The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-05-05
Mr.. Blaine on Civil Service Reform


The settled judgment of discreet men in
both political parties is adverse to the GUS
tom of changing non-political officers on
merely political grounds. They believe that
it impairs the efficiency of the public service,
lowers the standard of political contests
and brings reproach upon the government
and the people. So decided is this opinion
among the great majority of republicans
and among a very considerable number of
democrats that the former method of ap-
pointment will always meet with protest
and cannot be permanently re-established.
The Inauguration of new system is him
dered somewhat by an honest difference of
opinion touching the best methods of select
ing subordinate officers. Competitive exam
ination is the method most warmly advo-
Gated, and on its face appears the farest;
yet every observing man knows that it does
not always secure the results most to be de-
sired Nothing is vouched for more fire.
quently by chiefs Of government bureaus
than that certain clerks who, upon COMPETE
tive examination, would stand at the head
do in point of efficiency and usefulness stand
at the foot. Another point of difference is
in regard to the power of instant removal,
many of the most pronounced reformers of
the civil service holding that power to be es-
sential and believing that it will not be
abused so long as the removing power cannot
arbitrarily appoint the successor. The ma
tured opinion of others is that a tenure of Of
flee definitely fixed for a term of years, dur
ing which the incumbent cannot be disturbed
except upon substantial written charges,
will secure better class of officials. They
hold that a subordinate officer is stripped of
his manhood by the consciousness that he
may at any moment be removed at the within
or caprice of some one superior in station.
1t too often brings sycophants into the gov
eminent departments, and excludes men of
pride and character. On the question of a
life tenure there is a similar division of
opinion, which logically follows the two po-
sitions just stated. A life tenure cannot be
adopted, as rule, unless pensions for civil
list shall follow. There is also belief with
many who are most anxious to improve the
civil service that the political influence of
government patronage, as applied to the
whole country, has been constantly misun-
derstood and therefore exaggerated. In GER
tain places where the customs and postal
services are large the appointing power can
no doubt WELD great influence New York
city is the strongest illustration of this; and
in less degree a similar influence is recog-
nized at all the large cities of the country,
especially the cities of the seaboard. But
even at those points the political influence
of the federal patronage is far less than that
of the municipal patronage. During the
many years that the patronage both of ma
tiona and state governments, has been in
the hands of the republicans, in New York
the municipal patronage, steadily welded
by the democrats, has been far more poten-
tial in controlling elections. And through
out the United States to-day the patronage
controlled by municipal governments largely
outweighs in the aggregate that of the gem
eral and state governments at all points
where they come in conflict. No
reform in the civil service will he valuable
that does not release members of congress
from the care and the embarrassment of APP
pointments; and no boon so great could be
conferred upon senators and representatives
as to relieve them from the worry, the an
noyance and the responsibility which time
and habit have fixed upon them in connec-
ton with the dispensing of patronage, all of
which belongs under the Constitution to the
executive. On the other hand, the evil of
which President Harrison spoke-the EN-
ployment of the patronage by the executive
TO influence legislation-is far the greatest
abuse TO which the civil service has ever
been perverted. To separate the two great
departments of the government, TO keep
each within its own sphere, will be an i'm
measurable advantage and will enhance the
character and dignity of both. A non-polit-
ical service will be secured when congress
shall he left to its legitimate functions, when
the President shall not interfere herewith
by the use of patronage, and when the re-
sponsbility of appointments shall rest solely
with the department to which the organic
law of the republic assigns it,