The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1907-09-04
Want Southern Men.

Civil Service Commissioner Nell
benny is anxious for Southern men
to enter the service of the govern
ment in all branches. He has just
returned to Washington from the
South, where he had been for the
purpose of interesting the people of
the South in the service. There are
throughout the South, he says. many
men Of high literary attainments, Of
learning and ability, the type of the
college professor, to whom the fierce
struggles Of commercial life are re-
pugnant. Men Of this class would
be most valuable to the government
in many capacities and government
employment would be congenial to
them. The benefit would be mutual.
There are young men also of this
same type who could come to Wash
ington and serve the government
while studying in professional
schools.
He says among the greater part Of
the Southerners the impression pre-
walls that the civil service is not for
them, that they can have no part in
the clerical administrative work of
the nation. 1t is not in the least diff
cult to understand why this impress
sion persists. This belief was once
a fact and not so long ago. 1t is a
conviction based upon years of ex-
perience, during which it was evi-
dent to everybody that a Southerner
was the last man who could hope to
get a federal position. Politics not
only entered this question, but per-
it. There were Southerners,
of a sort, who held office under the
government, but these were not of
the class which | have been trying to
interest in the service. And it was
largely because persons of a charac-
ter of which little need be said---al-
though much could be said---succeed-
ed in obtaining and holding Office
that desirable citizens came to the
conclusion all avenues were closed
against merit and respectability."
Mr.. Mcllhenny says the Southern
ers of the better class which he wish
ed to influence held aloof from such
things as civil service examinations,
feeling that civil service reform was
a farce. 1t was his endeavor to i'm
press upon the people that the con-
dition which they had come to regard
as Interchangeable had changed for
ever; than no longer were they with
out the pale of the government; but
that they were part Of it; that the
attitude ofc President Roosevelt had
put the civil service upon a plane
where performance equaled promise
and that this state of affairs had be-
come so firmly fixed during his ad-
that the country would
never allow another president to go
back to the abuses OF the spoils sys-
tenn.
Under the civil service rules each
Of the Southern States is entitled to
its quota OF government servants
and the people of the South must be
that those positions belong
TO them. Such posts must, of course,
be flied, and when Southerners do
not come forward to take them others
must be chosen We wish to call
he attention of our young men es-
,ecially to what Mr.. Mcllhenney says
above. 'fherc would be no trouble
or scores Of oung men in this coun-
v to prepare themselves, stand clvl!
ervice exam; nations and get gooc
positions III tie government service
It Washington. The South is entitled
. many more positions than she has,
.nGi we urge our young men to seek
hess positions. The work is. easy
MI H., DnOIy