The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-12

Try 10 prove nlnlSeH tne HlleSC. He
can only get this opportunity through
Civil Service reform. The opposite of
Civil Service reform is the 'sp0ils sys-
tenn
What il the meaning-whQ are tba
actual results of this doctrine, "ro the
victors belong the spoils of conquest "
1t means that public office is not a pnh.
lie trust. but public plunder that it shall
he bestowed. not upon him who can
serve wen, or haS served faithfully bia
country, hut upon him who with most
zeal and less scruplcs has served his
party chief; and tlEt It Sltal he exercised
not for the good Ut the people, but that
the party managers and their adhcrents
may perpctuntc their power.
Mr. Cahoon then went on to give
statistics showing the beneficial effects
of Civil Service reform upon the various
departments of the government where it
had been i'll operation.
He continued: The spells system
turns more than two hundred thousand
hubble servants olr of ortit@ every four
years to make room For inexperienced
and incompetent persons, who have done
nothing more than to render party
service. Imagine a merchant dI$chalglhg
his statesmen and Ea0k-ke1frS' a rail
road diScharging it's engineers ahd
! switchmcn. Il bank diSchtrging It's cash
icrS and tcllerS every four years, ON me
ground that they had been IN lheir
places long enough and now ougat give
way for others! Would y0u like to trust
II bank conducted upon such principles
with your deposits? Would You like t."
ride upon such q railroad!
Another point to he observed Is chat
under the spoils system the real business
of the government is SuboIdlnated TO
the business of distributing offices. Inc
| President and his cabinet officers have
not time to attend to their regular
duties President Garfield writing for
the atlantic Monthly in 1877, said that
one-half of the working hours of Sena-
tors and Congressman was not sufficient
TO meet tine demands made upon them
in reference to appointments to office.
Another evil of the Spells System is
the corruption which always accmnpa-
MES it. Not content with curs5ng and
crushing by its pOlluting touch every de-
partment of trust of our official life, the
vile spirit Of the Spells System, born Oh
partisan rancor, has III hate years even
entered the sacred precincts of the
school and college and driven out -.lgh-
minded, honorable and competent men,
because they did not belong To the party
in power Can any system reach deeper
imquity than this?
No longer can Civil Service Reform be
cried down by the sO-called practical
politicians, as the nebuous dream of I'M"
practical Missionaries, for it has been
grasped by the popular understanding as
a practical necessity, not to enervate our
political life; but to lift it to a higher
moral plane. not to destroy political
parties. but to restore them to their
legitimate functions: not to make party
government impossible. but to guard it
against debasement; not pretending to
he in itself the conslTmmation of all re-
FORMS but being the reform, without
which other reformatory efforts in gov
eminent cannot be perfectly successful.
Mr.. Jesse C. Owen, the last speaker
for the negative, rounded up for the
defence III an able manner He said:
Government officers are divided into
two classes: Those elected by the bal
lot of the people, and those appointed
by the officers so elected.
The American spirit directs all IFS
energies toward the greatest good to
the greatest numbCc. We hold that
those responsible to the people for moth
ing should be entrusted by the people
with nothing VIII this he accomplish
ed by committing the selection of officers
to machine which is not responsible
for the action of men so selected?
The feature of civil service is the com
petitive examination. This only tests
the educational qualifications. The ele-
ments of character. patriotism, and
ability to perform the functions of that
specific office are not considered. The
criterion for office holding should be
capacity and honesty. The examina-
ton is no test of this. and Mr.. Proctor,
chairman of the commission confesses it.
The commission is p0werless to re-
move men for crime or incapacity. The
unsentahle man must be retained until
the head of the department is replaced.
In our history aF many examples of
such. and show that the Civil Service
is a lamentable failure. The only way
is to give heads of departments life
tenure.
The competitive system shuts ont
many of the most capable men and w0-
men. Captain Pratt instituted the In
dian school at Carlisle. Pa, and yet in
the prime Of manhood. he is shut out
because he cannot name the fonr larg-
est islands ON the globe. and the dis
lance from Quinto to Rongoon. In the
Civil Service. Abe Iinc0ln would have
been excluded from the service of has
country.
The affirmative would make you be-
lieve that the Civil Service will abolish
the spoils system. and then we will be
saved" politically. This is false. 1t
is not necessary to have either of these
systems. During the first 40 years
of our political life We had neither
spells nor Civil Service. Officers were
then changed only by the President or
heads of departments. Why not return
to that system?
Instead of abolishing the spoils sys-
tenn, Civil Service rules organize it in
the most revolving forms. In England,
in 1886, the Civil Service Commission
desired certain laws enacted: by prom
Using positions to the candidates of GER
tain members they obtained the desired
laws and dispensed patronage to 20,0OO
people in return for their assistance.
ifn tanura in office breeds CryStalllZa-