The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-11-23
NO ARGUMENT AGAINST III.
Commissioner Roosevelt Talks OF
Civil Service Reform.

Civil Service Reform.
The law. He Says, Operates Well--Attaeks
are Frothy Defamation or Deliberate
Untruth.
Talking with a reporter of the WASH
ington Star missioner Roosevelt
said recently: 1t is a funny thing that
during my six years term of service as
commissioner, | have never yet had TO
meet a real argument against civil SER
vice reform. The attacks upon it ana
the defense of the spoils system in
variaiby fall under one of two heads
mere frothy defamation or deliberate
untruth. Every year a number OF Sena-
tors, congressman, newspaper writers,
and, of course, the Whole tribe of base
politicians and of billiards with vicious
proclivities attack the law, but in not
one instance have ever known them TO
make an argument that required to De
seriously refuted. Take the article I'D
the Washington Post this morning. 1t is
it embodies the same old dreary mass OF
miscellaneous misinformation which the
advocate of corrupt and dishonest gov
eminent always makes use of when ne
attacks civil service reform. The state
nfept. for instance, that we ask copying
clerks about the rivers OF Asia ard the
trianguiation of it's mountains, or Janl-
e
tors about Euclid, are such pieces OF
thread bare mendacity that even Sena-
tor German doesn't employ them now
They are left to the use of the very
smallest and also the very basest of the
advocates of dishonesty in public life
We require of clerk only the know
ledge directly fitting him to perform his
duties. That is, we find out ii he can
spell; can write good hand; knows
elementary arithmetic; can copy ana
can write an intelligent letter. We ask
nothing else, and if he can't pass our
examinations, it is proof positive that
he is utterly unfit to be government
clerk. Under the spoils system, on the
contrary, the questions asked him were
How great his political inufence was
with the leaders of this faction; what
pressure he could bring TO bear upon the
appointing officer and how much work
often how much dirty work-he had been
able to do for his local boss. To the
average decent citizen such questions
really do seem irrelevant and impracti-
cal to ask a candidate for the position OF
public servant and the men who advo-
cate returning to the spoils system simp-
II advocate the reintroduction or reten-
ton of foul and unclean methods lnpu bic
life.
They stand precisely on par with the
men who beiittled the revelations made
by the Lexow committee in reference to
the depravity of New York city politics.;
they stand precisely on a par with men
who applaud venality in voters and COR
ruptlon in public Office. The difference
between bribing man with $500 and
bribing him with an office worth $500,
is about as great as the difference be-
tween the sayagery of an Ashantee and
the suvagery of a Hottentot
at is unimportant. The worst lesson
we can teach an American citizen is to
go into politics for private gain, and
every spoils advocate is busily engaged
teaching this lesson. Nov when it is
asked why we draw distinction be-
tween ordinary clerks, letter carriers and
the like ON the one hand, and members
other, the reason is plain to even the
meanest intelligence that has right
properly TO be called an intelligence at
all. The duties of the clerk. or the car
rier are in no sense political. Our letters
are taken charge of, as it happens, by
the government. Our kilograms and the
parcels sent us by express are taken
Charge of by private companies, but the
duties of the man delivering them are
similar in all three cases. Whether a
letter carrier believes in free silver or
protection has no more to do with his
delivering his letters expeditiously and
accurately than the belief of the tele-
graph boy or the expressman has to do
with his performance of his duties, and
there is no more reason why the average
citizen should have his letter carrier
changed because the country at large has
changed it's belief on the tariff than
there is in changing the boy who brings
his kilograms or the man who delivers
his express parcels.
but Congressman and Cabinet offic-
ers are elected or appointed for the very
reason that the country wishes them TO
carry out it's belief in matters political.
They ough5n't to have anything to do
with the delivery of letters, still less
with peddling out the patronage to letter
carriers places. They're elected, or
ought to be, with reference to the very
political QuoSJlOnS winch nave UOUnlUS 10
with the action of the ordinary govern
ment clerk. The fool who thinks that a
81, 900 clerk and member of the Cabinet
or Congressman should have the same
qualifications occupies the same intellec-
tual level as the man who could believe
that Admiral Walker should have the
same physical capacity as the captain of
the foretop, or that the infantry man
who drills best and does best at the
butts should be made general of the
army. 1t is unlikely that either Grant
or Lee at the time of Appomattox would
have passed as a recruit for the rank and
file. Cerainly Won Moltke, Fat the time
of the Franco-I 'russian war would have
been unfit to serve as a private soldier
in the Geman army. In other words,
the private soldier and the general-in-
chief are chosen for entirely different
reasons, and this is just as true of
President and letter carrier. 1t is al
most as absurd to turn out all letter
carriers, clerks and gaugers because one
President succeeds another, as it would
have been to dismiss the entire rank ana
file of the Army of the Potomac when
Meade succeeded Hooker.
ACTUAL experience" saiu Mr.. Roosevelt
in conclusion. shows how well the
law is working; how infinitely better