Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-11-20
NJ R. ROOSEVELT
He Talks Vigorously on Civil Ser
vice Reform.
NO REAL ARGUMENT AGAINST IT
Attacks Are Frothy Defamation
or Deliberate Untruth.
THE LAW OPERATES WE'LL

returned to Washington. He Is particular
ly amiable over the result Of the election
in New York and elsewhere, his conclu-
sons regarding 1t being concentrated in
the sir gle word Tremendous" A Star re-
porter called upon him this morning to
find out what he had to say about the re-
currence at this time of the spasms which
periodically affiict the opponents of civil
service reform.
Never Had to Meet u Real Arsument.
1T is funny thing that during my six
years term OF service as commissioner"
he said, Il have never yet had to meet a
real argument against civil service reform.
The attacks upon it and the defenses of
the spois system invariably fall under one
of two heads-mere frothy defamation or
deliberate untruth. Every year a number
OF Senators, congressman, newspaper writ
ers. and, OF course. the whole tribe of base
politicians and OF dullards with vicious
proclivitieS attack the law, but in not one
instance have l ever known them to make
an argument that required to be seriously
refuted. Take the article in the Washing
ton Post this morning. 1t Is presumably
intended to be funny, but 1t embodies the
same old dreary mass of miscellaneous
-nisinformation which the advocate of cor
rupt and dishonest government always
makes use of when he attacks civil service
reform. The statement, for instance, that
we ask copying clerks about the rivers of
Asia and the triangulation of its noun
tains, or janitors about Euclid, are such
pieces of threadbare mendacity that even
Senator German doesn't employ them now.
They are left to the use of the very small
est and also the very basest of the advo-
Gates of dishonesty In public life.
What is Required.
We require of a clerk only the knowledge
directly fitting him to perform his duties.
That is, We lind out if he can spell; can
write a good hand knows elementary
arithmetic; can copy, and can write an
Intelligent letter. We ask nothing else, and
IL he can't pass our examinations, 1t Is
proof positive that he is utterly unfit to
be a government clerk. Under the spoils
system, ON the contrary, the questions
asked him were: How great his political
influence was with the leaders of his fac
ton; what pressure he could bring to bear
upon the appointing officer and how much
WOrk-Often how much dirty wOrk-he had
been able 10 do for his local boss. To the
average decent citizen such questions real
ly do seem irrelevant and Impractical to
ask a candidate for the position Of public
servant, and the men who advocate re-
turning to the spoi,s system simply advo-
cate the reintroduction or retention OF foul
and unclean methods in public life.
The Standing of Opponents.
They stand precisely on a par with the
men who belittled the revelations made
by the Lexow committee in reference to
the depravity of New York city politics;
they stand precisely on par with men
who applaud venality in voters and cor
ruption In public Office. The difference be-
tween bribing man with $500 and brbing
him with an office worth $500, Is about as
great as the difference between the saw
agery of an Ashantee ard the savagery
OF Hottentot.
1T Is unimportant The worst lesson we
can teach an American citizen is to go into
politics for private gain, and every spoils
tc h,,yt ann tan ipo 10
lesson.
Business and Politics.
Now, when 1t Is asked why we draw a
distinction between ordinary clerks. letter
carriers and the like on the one hand. and
members of Congress and cabinet officers
on the other, the reason is plain to even
the meanest intelligence, that has right
properly to he called an intelligence at all.
The duties Of the clerk or the carrier are in
no sense political Our letters are taken
charge of, as 1t happens, by the govern
ment. 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 letter carrier believes In
free silver or protection has no more to 90
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
changed because the country at large has
changed it's belief on the tariff than there
is in changing the boy who brings his tele-
grams or the man who delivers his express
parcels.
But Congressmen and cabinet officers are
elected or appointed for the very reason
that the country wishes them to carry out
its belief in matters political. They oughtn'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 questions which have
nothing to do with the action of the ordi-
nary government clerk. The fool who
thinks that a 1900 clerk and a member Of
the cabinet or Congressman should have
the same qualifications occupies the same
Intellectual 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 fnfantryman
who drills best and does best at the butts
should be made general Of the army. 1t Is
unlikely that either Grant or Lee, Mt the
time of Appomattox, would have passed
as a recruit for the rank and f1le- Ger
tainly, Won Moltke, at the time OF the
Franco-Prussan war, would have been
unfit to serve as a private soldier in the
German army. In other words, the private
soldier and the general-in-chief are chosen
for entirely different reasons, and this Is
lust as true of President and q letter
carrier. 1t is almost as absurd to turn
out all letter carriers, clerks and gaugers
because one PreSlu6nC SuCC6euS dUOtHcE, DIS
IT would have been to dismiss the entire
rank and file Of the Army of the Potomac
when Meade succeeded Hooker.
The Law In Working Well.
actual experience" said Mr.. Roosevelt
in conclusion, SHOWS how we'll the law Is
working; how infinitely better than the old
system Take the railway mail service.
The bulk Of the people now serving under
President Cleveland are the same that
served under President Harrison, and
every business man knows that they are
giving exactly as good service now as they
did then. Indeed, the railway mail service
now stands at higher point of efficiency
than ever before, simply and solely be-
cause 1T is under the protection of the civil
service law. But though the improvement
of the service under the law has been
great, the chief point is the Improvement
of public life. Under the spoils system the
offices form a vast bribery chest with
which to debauch public life. There has
been no cause SO fruitful of degradation
to American politics. Every believer in
manliness and honesty in politics.; every
believer In fearless and upright American
citizenship, must of necessity be an op-
ronent of the spoils system, and the
other hand, every champion of the spols
system is the champion of all that is foul
and base in our public, and is of necessity
driven to defend his position by every
species of slander and Justification"