Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-05-18
Civil Service Reform.


On Monday last Senator Pendleton, OF
Ohio, on behalf of the Committee on
Civil Service and Retrenchment, pre-
sented to the Senate a report in advocacy
of the passage of the bill to regulate and
improve the civil service of the country
which was reported to the Senate on the
Doth of March last. This bill provides
that the civil service of the country shall
be permanent, and virtually placed on
the same basis as the military and naval
service of the United States. Fitness,
to be determined by proper examination,
is to be the basis of appointment in the
civil service, and promotions are to be
regular, and the positions will be held
for life OF during good behavior.
The great and essential advantages
which such a system of civil service
would have over the present are mani
fest. Educated and competent men
would then manage the affairs of the
republic, and there would be no longer
the bitches and jars which now con-
stantly arse, and which always must
arise so long as the civil service is made
the foot ball of politicians, and ex-
perienced men must be forced, at any
time, to yield their places up to those
who have no knowledge of the duties to
be required of them, and no quail
fcation for the positions they
are called upon to fill, except
that they possess a certain amount of
political influence, and can control few
votes at the polls. And what is even
more than this, such system would tend
to elevate the Chief Magistracy of the
republic to its ante belJum dignity, and
make that exalted position something
higher than that of a mere ward politi-
clan. Under present circumstances, the
President is but little more than dis
penser of Office, and his time is mainly
taken up with considering how he can
best distribute the immense Federal
patronage in his gift so as to advance
not the welfare of the country-but the
political party to which he belongs. As
Mr.. Pendleton truly says:
''There has grOwnup such perversion
of the duties of the Presidential Office,
such prostitution of it to ends unworthy
of the great idea of its creation, imposing
burden so grievOus and so degrading
to all the faculties and functions becom-
ing its occupants, that a change, the
committee think, has already occurred
in the character of the government itself
which. if not corrected, will be perma-
nent and disastrous. Personal attention
to the consideration which should con-
troll executive action in the disposition
of patronage and in the selections of
officials has become impossible, and
political control as guide for such action
is fraught with decentralization and dan
ger to the republic"
In opposition to the above manifest
advantages of the proposed change in the
civil service of the country it is urged
that the adoption of the system proposed
by the committee would fasten upon the
land, for an indefinite period, the horde
of Radical officials now in Office. and
who, being political appointees, always
use their positions for political ends
This is true. Still. even if it could not
be provided that they should be rapidly
displaced, so as to ensure a more
speedy improvement of the service, they
would all eventually gradually be thrown
out of Office. good and efficient meu
would occupy their places. and the civil
service would henceforward be pure
and honorable. The very idea that the
country could reasonably look forward
to such a condition of affairs, instead of
as now, being forced to contemplate the
fact, that there Is apparently no limit to
the prostitution Of public Office, from
President down, to political interests,
would be encouraging,
Those who dislike the fixity of tenure
of Office which such system as is pro
posed promises to insure to present in
cumbents of civil service positions need,
however, not be alarmed. Neither this
nor any other measure which will take
patronage from the hands Of the Presi-
dent will ever become law so long as
we have Republican administration and
a Republican Congress. The power to
influence elections and keep control of
the country is too great to be willingly
abandoned at any time, but under exist
ing circumstances, when Mr.. Arthur is
relying so greatly upon Federal patron
age to bald up an administration party,
and our Republican Congress is
so desperately dependent upon all the
political influence they can command
to retain their meagre majority in the
Federal Legislature, all hope for civil
service reform is of very forlorn charac-
ter. We shall probably once more hear,
as we have been IN the habit of late
years of hearing, of the necessity for
civil service reform, just as we hear on
all sides of a necessity for tariff reform,
but it viii simply, as usual, turn out to
be a case of cor ct prgterea nih1. Like
tariff reform, it must come sooner or
later, but, while the Republican party is
in power, it certainly will not come until
it can be STAYED of no longer.