The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-10-23
Pretence and Fact.

an organization formed at Washington
for the purpose of conducting a relent-
less fight on the so-called merit system
now largely in vogue in the govern
ment service, has made count uf con-
gressional noses and consequently feels
encouraged to believe that ere many
months have elapsed something in the
nature of bogus reform will drop on
capitol hill. with a dull and sickening
thud. Figures are not given, but if
Congressman Grosvenor is TO be believ-
ed that fully 200 members of the house
of representatives are ready to join in
war upon the present civil service
regulations, the prospect certainly pres
ages music in the air. These premoni-
tions of trouble ahead are enough to
account for the prolonged consideration
lately given in the cabinet meetings to
the civil service problem.
In a recent publication Representa-
tive Hicks of Pennsylvania cited some
figures bearing on the manipulation of
the civil service during the second
Cleveland administration which go far
to explain the existence of the present
antagonism TO the Pendleton law. 1t is
the boast Of that law that it nsures a
force of minor employees of the govern
ment whose tenure of position rests not
on pull but on merit. Yet in three
years following the second Inaugural
tion of Grover Cleveland 1850 dismissals
and designations took place in the
treasury department 1895 in the inter-
a., 4 H., br,
tural department; and the places thus
made vacant were Immediately filled by
Democrats. A majority of the dismiss
ais affected Union veterans; a MAJOR
ty of the appointees replacing them
were cx-Confederates. When these de-
partments had been sufficiently parti-
sani7ed, then President Cleveland, just
prior to his stepping down and out,
issued his famous wholesale order put
ting into the classified service and un-
der the protection of the civil service
law those offices, not previously classi-
| fed, which, in expectation of this ORDER
had been packed full of his partys
| henchmen, thus "cinching" them for
years to come.
1t may be said that these figures pre-
sent no argument against an honest en-
| forcement Of the civil service law; that
| faults just noted were not faults OF
the system but of the men then charged
with the laws enforcement and rec
rsant to it's sririt if not to it's letter.
When this is granted, however there
remains to be said that the fundamer-
| tai principle of the law is faulty and
ur-American, inasmuch as the tests Of
fitness which 1t supplies are in no
sense adequate, and the theory of a
permanent oftice-holding class is repug-
nant 10 tie spirit of our institutions.
| TAKE, for example, the case of the col
lector of revenue for any district. He
is appointed by the president and held
| accountable in heavy bond not only for
his own acts but also for the acts of
each of his subordinates. Yet he can
not name as his deputy a man of his
own choice in whose integrity he can
repose implicit trust unless that man
shall first win one of the three highest
| percentages in an academic competi-
| tive examination held under the aus
uices of a red-tape-loving civil service
| commission. Should he not get this cut
and dried rating ths collector must take
for his deputy an entire stranger, con-
cerniug whom he knows nothing more
than that he has a good memory for
high school textbook information.
This stranger might be a walking en-
| cyclopedia of useless book-learning and
yet not be equipped with enough COM
mon sense and practical, work "a day
| slrewdness to come in when it rains.
These things explain the growing
rastlessness of men at Washington be-
hind the scenes. who know that the
public sentiment which has been work.
ed up in favor of civil service reform
has been created chiefly by false rep
resentatious. Civil sarvice reform as
pictured in Mugwump literature and
civil service reform as eXemplifed in
actual operation in the executive de-
partments are as wide as tha poles
apart; and it will be strange indeed
ii some of these fine days the diver
gence between pretenoe and fact should
not inspire a radical overhauling of the
whole subject with an eye to true re-
form.