Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-17
DEFENSE OF MERIT
Carl Sehnrz's Address Before National
Civil Service League.
AGsRES ATTACKS OF ENEMlES
President Mckinley Highly Com
mended for His Firm Stand.
SEC'Y M'AeNENY'S LETTER

!
In Ids annual address a'eSere the National
Civil Service Reform League at Cincinnati
last night Carl Schurz. president of the
| league, devoted most Of his remarks to an
answer to the attacks which have lately
been made On civil service in Congress and
| elsewhere.
He said in introduction: 1.-THE American
people have hardly ever beheld a rush for
| the spells of Office more tumultuous than
| that which followed President McKinley's
accession to power. Nor haYe.-we ever
| heard a more furious. and, may add, a
| more disgraceful clamor from party men
for the breach Of party faith than that Of
| republican politicians demanding the re-
zeal. or at least the disembowelment, of
the civil service law by President and
majority in Congress solemnly pledged to
its maintenance and extension"
He then renewed the utterances of the
party as expressed in the national conven-
ton at st. Louis and eulogized President
Mckinley for the firm stand he has taken
to honestly carry out those declarations.
! Said the speaker:
| 1T is worth while to contemplate that
scene. There stood the President of this
| great republic with the solemn vow honest
ly and thoroughly to enforce the civil SER
vice law and. wherever practicable. to ex-
| tend it-with that VOW still warm on his
lips; and facing him group Of persons
pretending to represent a great organiza-
| ton embracing the young and active men
| of the party coolly insisting that this
| President should by one Of his first official
acts break and dishonor his party's and
| his own pledge and thus before the Ameri-
| can people and all the world declare his
party to be a cheat and himself q dishonest,
| man. Did 1t not occur to those persons
| that In approaching the President with
| such a request and in protesting to think
him capable OF SO disgraceful an act, they
| offered him just deadly an insult as il
| they had asked him to forge book check
| or 20 embezzle trust fund, with the ex-
| pectatton that he would do it? Did not one
| of them feel that after so outrageous an
| affront the President would have been justi-
| fed in treating them as persons not to be
| recosnlzedzAs gentlemen, and as base SLAM
| derers In falsely pretending to represent
| the young men of the republican party!
Could they forget that if it really were true
| that the young men Of the republican party
| can te inspired to strenuous effort only by
the prospect of spoil, and that to obtain
that spoil they would have their party dis
homer itself by breaking time honored
| vow, and by repudiating its faith, the moral
vitality OF that party would soon be gone?
| 1t was indeed a repulsive exhibition of the
| effect which the spoil system has exercised
Upon the moral sense of men, and the
young men of the republican party cannot
! cast upon them by their pretended repre-
sentatives."
In answer to the attack on the system
based on the charge that Cleveland had
gone beyond all precedent in placing EN-
ployes Of the government under the protec-
| ton of civil service. the speaker maintained
that the same charge had been raised by
the democratic SpOilSmen over similar &C.
| tions by republican presidents. 1t would
| be the policy of the league to- uphold all
such extensions of the civil service, no mat
| ter by whom made
| On the question Of extending the pro-
| visions Of the law 10 the consular service
| he said Is
A matter in which not only the civil
service reformer, but the whole CONNER
cial community takes a lively interest, is
the improvement of our consular service.
If our commercial community wants a
real reform In the method of appointment
| to consular positions. 1t must insist upon
three things-competitive examinations for
admission to the lowest grade OF the con-
sular service, promotion only for merit and
removal only for cause. From this rule
should, at most only those few consular
positions be excepted that have a diplo-
matte character.
Summing up the attack on the system,
| he said:
Il repeat, it Is the aristocracy Of inf1u-
| ence on one side and the democracy of
merit on the other. And 1 cannot too
strongly impress upon the mind of every
one concerned that every public employ
| ment unnecessarily withdrawn from the
domain Of the democracy of merit and
| turned over to the aristocratic rule of in
| fiuence is an encroachment on popular
| rights. There Is constant urgency on the
part Of so-called practical politicians, and
sometimes also from executive officers who
| are exposed to political pressure, for the
| withdrawal Of this that class of posi-
| lions which are now in the classified SER
vice from the competitive rule. In hardly
| any case has my examination Of the rea-
| sons for such demand convinced me of
| the necessity of the withdrawal In al
most every instance we find the same or a
similar class OF offices elsewhere success
| Iully administered under the competitive
| rule and nothing can be more certain than
that the Withdrawals asked for would re-
suit In turning over the positions con-
| cerned to the abuses of patronage mon
gering and spoils politics. Those in power
should never permit themselves to forget
that when an office. the subsection of
| practicable, is withheld from the domain of
| that rule, or whenever an office already nm
| der the competitive rule is without the
clearest necessity withdrawn from it and
| Is thus made matter of patronage com
| manded by influence, the people are robbed
OF tnelr right OF free competition for that
public employment. That right cannot be
| too jealousy guarded. especially nv the
men and women who are Door or without
influential backing, or too self-respectine to
| make themselves dependent upon the favor
o ond me h powestui instead OF their own work,
| make themselves anybody's political slaves
In presenting his report, George McAneny'
secretary Of the league. read an open letter
to Representative Grosvenor, in which he
! answered the charge that the merit sys-
| tenn tends to build up an ar:stocratic class.
| He said: o-"'''
I shall show that through the establish
Tent of a trained body of subordinates the
public busiI ess has been expedited to
remarkable degree, and that, as a direct
| consequence. many millions of dollars nave
been and are being saved to the public
treasury. I shall show also that for this
and other reasons, the filching of a single
office or branch from the merit system at
this juncture will be resented by the peo-
pie as quickly az 1t Is understood. But an
other matter first: You say that the con-
| tinued employment Of men who are fitted
and trained for the work they have to do
develops life tenure In the public service"
creates a "class separated from the com
mon people of the country" and ''saps the
fundamental principle Of a government by
| the people" Pardon me If 1 suggest that
| this is talk of an exceedingly reckless de-
| scription. There is NO life tenure in our
civil serviee. An enploye. even under Pres
| ident McKinley's ruie may still be dis
missed for reasons satisfactory to the de-