The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-07-24
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GEM OF THE MOUNTAIN CLUB.

The election OF officers for the
Gem of the Mountain club Of Mont
pelier, for the coming year resulted
as follows: Mrs. Libbie Whitman,
president; Mrs. Barbara Brennan,
secretary; Mrs. Hannah Downing,
treasurer; Miss Julia Sullivan, lead
er of the Literary Department; Mrs.
Cleotah Case, leader Music Depart
ment; Mrs. Lizzie Brady, leader of
Household Economics Department;
Mrs. Ina Preston, leader of Kensing-
ton Department.
A general meeting of the club will
be held the first Saturday of
each month of the calendar year.
The study year begins September Is
and closes May Is. The literary and
music departments will meet togeth-
er the End and 4th Saturdays of
each month during the study year.
The Household Economics and
Kensington departments will meet
together the 1st and Bird Wednesdays
of each month during the study year.
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The following paper is published
by the Womans Auxiliaries to the
New York and Massachusetts Civil
| Service Reform associations:
A Primer of the Civil Service and
the Merit System.
In the first place what is the Civil
| Service? 1t is part, very import
ant part, of the government and con-
sists of large number of persons
who do certain kinds of public work
and are paid for it by the citizens
of the country, state or city in which
the work is done.
The military service, as we all
know, is made up chiefly of the SOL
diers who fight our battles when we
are so unfortunate as to have on
hand war.
The naval service includes the peo-
pie who go out in ships of war to
fight for us on water.
The legislative service is made up
of persons who frame our laws and
plan the business management of
our affairs as a country.
The civil service is made up of
persons who are not soldiers or law
makers, but who perform hundreds
of duties that add to the daily COM
fort and convenience of everyone
living under the government. Our
mail carriers, our policemen, our
firemen, our lighthouse keepers, the
men who inspect our steamships, the
bookkeepers who keep the public ac-
counts, nearly all the people con-
nected with the United tSates mint,
to take only few examples belong
to the civil service.
AS | have said these public SER
wants are paid by the people. That
is to say the taxes, which we all pay
in one form or another, provides
the money out of which come the
wages of the persons who do the
public work. The poor man who
rents part of house, perhaps only
a single room, still helps to pay the
public servants, since the landlord
who pays the taxes on the whole
house, which he owns, adds these
taxes to the rent charged to the ten
ants, and the higher the taxes the
higher the rents There are other
taxes than those on houses, but this
one example will make it plain that
no man, rich or poor, can live under
this government without paying
some of the expenses of the public
work. 1t is important that we should
keep this in mind in order to uSder-
stand that each one OF us is interest
ed in having the work that we pay
for done in the best way and at the
least cost.
Our early presidents, Washington
Adams and Jefferson, understood
this and tried never to turn out a
public servant who was behaving
himself and doing his work as it
should be done. When the country
grew larger and more and more
work was to be done for the public
and there were more and more
places to be filled, different feel
ing grew up among the men whose