can command influence with
the dispensers of royal patronage. The
idea of competitive examinations would, in
practice, prove q delusion-as these exam
lining boards would be subject to precisely
the same influences which now control the
appointing power. Public officers. assured
OF permanent position, would grow super
cllous, unaccommodating, and neglectful of
duty, unless, with the introduction of lite>
tenure, radical change can be wrought in
human nature.
There are unquestioned evils connected
with our American system of office seeking
and place getting but they cannot be cured
by this much Wanted universal panacea of
Civil Service Reform" At best, it would
be but the substitution of another class of
evils, foreign to our Republican idea5-an
aping of debsuchcd monarchical systems,
where blood aristocracy and money command
power and place. A better plan would be
to diminish executive patronage by making
POstmasters and other officials elective Offices,
under proper restraints and conditions
Nepotism would be broken DIP, and while at
times incompetent men might be chosen,
this class would not be more numerous IN
der an elective than under an appointive
system, while direct responsibility to the
people would tend to secure courteous, faith
full discharge of duty.