Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-05-01
Iancastcr :3ntelltgenccr.
TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 1, 1888.
Doomed to Failure.

Doomed to Failure.
The cause of civil service reform has
clearly gone to the bad, if there was ever
any good in it, as the idea is expressed
in the measure which has been projected
to test its efficacy. A civil service re.
form commission has been created, and it
has been put in charge of Mr.. Dorman
B. Eaton, the man who has set himself
up as the especial apostle of this reform,
aided by two lay figures. These com.
missioners, or Mr.. Eaton as their essence,
have appointed to the chief place
under them, the post of Qbief ex'
aminer, a man who is universally
recognized by those who know him as
without any qualification for the place,
either in his capacity, requirements or
associations. The selection of such
man indicated something lacking in Mr.
Eaton as the head of the commission,
whose work the appointment was. 1t
showed him to be a bad judge of men
and vet he was the chief of a commits
sion whose sole duty it was to judge men
and to determine their qualifications to
fill official places. In the very first
essay by the commission in the discharge
of a duty which prominently requires
them to he possessed of a sound judg,
ment of men, they have failed SO lament,
ably and absolutely that their failure is
conspicuous to every acquaintance OF
their nominee and, furthermore, his
Deficiencies were of kind that were
self-confessed and such as would be ap-
parent on the first inspection to anyone
who could tell a hawk from a landSaw.
The appointment of Keim proved beyond
question that the commissioners, or at
least Mr.. Eaton, who no doubt acted
for his associates in making the selec-
tion, wholly fails in intuitive power to
read character and determine Gua!ifica-
tions. And it is now still further de
monst rated that MIR. Eaton is incapable
of judging character correctly even after
IaboriouS investigation into the works
and antecedents of his subject. For
MIR. Eaton writes to the New York
Iimcs letter of a column and. a half
length in response to the criticism of the
appointment of keim, in which the only
pertinent thing he says he fails to get in
before the tail end of his long explana-
tion, and that is the declaration that he
carefully examined the consular reports
and other literary work of Mr.. keim,
and that he found nothing in them, or in
the appearance and conversation of Mr..
Keim in bis interviews with him, mol
could he discover anything in the abund.
ant inquiries he made about him, which
led him to believe that he would not be
good chief examiner. On the contrary.
his writings showed large grasp of mind,
great readiness in mastering details and
a marked inclination to expose and re,
form abuses. AS these are just the char
acteristics MI. .keim does not have, it ap
pears plain enough that Mr.. Dorman b
Eaton is not able to form correct Opln
ion of a mans character and capacity,
even when he has gathered the evidence
before him. 1t follows that Mr.. Eaton
is not adapted by nature to the duties
he has assumed ,and that the commission
which he heads is doomed to be failure
while he heads it. There IS absolutely
no hope for it. A man who can so ex
hibit his incapacity in his first
step and SO clinch the verdict
as to it, during column and
a.half explanation Of it, can never
do good work. His letter alone
would condemn him by lis pointless
length. A civil service chief should be
able to speak with point and brevity and
convincing force. Mr.. Eaton is evidently
a reformer of the impracticable school.
who shows we'll so long as he is not
brought down to work out his pretty
theories, but who is without the qualities
needed to successfully execute them,
Mr.. Eaton would do good thing for the
cause he espouses by surrendering its
practical development to some one of at
least ordinary sagacity.
PHILADELPHIA, for the first time, is
about to try the experiment of having
superintendent of its common schools,
and the appointee, Prof. MacAllister, of
Milwaukee, comes to his work well rec