The age-herald., 1901-06-30
, HON. OSCAR w. UNDERWOOD
 DISCUSSES CIVIL SERVICE
Speaks of the Safeguards Placed in the Original Constitution and of the Later Efforts to Prevent Official Corruption
 Through Enactment of the Civil Service Laws
HON. OSCAR w. UNDER WOOD, in July Forum.

a few instances may not be out of place In 1925, before the inauguration of the spells system the civil expenses amounted to s11, ,49OOOO in 1883, after it's inauguration, they reached a total or $22,713,OO0, with a corresponding increase of the number of offices dependent on the government. In the succeeding years three collectors of the port of New York defaulted in amounts aggregating over S2, GOO 900, and down to the appointment of MT. Arthur, in 1871, the New York Gus tom House was a seething mass of cor ruption and abuse of power.
 Although the abuses that once existed have been checked by the present Civil Service Commission, there are still many fragrant violations of the law taking place every day. So long as 1t Is left optional with the several heads of de- partments to select from three names certified to them from the Civil Service Commission, or to reject the entire list without giving a trial to the men thus certified, there is bound to be more or less partisan politics shown in the se- lections. The result is that new ao- ministration succeeding one of the oppo- site party will surely find the great ma jority of the civil service positions in the hands of its political opponents and cry will be raised by its own partisans for an equal distribution of the places, which of necessity will destroy any civil service system ever created.
 I did not, however, commence this article with the intention of discussing the evils or shortcomings of our present system, but rather to call attention to the dangerous influence exerted by the spells system on the legislation of the country. You sometimes hear some bla- tant reviler of the characters of other men who has never had an opportunity of gaining correct information, denounce Senators and Representatives in Con gres as guilty of corruption and other high crimes and misdemeanors. I do not contend that corrupt men do not some times enter Congress, just as occasionally you find corrupt men in the churches. or in the professions, or among business men; but I do say, after six years serV- ice in the House of Representatives, that I have never heard of any member of Congress being corrupted by the use Of money. Taking the 357 Representatives as a whole, I am sure that their moral character will not suffer in a compari- son with that of the same number or c1t- izens chosen as you come to them from any religious denomination in the land. This of necessity Is so The American people are an honest, God-fearing con- stituency; and, as a rule. the men they send to represent them reflect their moral character as well as their views on great political questions.
 Wherein, then, is the complaint? It Is that the pressure brought by the people at home on their representatives to se- cure offices for them gives the executive branch of the government dangerous power in influencing legislation.
 A new administration is returned to power. MT. Blank belongs to the same party as the President-elect. He prob ably comes to Washington with cam paign pledges to honor; or if he has been wise and made no ante-election promises, he has many true and tried friends and political followers who are justly enti- tied to his support, and for whom he desires to obtain some of the appointive offices. The new administration has a policy it desires to carry out, which re- quires legislation. and bills are. there fore, introduced by the party leader. MT.