Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-22

It's great Observation-Disclosures and Its em-
cient police judges Or tcommisary.'
superb Body 81 fublic Servants.
"And how. it may De asked, can the
Paris of today wieh fes numerous parties
| and cliques. its n6isyssand perturbed city
council its fredtent, change Of both
| national and city administration and the
| rapid rotation in the projects Of the Seine
ard Soire, how can such q tickle govern
| nent carry on anyisuch nicely planned and
economically and ,leficaently administered
public works? IL q
The enswer to alia this is that these
works are carried out by q superb body of
pubic servants who are wholly out of poll
Tics VINO are appointed by examinations
Ior the most part competitive, and whose
ana capacity. No one Of them Is changed
on a change of administration. The only
changes In the whole city are in the two
p pr ra Ihere are no excepted places.
10 removals on false charges, no-lobbying
Tor positions. This service includes police
men, nremen school teachers street
cleaners bookkeepers, civil engineers.
architects and artists
Boston an Example.
Mr.. Dana spoke Of Boston as a lesser
example OF what civil service reform can
90 Tor municipality. Almost all the civil
servants of that city, he said. are taken
out of politics.
conventions are freer and our civil service
more emcient and economical, than they
formerly were, and the mayor has time
70 aevote to the larger questions of the
CITY interests, instead of being occupied
with small but engrossing matters of pa
tIonage. The costs of the whole civil ser
vice commission, salaries and expenses, has
s eeen saved several times over in the cutting
a. uoMn OF unnecessary places as soon as
~ was nc una they could not be filled for
iI anu personal reasons. So a civil ser
than nothing -e'S
win these examples before us. be-
lieve the time and the hour have come
70. .pr putting the city of Washington under
c.'e, clsai service rules. Some years ago the
wi service commission would not have
nae I,ao tne experience in competitive tests for
me varied positions to be filled in the Dis
t siS. government, and then it might have
. tSet d mistake to have included the Dis
trlct but now the case is different The
Submission Is both prepared and willing
10 undertake the work 1 understand the
NOUS in wisbin,- Ct1mmissioners are unani
oplnlon Is ripe for it, and IL am NOT
sreatiy mistaken. the President of the
cn1,ne states; whom we have reason to
lEg TO make the move"
Mr.. SfddOns' Annual Report.
Mr.. siddons rendered his animal renor+
as secretary. The membership of tho os-
ISOLATION. he said, now numbers sixtv-
seven, and it was desirable that n ho ~
creased. Mr.. Siddons referred to the at
Jacks that have been made upon the merit
system IN congress, and, referring to the
An ..5, Service League said:
me league IN question, with a few ex-
SSsp.ions; is composed of persons who either
nave held government offices or desire to
10 80, ana the arguments they advance to
lhalhtain their attitude of opposition to the
law are familiar and have. long since been
met and answered.
1.-The President will naka M oo,,....,o
oI principle to the noisy appeals that have
peen made to him by 'anti-civil service
advocates arn,s, ties Of all kinds. He may except
ABOUT the classifying of which there a ra
honest differences of opinion, even among
the best friends Of the, reform.
~ has not been fhought wise to urge the
for the extension TO the local municinai
government of the civil service law. To
de1end what we have from attack has been
the chief work of taissAnd other like asso-
clat1ons throughout 1.-The past eighteen
months. At the proper moment Legislative
action on our local measure will again he
earnestly sought by the officers Of this as
OMcess Chosen.
A committee on nominations consisting
OF Messrs. Charles Lyman, George H. Har-
r1es and Chas. W. Stetson, having been
- ;SAAS. piSSiOSHl, NOMINATIONS
were reported and all; the officers Of the
association were reelected for the en-
suing year, as followso President, John Joy
Edison; vice presidents, Rev DR.. Alexander
Mackay-Smith. Theodore w. Moves and
Henry B. F. Mcfarland; secretary, F. L.
Slddons; assistant secretary, Chas W.
Stetson; treasurer. Adolph G. Wolf The
following executive committee was also
elected unanimously: A. L. Sturtevant
Geo. William Hill. E. NJ. Gallaudet Charles
Lyman S. w. Woodward and H. H. Glas-
sic.
Mr.. Edison announced that he had re-
ceived telegram from Mr.. Charles Bona
parte of Baltimore, announcing that he
was detained at home by pressing business
1t was expected that Mr. Bonaparte would
be present at the meeting and deliver an
address.
Discusses Gems of Oratory.
William Dudley Foulke of Richmond
md, spoke at some length upon the de-
bate that has lately taken place in Con-
gress on the civil service law
Il wish to say a few words regarding
some Of the gems of oratory that have
bedecked the pages of the Congresslona,
Record within the past few weeks, in the
attacks on civil service REFORM" he said.
True. there was no bill, amendment or
resolution to which this eloquence was
opposite. The speeches were delivered. as
mittee of the whole, with the appropria-
ton bill before it, and without any mo-
ton to strike out, increase or diminish
the allowance to the civil service com
missioners or to anybody else. The flood
gates Of defamation were suddenly OPEN
ed and with mighty noise the water
poured in in great volume for one mortal
week.
I'm June, 1885, the last republican con
ventfon declared: The civil service Law
was placed on the statute book by tn
republican party, which has always sus.
tanned 1t, and we renew our repeated dec
larations that it shall be thoroughly and
honestly enforced and extended wherever
practicable
This was three weeks after the publi-
cation of Mr.. Cleveland,s last order ex-
tending the classified systematic So
called blanket order Of May IS, 1886.
which many republicans denounce. But
knowing all this. the republican conven-
ton promised to extend the laws still fur
ther. and Mr.. Mckinley, in accepting the
nomination, assured us that the party
would take no backward STEP"
The Arguments Reviewed.
Mr.. Foulke reviewed the arguments of
various members of Congress who had at
tackled the civil service law, and said:
I'm view of these discordant opinions
the questions arise. When the time comes