Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-15


Civil service reform has been conspicu-
GUS topic of late. especially in the District
of Columbia. Much of its recent promi-
hence locally is due to the movement now
afoot to bring about extension of the civil
service law to municipal employees of the
District OF Columbia. Realizing how vi
tally the District of Columbia has been
affected by the thousands of utterly mex
cusable changes that have been made in
both federal and municipal Offices. the
beard of directors of the board of trade
framed and endorsed a municipal civil
service reform resolution which was for
warded to the board of trade as a whole
for it's action. The pressure of many re-
ports and of other business necessarily
disposed of at an annual meeting-as the
last meeting was-in conjunction with mis-
apprehension must be held responsible for
the action which laid upon the table the
resolution in question. The board of trade
will meet again next Tuesday evening.
on which occasion the resolution viii quite
certainly not only be taken from the table,
but will also be adopted by a decisive vote.
This will come to pass because those BUSH
ness men who were either otherwise en-
gagged or lstless when the adverse action
of the meeting last past went on record
have been thoroughly awakened to the
common-sense virtues of the proposed re-
form; are now publicly pledged to support
a businesslike proposition. More absurd
argument can hardly be imagined than that
which insists that because there has been
change In the political sentiment of the
country there must necessarily be a clean
sweep made through the municipal offices
of the District of Columbia. Discussing
the exorbitance of spoils viciousness be-
fore the National Civil Service Reform
League in Chicago, Carl Schurz, president
of the league, threw such light on the sit
uation as ought to make the innermost
and moving facts plain even to short
sighted mortals. Said he:
Imagine, then a bank the stockholders
of which, many in number, are divided into
two tactions-let us call them the Jones
party and the Smith party-Who quarrei
about some question of business policy, as,
for instance, whether the bank is to issue
currency or not The Jones party Is in
control, but the Smith men persuade over
to their side SUFFICIENT number OF Jones
men 10 give uhem-the Smith men-a
majority at the next stockholders meeting.
Thus they succeed in getting the upper
hand. They Gust the old board or directors
and elect a new board consisting of Smith
men. The new Smith board at once re-
move all the officers, president, cashier,
tellers, bookkeepers and clerks, down TO
the messenger boyS-the good and the bad
alike-Smply because they are Jones men,
and till their places forthwith with new
peIsoPS who are selected, not on the
ground that they have in any way proved
their fitness for the positions so filled, but
simply because they are Smith men; and
these of the Smith men who have shown
the greatest zeal and skill in getting a
majority of votes for the Smith party are
held to have the strongest claims for sal
aired places in the bank. The new men
struggle painfully with the duties novel to
them until they acquire some experience,
but even then IL needs IN many instances
two men or more to do the work of one.
In the course OF events dissatisfaction
spreads among the stockholders with the
Smith management, partly shared by am
bilious Smith men who thought themselves
entitled to reward in the shape of places
and salaries, but were left out in the cold
Now the time for a new stockholders
meeting arrives. After hot fight the
Jones party carries The day. The ticket of
directors being elected, off go the heads of
the Smith president, the Smith cashier, the
Smith tellers, the Smith bookkeepers and
clerks, and Trey are replaced by true-blue
Jones men, who have done the work of the
campaign. and are expected to do more of
IL when the next election comes. And so
the career of the bank goes on with it's
periodical changes Of party in power at
longer or shorter intervals, and it's CORE
spondingly clean sweeps of the bank serv-
ice, with miSmanagement and occasional
fraud and peculation as inevitable incl
deRtS.''
Such an institution would, of course, be a
prominent center of commercial interest,
but that 1t would possess the confidence of
any man who had sense enough to operate
the depositor's end of a bank account Is
extremely improbable. Child's play does
not appeal to the financial mind. There is
no reason why the municipal affairs of this
or any other city should be conducted for
the benefit of an ordinarily undeserving
few and TO the great and lasting disad-
vantage OF the entire community.