The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-02
THE CIVIL SERVICE LAW.
a Review of the Results Obtained Through
the Merit System.

w ASHlNGION, dec. IL ne dnDIal repOrl
of the civil service commission shows that
the classified service has grown so as to in
| clude over 1900 people The report gives
the figures for the department service at
| Washington for the entire period during
which the law has been in force, period
of nearly seven years, and says:
The number of designations and re-
movals have to be given together, because
| it is impossible to differentiate the volun-
tary from the forced designations. OF the
13S removals and designations during the
! first year of the present administration,
81 were of appointments made during the
previous administration. In other words,
of the l ,109 appointees who came into the
departmental service through civil service
examinations during Mr.. Cleveland's ad-
| miniStratiOn. 81. or "A little over 8 per cent,
were removed or resigned during the first
| year of the present administration.
! Similarity, of the 318 appointees who
entered the service through examinations
during President Arthur's administration,
about 30, or between z and per cent,
were removed, or resigned, during Presi-
dent Clevelands first year, the proportion
| being about the same.
During the last year of President
Arthur's administration twenty-five re-
movalS and designations occurred, or be-
tween 8 and z per cent. All OF the force
had at that time been appointed under the
administration, and it is evident that the
differences between the percentage in this
case, and the percentage during the first
year of President Cleveland's administra-
tiOn and the present administration, af
fords the probable measure for removals
which could, by any possibility, have
been for political cause. This difference
is barely oue-half of one per cent. 1t is so
small that it must be entirely disregarded,
for it IS likely to have arisen from other
than political causes. In the department
service at Washington, the figures show
that the question of politics has been
practically eliminated in making removals,
and for the past seven years the law. as a
whole, has been faithfully and honestly
observed in the departments, although
having been subjected to the strain of two
changes of administrations.
When we turn to the customs and
postal service the result is less satisfactory
because of the necessarily less rigorous
inspection.
1T cannot be too often reiterated that
while the law may not work with ideal
perfection, actual experience for seven
years has shown that it produces. on the
whole, better governmental administra-
tiOn than does the patronage system.
The merit system Is the American system,
the unaristocratic system. And no sys-
tenn could be less American and undemo-
cratic that the patronage system which it
supglants.
"The portions of the civil service law
restraining political assessments, while
they have not succeeded in entirely stop
ping the evil, have undoubtedly much
abated 1t. However, there is one point
particularly in which the law is systemat
ically evaded The commission, in the
course of its Investigations, has found that
both in 1888 and 1890, there were certain
campaign committees of the dominant
party for the time being, which procured
full lists of the various employees in the
government service, and of their home
residences, and then sent letters soliciting
campaign subscriptions to them at their
home These letters were signed by men
not in the government service acting for
the different campaign committees. In
some instances these agents visited the
clerks in person at their homes. Weak
clerks, when solicited by outsiders who
are not in the government service, but
who stand high in the ranks of the party
to which that administration for the time
being belongs, often feel that they jeop-
ardiZe their places if they do not placate
the people soliciting them. As matter of
fact, the commission believes that the fear
exists in n great number OF cases, and
that many clerks are practically COM
PEELED to contribute when they do not
wish to, by the solicitations OF campaign
managers who are not in the governments
employ and whom, therefore, the law
cannot at present touch. The commissions
decision to make public the eligible l.st
has worked admirably, and has given the
greatest satisfaction"