Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-11-09
The Civil Service Farce.
AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va.


The somewhat surprising action of Presi-
dent Cleveland (ifanything sntasonizins the
interests Of the democratic party committed
by him has not ceased 10 he 81 surprise) in
the recent appointment Of his wifss cousin
to the latest copsulship in Englsnd, comes
with added Inconsistency GA The heels of his
late exceeding constituencies on the subject
of nepotism or even the suggestion of it.
He fatty opposed the appointment of s. ..
s. Senator's son to q Treasury clerk ship be.
cause of his relationship, although be had
gone through that "checaur de .friSe" known
as civil service examination. It strikes
US that even the outrage known as the civil
service bill! did not refer to this kind of rela
| latiopship, but rather to Federal officers by
| appointment or by executive creation. A
| U. S. Senator is no creature of the admins.
tration. His office comes mediately from
the people and filtered through two cleo.
tions. He is indeed the very highest type
of an elective creation, being elected by the
elected, and no more owes his position to
the President than the present President
seems to owe his present election to the
democratic party; for really his whole course
of conduct, and the lime of policy aud feel
ing inspired by him, though all the official
channels in Washington clearly is based on
the assumption that the civil service law was
simply instituted to forever intrsnch the
republicans, them in Office in their places,
and to eternally debar every one else, and
especially den ocrat. We give case in
point, AID the proof is of record, and ecu be
given at any time for publication. Last
January notice was inserted in several
papers Republican of course), and the one
referred to was clipped from the Baltimore
american, stating that civil service exam.
inaton would be held ia Washington on the
Sth of that month for the position of prnci.
pal examiner in the Pension Office; that
the examination would be competitive and
confined to legal and medical subjects
mathematics, history and the laws of pen.
sions. AS result 80 or 90 innocents went
to the expense of the trip to Washington,
and among them friend of the writer.
They were collected in room ofthe Agricul.
tural Department, and at IL Or II O'Clock
the farce began-two republican members
of the board of examiners TO one democrat
as supervisor or spotter TO conduct it, and
framed the questions. The civil service
literate old republican fraud, Dorman
|
fossil of a democrat named Egerton, of
Indiana, and another republican, as con-
stituent members. Egerton's boast to s.
newspaper interviewer few days after was
that while he served in Congress (some half
century or two ago. no man from Indiana
had ever received an Office through his ill.,
strumentalityi and he.opposed it from prin.
ciple, because if the applicant was unable to
earn his own livelihood he was unfit to serve
the Government, and if bright and eff.
cient man he could do better in private pur-
suits and the routine of salaried position
dwarfed their capabilities This old philoso.
pher, though independently itch and 70
years old, hied himself from the hoosier
swamps as soon as Government place was
available, and had his venerable carcass in
a Government chair when he was sermoniz.
ing Under the supervision therefore, OF
this junta, these fifty or sixty candidates
were undergoing the tedious ordeal OF the
examination. First came series oi nathe.
NAUTICAL questions, embracing enough of diff.
ferent problems to exert the resource of q
person fresh from school. Then au eSami.
nation on the subjects Of law and medicine
sufficiently searching and exhaustive TO re.
quire the candidate to have been lechni-
cally educated in both 20 successfully an
l swer them and obtain the required per cent.
Then an additional block of questions on
medical Jurisprudence, and, finally, lest
these requirements might be iifiiled and
some rara avis in the shape Of q lawyer and
doctor combined, be found who could an.
swer them, they produced list of questions
on the laws of tfN Pension Department,
which no man had access to or could by
any possibility procure and to these were at
tached very high numerical value .makingit
impossible for any man who was not already
familiar with the work in that Office to be
successful. The questions, moreover, were
by no means test of intellectual aptitude.
but related to the forms used, and involved
tables and scales used in determining the
rates Of compensation az affected by the ex.
tent of disability, and were clearly adapted
to those who were already in the service of
the Government, and designed to exclude
any others, let their qualifications be what
they might. Aud now for the secret. Among
these fifty or sixty candidates for the five
vacancies were six men who were already
in positions in the Pension Office, but who
had come up Oh this examination for the
increased pay the position afforded: and af
ter the affair was concluded it was found
that the only men who had attained the re-
CURED per cent. and were thus rendered
eligible were those same republican en-.
ployees who had concluded that 50 900 was
better than 81 800, and had therefore offer.
ed All the rest were rejected wholesale.
In the list was an ex-judge of Indiana.
man of ability and position in hia profession.
and he remarked to the writer that the e..
animation was one which no member of the
Harvard faculty could have passed with
success A few days after the names of
these same old employees were sent in to
Gen. Black for appointment. What that
warlike individual did in the matter. your
correspondent does not know. He does
know OF one citizen of Illinois, however.
who had passed the examination for special
examiner in the Pension Office, but who
was not appointed because he was born and
in Illinois eighteen years, not long
enough to purge him from the pollu.
ton of his nativity. Ia this list off
principal examiners are a number of
iiliterate negroes. who have stood no cram.
NATION on any subject. Yet to get o vacancy,
should one occur, an examination i, "a ba |