Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-04-03
Civil Service Commissioner Roose-
welt Talks on the Subject.
One OR THE OTHER SYSTEM MUST Rule
Reform Necessary in the State and
Municipality Also.
POSTAL SERVICE INsTANCED


a reporter he said:
"a house divided against itself has got to
fall and in the end this government, SO
far as the non-political offices are con-
cerned, must be administered either on the
spoils or the merit basis. 1t cannot be ad-
ministered on both. and I am perfectly GER
tain that the merit basis Is the one on
which 1t ultimately will be administered.
We have got to have civil service reform.
not only In the nation, but in the state
and the municipality. and we have got to
have it'not only to those offices to which 1t
now applies in the nation, but to very
many other offices that are not properly
political in character. Our people have for
seventy years been educated to regard the
spoils system as part of the natural order
of things. so that they are wholly incapa-
BILE of understanding as yet that a post
master, for instance, has nothing
whatever to do with politics if he
is no more need of filling the fourth
class post offices with people who SYM
pathize with the views of the admin
istration for the time being on questions
Of the tariff and currency than there would
be sense in having the express or tele-
graph business of the country administered
by men who are protectionists or free
traders, according one party or the
other triumphs at the election.
Post Offices in Europe.
Every civilized country in Europe re-
fuses to treat post offices as political spoil,
and it may be of interest to these foolish
members of our own body polite who rail
against the reform because in England
there is also civil service reform, to know
that in England the reform only came in
with the growth of the democratic spirit,
and that the reform has reached it's most
perfect manifestation in the federal re-
public of Switzerland. Switzerland is gen.
timely governed by the people for the peo-
pie. and no public servant whose duties are
non-political is ever appointed or turned
out for political reasons. In England post
masters are appointed by promotion from
within the ranks. excepting in the lowest
grade, where they are appointed directly
from the outside. They are never removed
for political reasons. In our country it
would, perhaps, be difficult to allow Of a
system Of transfer from office to office
throughout the nation at large, but such
transfer could be certainly made within
the borders of a state, and the postmas-
ters in the big cities at the largest offices
occurs, from within the ranks Of the pos
tai service Of hat state.
An Illustration.
IF you wish an illustration Of the fact
that the service rendered by a postmaster
has. nothing to do with his politics, let me
refer you to Postmaster Zumstein of Gin
cinnati, who has just been supplanted by
Postmaster Brown, and who himself four
years ago supplanted Postmaster Riley
Mr.. Zumstein was republican. For over
two years he has served under the demo-
cratic Postmaster General, Mr.. Bissell All
through Mr.. BisselPs term of service Mr.
Zumstein has been postmaster at Cincin-
natl. Nobody would know from any result
visible in the operation of the postal serv-
ice that Postmaster Zumstein was of one
politics or another. He has given, during
IL is time, precisely as good service as
Ii aster Hesing at Chicago, both of them
democrats. The letters have been dis
trihuted just as well in Cincinnati under
the republican postmaster as in Brooklyn
or Chicago under the democratic post
me Ster, and so four years ago the letters
were distributed just as we'll under the
democratic postmaster at Cincinnati Mr..
Riley. during the republican admnistra-
ton or the government, as they were by
the then republican postmasters of Chi
cage or Boston. The people have been as
W ell satisfied by one administration of the
office as by the other. AS a matter of
them have not known and have not cared
rap what the views of the postmasters
We're as to the annexation of Hawaii or
the NicaraSuan canal, SO long as their let
tiers were delivered speedily and without
blunder. In Charleston. S. c.. the demo-
cratic postmaster was continued ali
tuICuSH MT. HARRISON 8 term OIL service,
just as in New York the republican post
master has been continued all through Mr.
Cleveland's first term, and in neither case
did a single individual outside of the class
of professional politicians, who wanted a
job for their henchmen, complain.
No Need of Changing a Postmaster.
"Our people want to get 1t into their
heads firmly that there is no more need Of
changing a postmaster than there is for
changing the head of an express company
or the agents or managers of that express
company in the different cities, or the SUI
perintendents of the telegraph offices in the
different cities The work of the express
company, of the telegraph office and of the
post office Is very much the same in all
cases. 1t happens with that the post
office is administered by the government,
while the telegraph lines and express COM
panies are left to individual ownership. In
many states the government administers
ALL We have the same interest as private
citizens in the delivery Of a letter that we
have in the delivery Of a telegram or a
package of goods. We want it to go as
quickly and as surely as possible and it is
not any more the concern of the public
what the postmaster thinks about the tariff
than it is what the manager of the express
company or the superintendent of the tel
egraph station thinks. 1t is just as absurd
to turn out a letter carrier because he
voted the wrong ticket as it would be to re-
fuse goods delivered by an express man
who is out Of sympathy with the dominant
party on some question of finance, or to
say that you would not give your message
to a telegraph clerk who did not think just
as you did on the tariff. The present rail-
way mail service. for instance is in exactly
the same hands, and Is being administered
precisely as 1t was three years ago under
harrison. Democrats and republicans go
into the service alike, and as matter Of fact
are now pretty evenly represented in 1t.
Nobody cares anything about their politics
and nobody knows. The readers of this in
terVtew. instance fell he
of the railway mail clerks who have ham
died the newspaper in which it appears or
of the letter carriers who have delivered
that newspaper; and really the politics of
these letter carriers and railway mail clerks
concerns them no more than the policy Of
the reporter who has taken the interview,
or of the conductors and brakemen on the
train in which the newspaper or the origi-
nal interview was carried. If the reader
will look at the next mail train that comes
along he may try to think out for himself
why there should be any possible reason
for changing one class of the people aboard
that train, the railway mail clerks, for po-
litical reasons. nd paying no heed what
ever to the politics of all the other en-
ployes who are on the train.
The Nominal Head of No Consequence.
"a curious result of the present system
is that often the nominal head of an office
is of no conseuuenca w in RI