The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-04-20
MERIT THE PROPER TEST.

MERIT THE PROPER TEST.
Theodore Roosevelt Outlines in Con.
dcnscd Fashion His Belief in Genuine
Civil Service Reform.
Theodore Roosevelt, civil service COM
missioner, Is delighted with civil SER
vice reform. II want says he, ''to see
the civil service system become uni
versal, in the first place, because the
offices ought to be out of politics, and
the service would be improved If they
were, but in the second place, and chief
ly, because l wish to take out of public
life the utterly demoralizing and de-
grading influence of the spoils system.
1t has been on the whole the most fruit
full of the causes which tend to the
degradation of American politics, and
in no way can we so strengthen the
forces which tend to the elevation of
our political life as to utterly destroy
the spoils system. Every civilized coun-
try in Europe refuses 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 fed
eral republic of Switzerland.
Politics at Discount.
Switzerland is genuinely governed
by the people, for the people, and no
public servant whose duties are nom
political is ever appointed or turned out
for political reasons. In England post
masters are appointed by promotion
within the ranks, excepting in the low
est 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 ma
tion at large; but such transfer could
be made within the borders of a state,
and the postmasters in the big cities at
the largest offices Should be appointed
whenever a vacancy occurs from with
in the ranks Of the, postal service of
that state
fled by one administration of the offices
as by the other. AS a matter of fact,
ninety-nine out of every 100 of them
have not known and have not cared a
rap what the views of the postmasters
were as to the annexation of Hawaii or
the Nicaraguan Canal, so long as their
letters were delivered speedily and
without blunder. In Charleston, s c.,
the Democratic postmaster was con-
tinued all through Mr.. Harrison's term
of service, just as in New York the Re
publican postmaster was continued all
through Mr.. Cleveland's first term, and
in neither case single individual, out
side of the class of professional poll
ticians who wanted a job for their
henchmen, complained.
1t is Foolish Practice.
"Our people want to get it 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 superintendents of the
telegraph offices in the different cities.
The work of the express company, of
the telegraph office and of the postoffice
is very much the same in all cases. 1t
happens with us that the postoffice is
by the government, while
the telegraph lines and express COM
panies are left to individual ownership.
In many cases the government admin
listers all. We have the same interest
10 ,it In, ta 1nl -
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 post
master thinks about the tariff than it
is what the manager of the express
or the superintendent of the
station thinks 1t is Just as
absurd to turn out a letter carrier be-
cause he voted the wrong ticket as it
would be to refuse goods delivered by
an express man who is out of sympa-
thy with the dominant party on some
question of finance, or to say that you
would not give your message to tele-
graph clerk who did not think just as
you did on the tariff.
Only Want Efficient Service.
1.-The present railway mail service,
for instance, Is in exactly the same
hands and is being administered pre-
cisely as 1t was three years ago under
Harrison. Democrats and Republicans
go in to the service alike and as a mat
ter of fact are pretty evenly represent
ed in 1t. Nobody cares anything about
their politics and nobody knows. The
readers of this interview, for instance,
cannot tell the policy of the railway
clerks who handled the newspapers in
which it appears or of the letter car
riers who have delivered that news
paper, and really the politics of these
letter carriers and railway mail clerks
them no more than the politics
Of the reporter who has taken the in
terview or of the conductors and brake
men on the train in which the news
papers of the original interview were
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 people aboard
that train, the railway mail clerks, for
political reasons, and paying no heed
to the politics of all the other
employees who are on the train"
~
Drawing the Limo.
From, Street &, Smiths Good News