The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-09
THE GROWTH OF CIvIL-sERvICE
REFORM.

The recent order of President Cleve-
eminent employees under the operation
and protection of the civil-service law
leaves little more to be done in this di-
rection. Successive orders by different
Presidents from time to time had al
ready placed large proportion of gov
eminent employees under the operation
of the law, and this last one leaves COM
paratively few outside.
The movement which has thus culmi-
mated in placing almost the entire civil
service of the government on the basis
of the merit system, completely divorc-
ing it from what used 10 be called the
spoils system, has taken nearly thirty
years to reach it's present stage of de-
velopment. Its originator was Thomas
A, Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who served
in Congress from 1862 to 1871. In 1868 he
introduced the first civil-service reform
bill and supported IT with an elaborate
report pointing out the evils of the spoils
system. The bill met with determined
opposition, but it's author succeeded in
forcing 1t on the attention of the coun-
try and OF Congress, and il was finally
passed after long and hard struggle.
The machinery Of the bill was defective,
but il was based on sound principles and
the people recognized it as the beginning
OF a needed reform. Every President
principle of the law. President Grant,
in his annual message in 1872, said:
An earnest desire has been felt to correct
service Of the country. through the defective
method Of making appointments to office.
Heretofore federal offices have been re-
garded too much as the reward OF political
services. Under authority OF Congress. rules
have been established to regulate the tenure
of office and the mode OF appointments.
During my term of office hi shall be my
earnest endeavor TO so apply the rules as 10
secure the greatest possible reform in the
civil service Of the government; but II VIII
require direct action of Congress TO render
the enforcement Of the system binding upon
my successors. / hope that the experience
of the past year. together with appropriate
factory solution of this question. and secure
TO the public service. for all time, practical
method of obtaining faithful and efficient
officers and employees.
For some years after this Congress
tried to strange the movement by with
holding an appropriation for the Civil
service Commission. but 1t refused to
die. President Hayes, in his annual
or, at best, advance very slowly.
The organization of the civil-service of
the country has for number of years
attracted more and more OF the public at
tention. So general has become the opinion
that the methods OF admission 10 Ii. and
the conditions OF remaining in IL are I'M
sound that both the great political parties
have agreed in the most explicit declarations
Of the necessity of reform, and in the most
emphatic demands for it.
He asked the renewed attention of
Congress to the subject and urged that
an appropriation be made to enable the
Civil-service Commission TO contitue It's
labors under the Jenckes law until a
better one should be enacted. This &C.
CURED in 1883. when Congress passed a
bill which, with some amendments, Is
J the present law. AT first comparatively