The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-09-14

geniality In public work Is simply
an impractical crank. Every bust
ness man knows that there are
thoroughly competent assistants with
whom he cannot get along at all.
though employers of different tastes
and peculiarities could obtain from
them excellent service. In another
class of cases the political bearing of
work to be done renders confidence
and harmony between superiors and
subordinates essential to the good of
the service. In a great number OF
offices the duty to be performed has
no legitimate political influence. But
there are many others which cannot
be successfully filed, except by per
sons who understand and heartily
sympathize with the political beliefs
and aims of the Administration.
Thus 1t comes to pass that there
are Offices In large number for which
qualifications are required that no
examination can test. The law be.
comes practical failure if 1t does not
leave to the appointing power sutfi.
cient discretion to secure In such
cases the requisite moral. mental or
political qualifications. For conven-
fence these may be called offices of
necessary preference in appointment,
and they are exclusively of high
grade, for in numerous subordinate
positions the same personal qualifica'
tions or relations are essential to the
efficiency of the service.
At the other extreme there is a
host of places which can be proper
~ filed by any person of qualifica-
tions that an examination may de-
termine. These are also very nu-
merous. but the applications for
them are far more numerous. A re-
volving bookcase in the Office of the
Civil Service Commission is filled
with the registries of names of those
who have successfully passed exami-
nations, each State having volume
for those who have passed for depart
mental places alone. Although those
who have been eligible for one year
without appointment are scratched
thus becoming ineligible until they
have passed another examination,
the list constantly enlarges by the
addition of multitudes who apply
and pass. But the proportion of those
who can by any possibility obtain
appointment Is very small. To the
far greater number the examination
is a cruel deception. 1t raises hopes
which must forever be disappointed.
By some process the appointees must
be selected from the long list of
eligibles. and no method has yet
been discovered. if it were desirable
to deprive the recommending or ap-
pointing officer of all choice in the
selection. To what good end is this
great army of applicants kept wait
ing and hoping for places which to
most of them can never come? How
many are thus spoiled for lives which
should have been useful in private
stations by the false hope of official
position Z?
The Civil Service toward which
genuine reformers are working must
be one that does not ignore these diff
ficulties. but meets and overcomes
them. A long step backward was
taken during the four years of Mr..
Cleveland's administration by the
persistent endeavor to secure the
selection of partisan workers under
forms of competitive examination.
But with the most earnest and honest
effort on every side the difficulties
cannot with reason be expected to
be overcome without some delay,
some tentative efforts not wholly
successful, and considerable modifica
ton of opinion as to methods in the
light of charging experience.-N.
Y. Tribune.
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