The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-10-15
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

3 CIVIL SEhVlCE RETURN
= While reform IN the national civil service
3 has been talked about good deal for the las
0 six or eight years, its main use thus far ha
q been to serve as a sort of RHETORICAL flourish
0 in party platforms and presidential Inaugural
addresses and messages. Since the violen
8 shock the country has received IN the assassin
alton of Gen. Garfield, a crime for which ou
0 wrctcbed civil service system-not Inaptly
, called the "spoils systcm"-is generally held
! responsible, public thought has been turned
D with much more SERIOUSNESS to the subject
and is rapidly shaping itself into such de
mand that something shall be done, that con
gress will hardly dare to pass through another
SESSION ignoring the subject.
1t is true, Guteau's narrative, of which the
|, material portions are printed on an inside page,
In measure contradCts the theory which
holds the spoils system responsible for his
crime, by the statement that his failure to get
the Paris cOnsulshlp, or any other office, did
not have the slightest influence on me one way
or the other in my removing the President"
| " III Iult uC ubLii'o thae MO ihih"
was worked up to the commission of the crime
by the quarrel between the President and
Conklng, and the protracted struggle between
the hafbreed and stalwarts at Albany, and
what WAS that but shameful and disgusting
wrangle arising out of the spells SYSTEM
But whether Guiteau's crime is directly at
tributable to the spells system or not, no one
can look for moment into our national civil
service system as now practlced but will ad-
mt that reform is necessary" Even Ex.Sec.
rotary Evarts, premier of the Hayes admins
tration, by which the civil service was prost
tuted 10 baser uses than by any other admins
tratlon since the organization of the govern
ment, felt impeled, in brief tribute to Gen
Garfield two weeks ago. to say IT is very
sad fact for US as republicans speak of our
republican form Of government, and not of a
party-that four OF our chief magistrates have
died IN Office, two plagued to death by lmpor
tunltcs OF office seekers, and two slam by as
sasslns really melted by the same cause Let
US consider whether all this plague of patron
age, the paceman's ride, the statesmans scan
dial, and the natives shame, cannot be avoided
Who shall stand before this people, between
the living and the dead presidents, that this
plague may be stayed?"
But how is the plague to be stayed ~
The most common idea is, that congress shall
pass some sort of law that shall put stop to
all appointments rs rewards Tor party services /;
that shall regard competency the NAN qualif
cation; and that shall protect competent and
faithful public servants from removal on &C.
count of belonging to one or anotLl: political
party No measure of REFORM IN this view Of
the subject, 1t is generally conceded, has yet
been proposed that is superior to the bill intro
duced in the L. 8. Senate last winter by Sena-
tor Pendleton, of Ohio. The bill, in brief,
provides for the appointment by the President
of five commissioners, not more than three of
whom shall belong to the same political party,
whose duty 1t shall be to devise and submit
to the President for his approval and promul-
cation suitable rules and to suggest such ac-
ton as shall make this act operative, and when
these rules are 80 promulgated and approved
1t becomes the duty Of the heads of the depart
ment to whlch they relate to aid in all proper
ways IN carrying such rules into effect.
These rules are to declare and provide for
competitive examinations, that all offices and
places shall be filled by selections from among
those graded highest in such competitive ex-
aminatlons; that the original entrance INTO the
h1 ~ hall ln NJ tI,n o.I,
that there shall be aperod Of probation before
final appointment; that promotions shall be
from the lower grades to the higher on the
basis of merit and competition; that no person
in the public service shall be under obligation
to contribute to any election fund or render
any political service or be removed for refus-
ing to do So that no person shall have any
right to use his official authority to influence
any person; that there shall be noncompet.
tive examinations before the commission IN
such cases as they see fit; that written notice
shall be given to the commission of those Sc
lected from the applicants in the examina
tons; of the rejection of any such persons
after probation, and of the date thereof, and a
record of the same kept by the commission.
This plan is open to the very serious objec.
ton, however, that something very like it was
tried during the last Grant administration, and
resulted in such conspicuous failure that the
very phrase civil service reform" became for
several years laughing stock and iibe
A better system undoubtedly is that propos
ed In a late letter to the Monmouth Qll) Re.
rieU by the somewhat eccentric but none the
less acute and sensible Henry Clay Dean, now
a resident OF Putnam county, Missouri His
umns, Is, IN word that all public officers, as
far as practicable shall be elected by the peo-
pie, or where that is impossible, as in the case