Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
The Departmental Service.
r of The Evening Star:

To the Editor OF The Evening star:
No clerk, take 1t, need have any fear
of the result of the proposed congress
sional investigation of the departments
If in every way efficient, provided the
matter is conducted in a perfectly i'm
partial manner and the objects well de-
fined The true basis Of such action should
be well considered and digested. Making
age the paramount point is unfair for so
many reasons patent to all that none
need be mentioned; it Is not honest and
there Is no sense in 1t. Those who live
proper lives should, barring accidents,
have every hope to live to a ripe old age,
with every mental faculty unimpaired,
with only the wear and tear of age af-
fecting their physical capacities. People
become mental and physical wrecks in a
greater number before the age of fifty
is attained than afterward. by abuses.
The investigation will fail Of the legiti-
mate fruits of justice and common de-
cency unless extended to such questions
as the equalization of salaries on the
basis of merit and efficiency, without con-
sidering age. There is old saw in all
the departments which expresses a great
deal: You cannot guess the ability and
efficiency of clerk by the salary he
ceives.' There are clerks in all the de-
partments who receive $1,4Oo, $1,000,
81 800 and 5000 a year who are out
classed in every conceivable way by
those who receive 5000, 81 900 and 81 200.
This fact is known in every department
ana bureau. Inc lntelllSent clerks all
know it. They can be found in great
numbers. Away back in the embryonic
days of civil service it was supposed that
this great crime would be obliterated, but
instead 1t has grown beyond the days of
the "spoils system" This investigation
may be able to enlighten the people on
that point and set the matter at rights.
If they can solve the proposition of why
one clerk who cannot make out file
slips properly should draw a salary Of,
say, 81 400, while the clerk on his right
is properly adjudicating claims at a SAL
airy of 5000. They should turn small Jet
OF the calcium light on those having
charge of such matters. They should find
out as matter of justice what pull or
such evident unfairness as to be an i'm
pediment to the very spirit of civil serv-
ice on the merit system. They should as
certain how general this practice Is and
who is responsible for 1t. This can be
done only by the most exhaustive and
painstakfng investigation of not only
every bureau. but of every division and
section. This great fault cannot be laid
to the civil service rules, and, therefore,
must be searched for where 1T exists The
President has well said that fraud and
bribery are the greatest of all crimes in
public life: so this partially or favorit-
ism, so closely related to bribery and
fraud. is the greatest crime in the depart.
mental service, and II not checked will
eventually bring the whole civil service
system into reproach. Age and other
matters are as nothing to 1t. The consensus
of opinion among self-respecting en-
ployes is that this investigation should
This can be accomplished by as near a
face-to-face inspection as possible, which
all unsubservient clerks would welcome.
A. W. CONLEE.