The Sunday herald., 1881-03-13
TLlE rLlLL SERILcE.

President Garfield has at the outset of his
term an opportunity he will never have
again to show, by those acts that speak
louder than words, whether he really means
what he said in his Inaugural Address. We
cannot doubt that General Garfield was sim
cerc when he used the following words:
Tho CyiI Service can mover he placed on a satlsiac-
tory basis until II IS regulated by law. For the good
of the service ITSELF for the protection Of those who
are intrusted with the appointing power, against the
waste of time aud obstruction TO the public business
caused by the inordnnte pressure for place. and Tor
the protection of incumbents against intrigue and
wrong shall, at the proper time, ask Congress to
nx the tenure Of the minor ofncesof the several cN-
ecutye departments and prescribe the grounds upon
which removals shall he made during tho term for
which ncumbents have been appointed.
The question remaining to be solved IS
whether he has strength to resist " the inor-
dinate pressure for place" the evil results
of which he sees so clearly; whether he has
the full determination to resist that pressure
to I" the protection of incumbents against in
"trigue and wrong" He is now undergoing
the crucial test. The Cabinet having been
appointed intrigues have begun to supplant
The newspaper correspondents are busly
declaring that tho President means to "put
4" a good deal of new blood ~ into the depart
ments, and they specify by name almost
every Assistant Secretary, Chief Clerk, and
Chief of Bureau as already destined for re-
moval. If there he anywhere in the public
service places that should he permanent 1t is
those of the men whose duties most nearly
conform to those of the permanent under
secretaries in the civil services of Great
Britain and some continental governments.
II Mr.. Bancroft Davis returns to the state
Department, Mr. Blaine will have most fully
recognized the Importance of the point we
are making; and all the more because
wholesome practice in that Department has
made its service less changcable than is usual
in the others, and because, having veteran
Second and Third Assistant Secretaries, the
conditions are there as favorable as they can
possibly he for the introduction of an mex
| pericnced Assistant Secretary without special
| danger of dctliment to the public business.
Take for example the two Assistan, Secre-
taries in the Treasury. They are the right
and left hands with which the Secretary
himself occupied with the decision of the
greater problems of finance and of national
politics-operates the most complicated az
gregation of administrative bureaus in our
Government And the case is similar in the
Interior Department. We cannot believe
that either the President or his advisers
contemplate anything so directly antagonis-
tic To the principles enunciatei in the
Inaugural as the hasty displacement OF those
prominent officers in the departments whC
have risen to their present positions by sheer
force OF unmistakable merit. We take it fol
granted that the new heads of department:
will at least take time to familiari2e them
selves with their duties and to observ,
for themselves whether their immediate
aids can safely he dispensed with betor
:, 1evUtng their places irrevocably to persona
=, intimates and followers. 1t is therefore graft
y, flying to note that both the President am
, Secretary Window have lately been quote
as expressing sound IDEAS on this subject.
q is peculiarly in the more important position
r. that disorganization is easy, for it is i
4 these that the knowledge which can onl
II be gained by long study and eXperienc
:, are indispensable. In the nature OF thing
- there are many clerks in the lowe
y, grades who can he discharged without pei
:, ceptible injury indeed, under the presel
# order Of things many persons must obtai
~, | clerkships who neither by nature or trail
n, ing are fitted to rise in the service. Turnir
a. out persons in the lower grades merely
# make room for others, is chiefly deplorab
for the hardship it works and the viciol
practice it establishes, hut the greatest il
oi jury to the governmental machinery is dol
te when those who have risen to respon8ib
5e and difficult desks are dismissed merely b
re cause the emoluments they have earned a
ne sufficient to make their places conspicuol
~ marks for political cormorants. Need v
H. point ont, in conclusion, how pernicious Il
in doctrine that even when one Rcpublit:
III administration has simply succeeded n
.n other there must be n wholesale redistrb
er ton of officers This is the "spoils sy
A 4" tenn" pushed to its last and wor
ur possibility. If, after the Republican par
W has been in uninterrupted possession
power for twenty years, the Civil Service
~ in such n state that wholesale changes n
ny necessary, sensible people will ask if
,on change of parties would not have been 4
are best remedy.
|