The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-07-30
Gov. Long on Civil-Service Re-
form.
interview in tho Boston Travel

Interview in the Boston Traveller.l
am quite willing to talk about the matter.
Mr.. Dawes's recent letter is most valuable
contribution to the discussion, not so much by
what it contains, but because he has written it
at all, and thus thrown the great weight of his
official position and experience on the side of
needed reform in the interests of public busi-
ness. 1t is just too, to Mr.. Dawes to say that
it is exactly what might have been expected
from him. Massachusetts has had no congress-
man more alive to her business welfare. If my
memory is right, it was he also who in 1875
drew up the first civil-service reform plank
that was put into our Worcester platform. One
of the most accessible of men, ready to serve
all his constituents, not for favor merely, but
as their representative chosen to do their SER
vice, he has felt the burden of the demands of
ofice-seekers beyond many congressman, and
realized the need of relief from it, In order
that he might give himself to the more urgent
requirements of his office. The mere fact,
therefore, that he declares for reform will have
great weight. In itself, however, and in the
method he proposes, his letter seems to me
charming, indeed, in its narrative, but rather
inadequate in its grip of the issue. Reading
it, one thinks of our congressman pictured as
SO many urchins who have been caught in mis-
chief, and are crying out that some bigger
boys made them do it, and they could not help
themselves Stress is laid on the habit of
writing letters of recommendation as If this
were anything more than the merest incident
of the real evil. / doubt not that the senator,
had his attention been called TO it, would have
frankly added that not only had he suffered
from the infliction of such letters from the va
riouS classes of persons enumerated'b by him,
but also that be had himself inflicted his share
on them in return. l presume, too, that re-
ceiving such letters, it has never been his Gus
tom to discourage the writing of them by
pointing out their folly, but rather to acknowl-
edge them in gentle courtesy, and so run the
risk of keeping aglow the faint spark of hope.
Put me down as q convert to the necessity of
reform in the civil service, but not by relying
upon any such slender reed as the abolition OF
letters of recommendation. On the contrary,
under the present system, that cannot and
ought not to be done, because such letters are
not only proper, but it is often duty to read
them. L agree with Senator Dawes that they
come often from presidents xand members of
civilservice reform clubs and from the very
critics who complain the loudest. Indeed,
my experience is that these are the men who
quickest scent office, and ask it for them
selves and for their cousins and brothers-in-
law, and as instance after instance in this
chamber would show. But it is perfectly prop
er that they should do SO. There are very few
businesses or professions so few and exaeting
in its standards as politics, and the ambition
to do public service deserves encouragement,
and not ridicule and rebuff; and as things
now are, why should not letters of recommen-
dation be written for those who wish to enter
that service? To-day appointive Office is
thing not assigned by competition upon tests
of fitness, but to those who bring the strongest
testimonials from men of public and political
influence. A young man desires clerksh1p.
He is capable, honest, and fit for it. He would
gladly take his chances under any examina-
or practical test, but he finds the only avenue
is through recommendation. He asks you,
who knows him, to say what you know OF him.
You tell him and he understands that his
chance is small. He is willing to take it. He
puts in push when he would gladly put in ex-
hibtion of merit, if the system would permit
it. Why should you refuse to give him your
certificate? You would give it to him if he
were seeking employment in bank or busi-
ness house. OF course the president of a col
lege writes good letters for his graduates, and
he ought to do so. Our purest politicians
have given them. / meet an old political
hummer of % years ago, and he shows me
letter of recommendation written for him by
Charles Sumner still carried in his pocket, as it
should be, like precious talisman. The
fault is not in the letters OF Recommendation,
not in the class of persons who espouse this
method of that civil service, not in the appli-
cant or incumbent but in the system, and the
reform must radically change it.
In the first place, no appointing power ought
to be charged, as a general rule, with the apt
pointment of minor officials of whom personal
ly it can know nothing, and with regard to
whom it must therefore depend entirely upon
local information. If the President is to ap-
point the postmaster of Timbuctoo, he cannot
help taking direction from the Representative
in Congress of Timbuctoo people. 1t has been
suggested that such officials be chosen by local
constituents, or appointed by local authorities,
who know their merits and their own needs.
At any rate, in the great bureaus and depart
mentS, let a civil service commissioner, ap-
pointed by the President, and acting through
examining boards, remove the selection
of employees squarely out of political and out
of congressional hands, thus relieving them,
and put appointments on the simple issue of
giving the place to the fittest candidate. Mr..
Dawes would have doue better service if he
had developed the simple, practical and excel
lent plan reported last year by the committee
of which he is an able member and OF which
Mr.. Pendleton is chairman. / trust he will do
it in his next letter. l am surprised that some
of you enterprising newspaper men have not
already done it. IL is a plan which has the
merit of working no violent changes. 1t ap-
plies only to bureaus where 80 or more appoin-
tees are employed. In New England, there
fore, it would affect, 1 take it, only the Boston
custom house and post office. Its adoption
would make no more shock than the shifting
of a belt from one wheel to another. 1t guards
against unfit and mistaken selections, by put
ting every successful candidate upon probation
SO that if with all his success and merit in pass
ing examination he fails after few months
trial in practical work, he receives no appoint
ment, and gives way to the next in order.