Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-01
AN ENGLISH OPINION
The London Spectator on Our
Post Office Frauds.
LAX PUBLIC SPIRIT
AMERICAN CIVIL SERVICE sYs-
TEN AT FAULT.
The Spells Principle Still Potent in De-
grading the Governments
Forces.
From the London Spectator.

Very dreary reading is the story of the
| exposure of corruption in the United States
| Post Office told in the Times of Saturday
| last. Half a dozen more of the higher
| officials of that great department have bee IN
| actually declared guilty on inquiry, or lie
| under the gravest suspicion, of practices
| totally incompatible with sound admin:stra-
| ton, and in several cases with personal
| honor. The abuses discovered range from
| the provision of free delivery of letters
by no means so universal privilege in the
| states as 1t is with uS-in partial and one
sided fashion, dictated by personal or po-
| itical considerations, up, or down. to the
| acceptance of brides for appointments or
| promotions in the service, and of heavy
| commissions on large purchases of such
| requisites as letter-box fasteners and "au-
| tomato cashiers at ridiculously high
| prices, 1t will be readily believed that these
| discoveries have produced painful sensa-
ton in American society. There is no de-
| partment of the public service in which an
exposure of ntruStworthineSS on the part
OF leading officials is certain to produce
| widespread and profound discomfort and
uneasiness as in the working of the Post
Office. Even If, seems to be the case in
| this instance. there is no allega ton of any
| actual tampering with correspondence, it
| is Impossible that the public should not feel
that there is only difference of detail be-
tween breach of trust by officials in rela ton
to the general conduct of the Post Office
and meddling. whether for political pur-
poses or for objects of mere sordid diShon-
esty, with the letters placed in its charge.
And certainly, if the higher functionaries
are VIGOROUSLY INSCRIPTIONS in the fulfil
ment of the obligations devoving upon
them. those of the lower grades cannot but
be expected to include considerable num-
bers who will turn to their own advantage.
whether as blackmalers or as common
thieves. in
their hands.
P. o. Standard Should Be High.
But beyond these special grounds for pub
lie depression and indignation in the Post
Office exposures, the people of the United
States can hardly fail to recognize in them
very serious cause for anxiety as to the
general condition of their public service
There is no obvious reason why a lower level
Of honesty should prevail in the Post Office
than in other branches of the federal serv-
Ice 1t has never been alleged that aSSocia-
ton with the working of the mails has any
such mysteriously deteriora ting influence on
the moral fibre as is commonly alleged to
result from much connection with transac-
tons in horses. Except for quite rare cases
of peculation, the post Office of civilized
countries is generally quite as honestly
managed as any other department of state
administration. No doubt 1t is always pos
sible that in the staff of any particular
public office, as among the officers of a
regiment, the undergraduates of a college.
or the boys of a school. moral infection
may be set up due to the influence of one
or two strong bad characters. But that
does not seem to be the kind of explana-
ton which occurs to those who on the spot
contemplate the ugly spectacle of the Post
Office scandals. If it We're so. the severe
measures adopted against most if not all,
of the principal offenders would produce
pretty general assurance that much. If not
all, of the poison had been purged away
such feeling A
considerable number of striking examples
have been made; absolute professional ruin
has fallen on several men who stood high
in the service; and yet no security is felt |
that the same kind of malpractices will not
before long crop up again. Why should
this be so? Not so far as can be judged. |
because the United States Post Office is |
manned by worse type of official than the
other departments of the federal service |
Nor, certainly, because the average con-
science of the American citizen in regard |
to civic duty is naturally at lower level |
than that of the average citizen of this |
country
The Spells System.
1t is because the manner in which the
American party system has for two genera !,
tons been allowed to operate in connection
with the civil servic, has been precisely cal
culated, on the one hand, to deteriorate the
standard of administrative duty and, on
the other hand, to enhance the tempta lions
pressing upon men with small incomes to
augment those incomes ilfegitimately. Fit
ness for the work in hand has not been the
primary criterion applied to the credentials
of candidates, but work done, or influence
available, for the promotion of party ends |
That being VIGOROUSLY so, the question
whether the departmental work in hand has
been well or i'll done by those appointed os- |
tensibly to do it has been very often con-
sdered and treated by them and their su-
periors as purely secondary and even
quite insignificant issue. If they have con-
tinued. as they have had opportunity to
give the party a friendly and efficient lift |
that has been quite enough to secure no:
only retention of Office but promotion
there so long as their party remained in
power. But only so LONG. When the other
side came in, the Odious applica ton first
given, or first given on extensive scale |
by Andrew Jackson to the motto, ITO the |
v1ctorS belong the spoils," has received full |
force; and wherever any excuse, and very |
often where none, could be found the hold
ers of office down to the village postmaster |
have been elected. without compensation or
pension, to make room for the friends of
the incoming party. The more useful the |
officehOlders have made themselves to the |
antagonists of that party, the more sure
they have been of finding themselves cast |
forth uDon the world. In these circum- |
stances, nothing could be more natural or |
indeed, inevitable, than that very MANY |
should be tempted. and that many should |
yield to the temptation to make provision |
for their compulsory retirement at the ex-
pense of the department and the country
they were supposed to be serving The svs |