The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-03-11
DIFFERENT STANDARDS.

Everyone who has closely observed
the way in which public business Is
conducted win incline to agree win
Mr.. p. G. Jones in the belief that d
mercantile system of accountability
would provide a large amount of good
work for minor percentage OF the
sum that a small amount of Indifferent
work now costs the taxpayers. 1t Is
far easier, however, to detect the
faults Of the public system of doing
business than it is to provide reme-
dy for them.
This is because of a vital difference
In standards The first thing man
must do in seeking private employ Is
to prove his ability to meet special
business requirement; but In seeking
a public job he must first demonstrate
his usefulness to the party. III he Is
a good politician the fact VIII cover
multitude of faults as bookKeeper'
The private employe works because
partly, he knows that he Will lose MS
lob If he shirks it, but the public en-
ploye always feels that, in Whatever
he does short of stealing. his party Will
protect him for the good he Is expect
ed to do in the primaries. The one
ease makes for efficiency and the other
for carelessness. A private employer
has the vital power of summary dis
charge; the public employer must
think of the effect politically. Fur
thermore while the head of corpora
ton is able to keep the force down TO
a minimum and finds 1t to his personal
advantage in his relation to the stock
holders to do so, the head of pubic
department must make room for good
political workers and finds 1t to his
personal disadvantage in his relation
to the party organization, not to do so,
Take street and road making for eN-
ample. A private firm could the law
permitting, pave Fort street for about
half what it cost the Public Works de-
partment to pave it, do better job
and finish it in half the time. Why?
Simply because the private firm would
hire the best labor no matter what its
politics or race, get it at the lowest
market price and drive it hard. The
government, on the other hand, must
only hire "citizens,' usually meaning
lazy natives; and it must be easy with
them to get their votes when election
day rolls around. 1t hardly dares to
discharge a man or to refuse one a
Job at high pay; and if it undertakes
to push things and get an honest days
work for fair days wage, 1t is
promptly warned that it is running
the party" behind it-as perhaps it is
Honolulu is by no means alone in the
sum of the offending. 1t simply typi-
fies the abuses of the American spoils
system, thing of continental growth
and significance. In San Francisco,
twenty years ago. the Blind Boss,
Chris. Buckley, said he would take the
=" 100000 per annum it cost to govern
that city, provide peter aaminis-
tration than it had and save S2,OoOooo
for himself. And nobody doubted that
he could. From San Francisco to New
York, from Minneapolis to New Or
leans, the story is the same. Wher-
ever business and politics mix, business
suffers.
Is there n remedy? In Federal civil
government one has been sought and
measurably found in civil service re-
form, whereby men are passed into
Office by merit and kept there by etii-
cheney, the tests being those imposed
by a non-political examination. The
same system is employed in the army
and navy Eventually, perhaps, it
will extend to all the subdivisions of
government, reaching even to counties
and townships, so that no man will be
eligible to appointment under local
elective officers until he has passed an
examination in which all men. of
whatever politics, shall have an equal
show; the head of the bureau or de-
partment being removable upon indict-
ment by competent grand jury for
using his office for political objects.
an some such way an approximation
-Jnight be had In public employ to the
standards of efficiency in private en-
ploy; but we know of no way of less
drastic character to reach that end.