Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-05-04
Curtis on Civil Service Reform.

George William Curtis lectured in Boston
Thursday evening on the subject of civil
service reform. Mr.. Curtis gave a sharp
exposition of the familiar faults of Che
old spoils system, and, although he dwelt at
considerable length upon the advantages Of
competitive examination, the great fault Of
his address was that it had 80 much to do
with the hackneyed subject Of the conceded
evils which have made civil service reform
a necessity and lifted it to the dignity of a
political question, but little to suggest in the
way Of working out and perpetuating a
practicable system of reform. The speech
contained maximum of the destructive
and a minimum of the constructive quality.
The defect is natural one. Mr.. Curtis is
much better adapted to the work of observ-
ing the evils of defective system and ex-
posing them in trenchant English than in
drafting the great features and arranging
the details of new system to replace the
old one. He is not fitted by experience, by
education, or by nature, to be the architect
of the new temple in which the future civil
service Of this country shall maintain the
privilege of sanctuary against the rapacious
onslaughts Of politicians. Impracticabil-
ity is the great defect of many of the the.
oretical advocates of civil service reform.
The 'schoolmaster's test" as the system of
competitive examinations has been ironically
styled, is by no means panacea for all the
evils which civil service has inherited from
the vicious practices of its ancestors. The
civil service of the nation is quite as varied
as the different spheres of labor, of industry,
of art and science, of professional life, of ex-
ecutive and administrative experience, which
go to make up the daily life of these fifty mil
lions of people. Native capacity for special
duties is not always disclosed by compel
| tive examination alone. Postmaster James
special fitness as chief of the New York
office, or for any of the minor positions
which he has held, was not developed by the
fact that he could write better hand, or
answer a larger percentage of questions in
arithmetic, grammar, geography, ETC., than
his competitors. No merchant, no superin-
tendent, no business manager, chooses his
employees by this standard alone Indeed,
such standard is generally subordinated
either to the chiefs expert capacity to Judge
Of the fitness of his subordinates for their
duties or to the record which candidate for
position has made in the discharge of spe-
cial or related duties The test of fitness
for an office will vary with the nature of the
service required and no cast-iron rule can
ever entirely take the place of individual or
circumstantial judgment.
Mr. Curtis will accomplish great good
by not allowing the evils of the spoils sys-
tenn to sleep in undisturbed security from
public observation, but his position in rela-
ton to an effective reform of civil service is
somewhat analogous to that which Garrison
or Phillips held in regard to the slavery
question. Other and more practical minds
must step in aud work out the details of
reform which he agitates He makes a good
point by showing from the late English cleo
ton that the system of spoils is not indis-
pensable to party organization.
"what is the argument by which the system is
sustained? It Is very brief 1t is simply that our
government Is government of parties. and that
the system Of spoils is indispensable to party or
ganzation. The reply is equally simple IL il a |
peremptory denial. The assertion is untrue. The |
spoils system is not the necessary basis OF party
organization. 1t is merely piece of administra-
ton which long antedates parties, which -four |
ishes under parties, but which can also be thor |
oughly remedied under them. The theoretical |
assertion ~ answered by an indisputable fact
The English political system and government are /
as completely partisan as our own. Party organ
ization is even more thorough and more severe in |
England than it is in the United States. 1t is as
that this wretched business is Indispensable IN
our political life. England has long ago expelled
l. from hers. Six months before our last cleo
ton there was election in England which
shook that country quite as much as our presi-
dental election shook this country. After one of |
the most tremendous contests In the history of |
English or American politics the tory administra-
ton fell But during that contest there was no |
panic or apprehension in the civil service. Not
single offfce-holder assessed to sustain the |
administration, nor appointed or removed to
strengthen 1t. On the other hand, no worker for |
the opposition party expected to receive minor
office as reward for helping the overthrow of |
the administration Of Lord Beaconsfed The
English people have decided that II they keep pol
itics out of the custom house and the post-ofice
and the internal revenue department, the public
business will be more economically and efficiently
transacted, and great of political corrup-
ton will be dried up. They have decided that a
man shall be appointed to that service because he
proves that he Is fitted for it, not because polit-
clan wishes to pay his personal debts by quarter
ing henchman upon the public. Mr.. Curtis
then gave remarkable illustration Of this by
telling how Dlsraeli, when prime minister, on be
ing accused Of appointing man to an obscure of
iice for political purposes, was subjected to rigid
investigation, and WAS compelled to explain away |
the suspicious circumstances In his most crafty
manner, and show that he had not done what was
alleged, and 1t was only in this way that he sue
ceeded In saving himself from the necessity and
the humiliation OF a resignation. Mr.. Curtis then
continued There is not an intelligent young
man in England, however poor, however friend
less, who may not compete for the positions in
the civil service upon precisely equal terms with
Sutherland, the son Of the duke Of Argyle. the
son Of the archbishop of Canterbury, would have
no advantage whatever in the competition over
the son of carter or q stevedore.