Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-04
4 STORY FROM WASHINGTON.

If the extremists of the dominant party
could have their way, there would he a
clean sweep Of every employee of the Gov
ernment, from q rear porter to the last
clerk and teller in all the departments
at Washington. We have endeayored
from time to time to show that such q
practice would result in most serious harm
to the Government service; that it would
be an operation of Government depart
ments in the interests Of party, and not for
the economies Of the Nation. If, with a
change Of Administration every four years,
the thousands of employees in the Govern
ment Offices and workshops are to be dis
placed by new people unfamiliar with the
routine Of the service, the consequence
must be not only fiat financial loss to the
people, but, 70 ,n,s- ssA''i''' iii'i'', -vut
administration. Tue vast system Of Gov
ernment work Is an elaborate one its ram
ifcations are innumerable, and its details
exceedingly delicate, and to the stranger
apparently involved The civil service re-
form movement aims at the preservation
of the system in its highest state of eff
cheney it holds that the first duty of de-
partment is to the people Of the United
States as 4 whole, and not to any political
party. The law of the clean-sweep doc
trine disregards wholly ability and faith
fulness in the incumbent; it is blind to the
principle that efficiency and economy are
promoted in public as well as private bust
ness, by retention of the skilled and faith
full employe it ignores the great truth that
mdependeney IN position-certainty Of
tenure of place-is promotive of honesty,
while dependence of the Government en-
ploye upon party whim makes him the
subseryient tool of partisans, and commands
him to serve the party boss first and the
Government second. We have seen nor
heard Of nothing recently that more forci-
bly, illustrates the need FOR the application
Of civil service reform principles than the
statement made by the Washington CORE
spondent Of the Cincinnati Commercial
Gazeae. 1t is neither to be added to nor
taken from, and will not bear condensa-
ton. The writer says:
One OF the newly-appointed heads of depart.
ments has been making pretty thorough inves-
tigation Of matters in his province and he ex-
presses himself as surprised nj some things he
found He was surprised at the system the dis
ciplne, the industry he found. He had been
taught to believe from all the cutlery and reck-
less CHARGES of the Democratic press for wears
that the departments were full of political Great
ures and incompetents; that the men were the
strikers and hce,erS of successful politicians
merely, and that about the regulations of the
women the less said the better. lie expected to
find q situation demanding a complete over
hauling. He was iull of the idea of a clean-out
from beginning 10 end of bad women and worse
men, and of replacing them with competent
people Of good regulations. He sat the other
evening at Il well known restaurant on + street
with some other gentlemen and frankly related
his experience, although two of the party were
Republicans and one q newspaper reporter He
said he was astonished at what he found. He
had become convinced that in no private estab-
lishment in the land no matter how strictly
conducted, was there the perfection of system
the thorougbneSs of discipline, the general
faithfulness ana efficiency that existed in his
department. There are men in the Offices who
have spent their lives there, and who are as
much part of the system as the spoke is q part
OF the wheel. In one case there is a father and
two sons, both sons married and with families
who have never had any other business but
work in the department They are rs able aud
faithful workers as there are in any private bank
ing house or other business.
when want to know anything in my depart
EneDt the messenger, who has been there for