Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-13
CIVIL SERVICE.
SENATOR PERDlET0N IN ADVOCACY
OF ITS REFORM.
The spoiIs System and whateit Leads to-
The President and Secretaries Pedlars
of 0fices-Degredation Of the n
Public Service - The s
Remedy.
APPOINTMENTS BASED ON MERIT,
Special 10 the Register.

Special 10 the Register.
WASHINGTON, December 12.-In the Sem
ate to-day, Mr. Pendleton delivered speech
on the civil service, and advocated its re-
form. The bill which ne offered is the
same, in effect, which he presented at the
last session, and provides for the appoint
ment by the President of
A Commission OF Five Persons,
of different political parties, of whom three
shall hold no other official place, and twa
shall be experienced in the public services;
that such commission shall devise and sub
nit to the President for his approval,
suitable rules, and suggest appropriate ac-
ton for making the act effective, and when
so approved and promulgated it shall be
the duty of all officers of the United States
in the Departments and offices to which
any such rules may relate, to aid, in all
proper ways, in carrying said rules, and
any notifications thereof, into effect; that
such rules shall provide and declare
for open competition, examinations
for all positions under the classes to be
specified; that all original entrance to the
public service shall be at the lowest grade;
that there shall be period of probation be-
fore any absolute appointment or employ
ment aforesaid; that promotions shall be
from the lower grades to the higher on the
basis of merit and competition; that no per-
son in the public service is for that reason
under any obligation to contribute to any
political fund, or to render any political
Service, and that he will not be removed or
otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do SO;
that no person in said service has any rlght
to use his official authority or influence to
coerce the political action of any person or
body; there shall be non-competitive ex-
aminations in all proper cases before the
han NntI M n
found practicable that notice shall be given
in writing to said commission of the per
sons selected for appointment or employ
ment from among those who have been ex-
amined, of the rejection of any such per-
sons after probation, and OF the date there
of, and q record of the same shall be kept
by said commission.
The remaining sections provide for the
enforcement OF the above provisions.
Mr.. Pendleton said that the offices of the
government-those involving neither pO-
litical power nor the choice of policies, but
routine administration only-touch at some
point and in some degree the material in
terest of every one of our fifty millions of
people To say that the men best fitted for
the work should be appointed to these
offices and should hold them until men still
better fitted should appear is to utter a
truiSm which, not one of these fifty millions
will controvert. And yet is has come to
pass that the unanimity in admitting this
truth in words is only equaled by the
unanimity in disregarding it in action.
1t has come to pass that the
offices are dealt with as the prizes of par
tisan activity; as the rewards to be dis
tributed to active faithful henChmen by
party chiefs of high or low degree, to be
held until the salary or emOlument or
honor shall have furnished sufficient COM
pensation, and then to be given to another
partisan worker who has performed great
or or later service. This practice has per
meated every part of our government,
Federal, State, county, township. and
fffHiei14i Gfffcdi.e ~ involves every officer, almost
every man supposed to have influence with
the appointing power. 1t affects the APP
pointment and tenure as we'll OF the LABOR
ers on the streets as OF the members OF the
Cabinet.
The Spoils System.
This is the spoilS system. The name ex-
plains itself. The name opens up to every
thoughtful man, nay, to every man who
will see even without thinking vision Of
wrong, injustice, brutality, wastefulneSs,
reCkleSsneSs, fraud, peculatiOn, degradation
OF persons and of parties which has driven
from public life much OF the cultivated in
tellect and refined morality of the country,
and fills even the most hopeful mind with
sadness for much in the present and gave
anxiety in the future.
He then referred, in fitting words, to the
assassination OF President Garfield, and
insisted that the brutality of our politics,
which traduces characters and villlteS mo-
tiyes-the desire for office-the belief that
Garfield could and ought to divide the SpOils
among the victorious-these made this
crime possible; these made it possible for
the assassin to assert that he thought he
was doing his party and his country SER
vice; these are the fostering beds in which
such fools are born into such madmen, and
such schemes OF wicked deylltry are
Matched.
The act of Guiteau is exceptional; the
causes which contributed toit are imbedded
in our system and are ever present.
Instinctively the people, without dis
tinCtiOn to party, traced the source and
significance of Guiteau's act. They found
it in our system of Administration. Their
intelligence was made keenly active. Their
conscience was awakened. Their sensibili
ty was touched. 1t needs but little guild
ance to lead them to the determination, by
law and by public opinion stronger than
the law, to destroy this office-giying and
oflice-seeking system. That system Is the
real assassin of Garfield.
once n Reward SeFNlCcs
The idea that one hundred thousand Of
fees purely administrative, almost abso-
lutcly clerical in their nature, paying $780,
OOO, COO. are to be distributed by the Presi-
dent and his appointees. after every election
and as often during his term as the rapacity
of place-hunters can persuade or force him,
as the rewards of partisan service to be
earned by mere personal activity or contri-
button of money, is a crime against the
civilization Of the age. 1t is the prolific
parent of fraud, and corruption, and bru-
tality. 1t sets up the emoluments OF office
as the prize of party struggles, and the
stimulant OF partisan effort; and the love
of money induces a ferocious activity in
the pursuit of party success, which is the
condition of getting office.
Necessarily, by the logic of the system,
which is stronger than the determination
of good men, however strong they may be,
in its farthest ramificatiOn, 1t awards the
highest comparative prizes to those who
have done the most OF the dirtiest work OF
our lowest politics. 1t makes our Presi-
dents and our Secretaries peddlers OF office
and diyerts their time and attention from
wise and faithful discharge of the high
duties with which they are charged.
Degradation Of Public MEN.
This system drives Senators and Repre-
sentatlveS into such poSitlon tnat NOT oniy
do they neglect the chief duty of legisla-
ton. but too often they are tempted by
their friends and supporters, and are almost
cossced, to make support OF an administra-
ton conditional upon obtaining offices for
their friends. 49, - ~.
Nor is this all. or even the worst. This
appeal to love of money and love of patron
age, as the stimulants to eIertion, creates
a fierce and brutal party spirit which stops
at no wrong in the accomplishment OF its
end 1t makes an intelligent exercise OF
the elective franchise impossible. 1t
makes free election and fair count i'm
possible. 1t levies contributions on the
salaries of all the offices and eIpends the
vast sums thus collected in eorrupting
votes. 1t lowers the tone and degrades the
sentiment not only of the public men, but
more important still, Of the whole people
behind them.
After sketching the evils which have
grown up under the present system OF ap.