The record-union., 1891-09-30
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM,
REPORT TO BE PRESENTED TO
THE NATIONAL LEAGUE.
The Census Bureau Charged With Po
litical Motives in tho Appoint
ment of Enumerators.
special to the RncoEp-UN1oN.

|
BUFFALO, Sept. 29.-The report of the
special committee of the National Civil
Service Reform League, appointed to in
quire into the condition of the Federal
civil service, and which will be read be-
fore the league tomorrow at q meeting
here, is q very extensive one, and deals
wholly with the last census. It quotes
the civil service reform plank of the last
Republican platform, and declares that if
any branch of the service should have
been kept free from party controversy, it
was the Census Bureau. Ifthe Admins
tration has free choice between non
political and a political agency for taking
an enumeration, and chooses the latter,
composed of officials of its own political
faith, the presumption is against the fair
ness Of the census so taken. The defect
i've results of the census of 1870 were di-
rectly traceable to the patronage system.
| The Improvement produced by the elm
ination of partisanship from the census
is shown in the comparatively satisfactory
results and general confidence in the CEN
SuS of 1880. This was before the civil
service law, but the essential element of
the civil service system, the exclusion OF
political considerations in appointments,
was largely observed.
Coming down to the present census,
the report says that if the promise of the
Republican platform had any significance
at all, it meant that the President would
extend the competitive system to the
clerks of the Census Bureau when that
bureau should be established. Mr.. Har-
rison, in concurring with and adopting
the platform, distinctly made this prom
ise his own. The well-known opinions
of Mr.. Porter, who was selected by the
President as Superintendent of the Cen
sus, made it certain that appointments
would become, in a great measure, mat
ters of political patronage. Porter's op-
position to civil service reform methods
clearly appears in his testimony before
House committee on Septemb her 9. 1890
when he said civil service methods "were
creating a system of barnacleism."
The Act of March l, 1889, directs that
each Supervisor shall designate to the
Superintendent suitable person, and
with his consent employ such persons as
enumeratOrS, who shall be selected solely
with reference to fitness, and without
reference to political party affiliations.
Ii this provision had been fully enforced
complaints of the partisan character of
the census could not justly be made.
But, unfortunately, the Supervisors were
themselves largely appointed upon po-
litical considerations, and as result the
appointment of enumerators were, in
nlduy LOCALITIES, udtIer OF polltlcal
patronage. Careful inquiry by your
committee shows that while in some
places political considerations had no
weight, yet the Supervisors were influ-
enced in many other cases by partisan
consideration. Men were often chosen
without reference to their fitness, on ac-
count of their political services, and in
such cases the work was often badly
done, in many instances thoroughly dis
credited.
The committee then goes on to give at
great length reports from civil service as
sociatonS in different sections of the
country. The general tenor of the re-
ports are that the work Of the men said
to have been appointed as a reward for
political purposes was untrustworthy
Much space is devoted to New York,
where, says the committee, the worst eff
fectS OF the patronage system are appar-
ent. 9. II. Murray, Il Republican poll
tician, was made Supervisor of New York
City, and a circular letter from him is
quoted as showing the manner in which
the enumerators were selected. This let
ter says: "You will please forward this
office a list Of applicants that the Republi-
can organization of your district desires
to have named as Census EnumeratOrs" !"
The men named in these lists were subse-
quently appointed, and, says the commit
tee: ''lt is evident enough that among
GDel1 JnGT0 nluSG De considerable num-
Der utterly unfit for the work, and it is
not surprising that among them Police
Inspector Byrnes should recognize we'll
known criminals
In conclusion, the committee considers
that the following propositions have been
established as a result of their inquiry:
That the refusal to apply the civil serv-
ice reform system of open, non-partisan,
competitive examinations in the appoint
ments to the Census Bureau was a viola
ton by the President of the promise con-
tanned in the Republican platform of 1883,
and indorSed in his letter of acceptance:
that by the appointment of enumerators
on political grounds, in open violation
Of Section of the Census Act, great
numbers of incompetent men have been
engaged in taking the census, and in
many places attempts have been made to
use official positions for the benefit of the
party in power; that while in some
places the results of the work appear free
from partisan color, and to be accurately
and well done, yet in many places the
work has been carelessly and badly done,
and is open to the suspicion that partisan
constructions have not been absent, and
that finally there is widespread distrust
OF the accuracy of the ceusus, which
greatly impairs its value to the country,
and which is caused in great measure
by the fact that the Census Bureau has
been conducted on the spoils SYSTEM
The committee expresses the belief that
no census will hereafter receive the conf
dence of the people until it has been
wholly removed from partisan influences.