Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-16
NEW CENSUS CLERKS
Their Inclusion in the Classified
Service Favored.
SENATOR LODGED THE MERIT SYSTEM
Saving in Expense and Increasing
the Efficiency.
DEBATE IN THE SEN ATE

Civil service reform was debated in the
Senate yesterday afternoon during the last
hour and a half of the session of that body.
This subject was brought into the debate
through the consideration of the bill re-
ported from the committee on the census
for The appointment of a director of the
census and thirty-two employees, who
should form the skeleton of an Office force
for the twelfth census.
Mr.. Lodge of Massachusetts, referred to
the proposition of the committee to strike
out that section Of the bill providing that
census employees should be appointed
through the civil service commission and
to allow appointments to be made by the
director after such examination as he may.
with the approval of the Secretary of the
Interior. prescribe.
Assaults on the System.
Il am quite aware said Mr.. Lodge,
that just at this stage Of existence it is
not fashionable to say anything on behalf
of the civil service system as it exists I'M
der the act of 1888. On the contrary the
fashion at present is to aSsail 1t on all
possible occasions: but have always been
friend of that system, and do not think
it is any less desirable now than l have
considered it in past years.
Mr.. Cleveland. at the close of his term,
made an enormous extension of the classi-
fled service. putting, l think, some 1000
places within the classification. Those
places had all been filled without examna-
toni think practically abby members of
MI Clevelands party. and then they were
put under the civil service law and pro-
tected to that extent against change. The
result of that action is naturally to put
great strain upon the law when the op-
posite party comes in Immediately after the
extension.
The present President of the United
States. however. always friend of the law
has adhered to it strictly. and has dealt with
it at the beginning instead of at the end of
his administration. as has been the practice
OF his predecessors. and in so doing l think
he has shown both wisdom and courage
l do not propose to enter now into the
general reasons which seem to me make
the reformed system of the civil service
very essential to good government.
Inc chief reasons which / have always
found for this reform are the degradation
winch the patronage system brings to poll
tics, the injury it causes to public life and
the enormous burden il puts upon public
men, imposing duties which do not prom
eriy belong to them and which impair
their public usefulness All these are a rp1,-
ments with which every one who has con-
sidered the subject is familiar, and / do
not mean to dwell upon them now Nor
do l undertake to defend the merit system
as an ideal or absolutely perfect system
Very few things of human manufacture.
think. are perfect. Certainly the reform
system of the civil service is not and the
argument which is usually made against it
Is apparently based on the idea that it's de-
lenders consider it absolutely perfect
Better Thnn the Old System,
THE real proposition in regard to the
present systematic merit system, as it is
called-is that it is a great deal better than
Inc patronage system, and that to return
10 the patronage system would be a very
reirosrade movement. The real vice of the
Old system is the utter responsibility oil ap-
pointments. If the head of a bureau or of
department could select his own subor-
GlnateS, there would be little or no need OF
competitive examinations or of any artiti-
clal system to select them for him. but as
a matter of fact no head of department
or bureau does select his own subordiuates
when it is left to him to do So without civil
service examination. They are selected for
him by senators, by members of the House
and by other persons not responsible for
the work of the bureau or the department.
IL the man responsible for the work of the
bureau or the department selected his own
subordinates he would certainly select
good ones. for his own credit and reputal lion
would be bound up in the success of his
administration.
But when they are forced upon him from
outside, then We have the anomalous and
injurious condition of one set of persons Sc
Letting su5ordinates and another being re-
spOnSible for their work Into these gem
eral considerations quite sufficient in them
selves to justify and more than justify the
| present system 1 shall not enter further.
In what l have 10 say about this section
III the census bill | desire to place my ar
gument purely on the ground of business,
and show that it is better and a cheaper
method of observation-disclosures to the
people and more economical in the expendi-
ture or the peoples mOney-tO take the
clerks and subOrdinates from the registers
of the civil service, under such examina-
lions as the director of the census may re-
quest. than to have them appointed as the
amendment proposes. which would result in
making them subjects of patronage"
Ar Lodge then read from articles by
Superintendent Porter of the last census
and his successor. Commissioner Wright of
the bureau OF labor, to show the advantage
of having appointments to places for the
work OF the census made through the civil
service commission.
We have on this point continued Mr..
Lodge, the direct testimony of the super
irtendent who carried on the last census
and of the head of the department of labor,
who succeeded him, and in my Judgment
| there is no escape from the figures they
give Therefore the question is, whether
| We shall deliberately place that great work
under this special provision. at an increased
| expenditure of many hundred thousand dol
| lars of the public money, in order that
| there shall be few places here in Wash
| ington to which appointments can be made
| on the personal request of members of the
| House and the Senate. That is what il
| amounts to. 1t seems to me. in these days
| when economy in our public expenditures is
| so much preached, that here is a large
| economy which might well be made. The
| people have a right to demand a good GEN.
| sus and that no money shall be wasted in
multiplying political appointments.
Great Waste of Time.
| I'VE have just had an example Of the
| other system in regard to the National
Library the Library of Congress, where
the offices were carefully excluded from the
| civil service l find that for the 1OS offices
! within the gift of the librarian there were