Litchfield enquirer., 1881-03-24
Civil Service Reform, by a Civil Service
 Reformer.

Nelson giving an account of the reforms effected by Mr. Schurz in the Department of the Interior during his four years term of office. The facts are so little known, MT. Schurz not being favorite with the ! Republican press, and still less with the Democratic, that they were to great ex- tent news to us and will no doubt prove such to many of our readers.
 MT. Schurz's predecessor in office was the late Zachary Chandler, the bitterest and most stalwart of Republican politi- I clans, but an honest man, who was not one bit afraid to do whatever he considered his duty. He had effected good deal to- wards making the Interior Department something less of a reproach to American administrative methods than it had been under h,s predecessors. When Mr. Schurz was appointed to this place, few expected he would prove as efficient an officer as MT. Chandler, who, says Mir. Nelson, was generally supposed to have thoroughly re- formed the department and placed it on a business footing. MT. Schurz had some such idea himself, apparently, when he took the place. It was far from the truth : ''the surface only had been scratched the real work of publication and reform re- mained to be done." The new Secretary set to work from the first to master the difficulties of his position. MT. Chandler had worked hard, for a politician MT. Schurz paid no attention to politics but threw his whole soul into the work of learning his business.
 His first important step was the appoint ment of board of inquiry into Indian affairs The report of this board, says MT. Nelson, "shows that the Indian Bu- reau was entirely irresponsible. The Secretary had no means of knowing what was going on under his authority. As a matter of course there was fraud and pec- lation in all the dealings with the Indians and there were no suitable accounts and records to show the nature of these deal ings.
 The testimony taken before the board of in- quiry disclosed the fact that the bureau was full of inefficient men, and of weak men who yielded easily to temptation. One case will sufficiently illustrate with what naivete some of the clerks regarded very questionable prac- tices. The annuity clerk under Mir. Chandler had been in office twenty one years He was one of the inspectors of goods furnished the bureau by the New York contractors He 1 testified that he had received from those con- tractors presents of blankets, clothing, dry l goods, groceries and money; ''all this," he | pathetically said, twas in the good old times when things were somewhat different from what they are now" Other clerks were found to be hopelessly ignorant. Political influence put them in office and kept them there. Carelessness, ignorance, and worse prevailed l in the New York as well as in the Washing | ton office; and the inspection of goods, on the l proper quantities and qualities of which de- | pended so mulch the peace of the frontier, was 1 conducted in a manner which gave the con- tractors every opportunity to swindle the Gov- ernment, the advice of the Indian Commis- | sioner being almost entirely disregarded. The business methods prevailing at the agencies were of the loosest possible description. Ac- counts were rendered or not about as it pleas ed the agent It is safe to say that under the old lack of system almost any dishonest agent could constantly cheat the Government for an | indefinite period. * l There was no inspection of the agencies worthy the name. The inspectors were un | der the direction of the bureau, and when an | agency was to be visited the agent had infor- 1 nation in advance, so that he might prepare | for it. The Secretary of the Interior is SUD- posed to supervise the Indian office. Under | Mir. Schurz's predecessors there was no way for the secretary to obtain information except from the officers of the bureau themselves. This left the bureau wholly irresponsible. l The board of inquiry found that most dis graceful state of things existed at the agencies in the relations of the agents to the Indian and the traders. The Indians were systemat- cally cheated. They were deprived of the fruits of their labor by the cunning devices of l agents and traders. The results had often been bad Indians and Indian wars.
 The Secretary followed up his report with the dismissal of offenders, who filled the papers with complaints against him.
 He fully believed in the civil service re- form which was oftener talked of than practiced in other departments. Merit was the only road to promotion and the m0rdle of his office soon became excellent. For the first time in the history of the h. dian Bureau a code of regulations for the gui dance of agents was adopted. Under those regulations the department gained direct supervision over the agencies. "Open mar ket" purchases are now, probably, as nearly done away with as they can ever be. Con- tractors find it difficult to cheat the Govern
 nent by not carrying out their bids they would suffer too heavy penalties, which, un- der MT. Schurzs administration, have been enforced. The system of keeping accounts was thoroughly revised. At present there is as much machine-ike system ln this respect as there is in the office of private corpora
 tion. All bids are thoroughly revised, and all goods properly inspected. The blanks for vouchers are now so prepared that the agents can no longer use them as means for swind
 ling the Government and the Indians For
 merlY agents sent in their estimates in a loose, general statements now they make them out in detail and by items The result of the bet ter methods adopted is a substantial purified. tion of the service of the frauds which for
 merly prevailed. Agents reports are now reg ularly made; formerly they were made irreg- ularly' and were sometimes kept back for
 By taking the corps of inspectors under his own control, MT. Schurz obtained very. effective means of gaining that supervision over the Indian servIce which the law con- templates that the Secretary of the Interior shall have. Agents could no longer be fore warned of coming inspection, by telegraph from Washington. They were taken unpre. kpared, and the condition of the agencies was reported to the department as it appeared or dinariy, and not as it appeared when arrang
 ed for dress-parade. This change was the means of discovering the only gross corrup
 ton in the service which came to light during the four years of Mir. Schurz's term of off, flee.
 By the new regulations, and their firm enforcement, the cheating of Indians by traders has been practically stopped.
 | MT. Schurz's reforms did not end, how ever, with the roofing out of that dishon- esty which has hitherto seemed. insepara- ble from the conduct of Indian affairs. He