The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-20
THE CIVIL SERVICE.
MIR. CumbacI's Idea of the Sort of Re-
form That Is Needed.

To the Editor of the indianapolis Journal:
There is much said and written these
days about reforming the civil service. That
it needs reforming cannot be doubted. The
discussion now seems TO be confined mainly
to the enforcement of the service from par
tisan control. While the machinery for
the reformation of the civil service is both
large and expensive, yet it cannot be re-
garded as efficient. 1t is difficult to see
where the reform comes in, when members
of Congress, with the aid of the President,
fill the positions under the government with
the men of their own party, whose efficiency
consisted mainly in packing delegations to
conventions to secure their nominal alton, and
then inducing the President to throw around
them the protection of the civil-service law
and thus fasten them on the service for life.
And then, 10 broaden the farce and make it
still more ludicrous, to name it the merit
SYSTEM" The only merit a large portion
of these appointees have is that they are
mere jackals for an aspiring demagogue.
This procedure has all the objections made
to the spoils system, with the greater evil
of making it perpetual These men thus APP
pointed have passed no examination dn Ir.y
they have done the dirty work at the prl-
mary or at the polls for the men who have
secured their appointment. The men VINO
tent proven that they have degree or
capacity for filling the 275 places and are
declared eligible stand shivering on the
curbstone while the ward-heeler is warming
in the office around the fire of civil-service
reform assume that when the civil-serv-
ice law was passed, and has since been In
dorsed time and again by the Republican
party, it was not thought that this ABB
surd method of executing the law would
ever obtain under any admnistration-this
stealing the livery of heaven to serve the
devil in
this wrong and have 1t administered as IL
was intended, and make real. genuine mer-
1T the only office-hoding test, every SAINT
ly political doctrinarie every Lam better
Republican party for abandonment or pr'n-
ciple. The attempting to defend the CleVe-
land method of administering the law IS
so offensive to the demand for fair play
in the mind of the American citizen-is so
farcial a defeat of the very spirit of the
law-that the present law may be repealed
and another enacted that will not make our
civil service. as it is now. the laughing
stock of every intelligent citizen. ! do not
regard the partisan feature as the worst,
by any means The whole business of
working in the employ of the government
needs a most thorough overhaullng. IL
needs to be put on precisely the same plan
that a prudent. successful business man
conducts his own affairs. He never EN-
ploys more men than he needs. lie Goes
not have two employees go to work IN the
middle of the forenoon and quit the mlddie
of the afternoon, as do the army OF clerks
In washington ana Otner places where
large numbers are in the government serv-
ice He does not employ an incapable to
work for him because he is cousin to the
r1ember of Congress from his district or
brother-in law to the senator or distant
relative to the President He. pays good
wages and demands honest all-day WORK.
He does not have a host of useless auditors.
registers and secretaries in his employ. lie
has no red-tape foolishness, nor does he
waste tons of printed blanks so that pos
terity may know what he has been doing
He has no idle men or Supernumerar1eS. lie
will tolerate no constructive mileage on
pretended service Year by year these
abuses have fastened themselves on the
government until the enormous expense bill
is the result. Every intelligent man is anx-
iously watching for the coming strong, hon
est man in the Senate or in the House who
will assail the mismanagement OF our pubic
affairs and lop off the suckers that may be
found in every State, as well as in the gen
eral government; and are thus squanderiing
the burdens of taxation. Let civil-serv-
Ice reform commence at the root Of the evil.
WILL CUMBACK
Craan sbllrer Ind. Dec. 49,