Evening times-Republican., 1909-07-13
pREsENr PROSE INTO ABUSES OF
eYsTEM HAS BEEN APPARENT
FOR YEARS.
RETURN TO spolLs SYSTEM
- NOT NOW CONTEMPLATED
Teo Much epeiis in Present Structure
os Civil ssrviee-conarsss Proposes
to Find Out Few Thins.-cummins
Heads COMMITTEES Which Will lnvea.
tisats.
Especial Correspondence ]

/. Especial Correspondence.
Washington, July 12.-For several
years past II has been apparent that
shakeup Of gigantic proportions, reach
Ing to the very foundations of the civil
servtce establishment of the govern
nient, was inevitable. Session after
session of congress the complaints
agxinst conditions in the government
departments in Washington all over
the county, have grown more and
more vigorous. Congress has lost con-
ndence In the efficacy of civil service
reform as now administered, and .he
impression has grown UP that there IS
something - probably good many
thinss-thoroughly rotten in the whole
system.
So long - Mr.. Roosevelt was pres
fdent congress was given the poor priv
ilege Of grumbling to its hearts con-
tent, but it wasn't permitted to do
much else. Mr.. Roosevelt was an orig
inal civil service reformer, had been a
member OF the commission, and was
suspicious that a return to the spoils
system was liable to be the outcome of
any determined effort at changing
Things. So 1t was impossible to get any
sympathy from him. Now that he is
out of office, congress is going to try
Ats hand fetching some real reform.
Nebody has in mind, so far as can
be discovered any such things as a re-
turn to the spoils system; but it runs
in the congressional mind that there is
y good deal Of spoi1s in the crevices of
the present civil service structure, and
that, beyond this, there is a vast ma
chinsry Of something like fraud
against the government. The most as
tonishing charges Of favoritism, OF peo-
pie doing almost no work month after
month and year after year and draw
ing regular pay. or promotions for
3Avorftes, OF despotic use Of power, of
suspensions Of the civil service regula-
sions in various ways, OF incompetent
people on the rolls, of round pegs in
square holes and square pegs in round
holes-all these things are alleged to be
20 common os to amount to something
very much like scandal.
One thing that congress wants to
know II whether these allegations have
been exaggerated. If conditions are
half so bad as has come to be widely
believed among congressional people,
there Is certain to be a sharp overhaul
ing ~ the result Of any Investigation
which will prove the facts. The Arst
busin, therefore. OF the Borah- Cum
minis investigation Of the civil service
will be to find out whether the civil
service has been muckraked and lied
about and slandered.
II is agreed by all the critics of the
civil service, that the merit system has
come to stay. There is little possibili-
ty that 1t will ever be dropped, but it
ds likely to be a good deal modified. It
ds. complained that the merit system
as now administered lets in too many
people who haven't any merit, and
makes 1t too difficult for peculiarly
qualified people to get the places for
which they are adapted. How to mod
tfy the system to meet this very real
objection. and yet not to throw 1t
open to the play Of "pull'' is the ques-
ton nobody has ever succeeded in
ansYering.
Of tho treasury. he had a theory that
the way TO reform the civil service was
to haves a strictly limited and fixed
tenure Of Office, and to assure rotation
10 the government positions. He didn't
believe in giving people a life hold,
and letting them grow stale on the
governmsnt's hands. He believed it was
perfectly right that the government
departments should be largely filled by
young men and women, bright, ener-
getic. competent, ambitious. young
people attending school In Washing
TON, perhaps; getting their educations
by working out Of hours while serving
the government during It's not very
exacting hours. Thousands have done
this. and more thousands would do it
II the way were opened to them to
get the positions; and the limited ten
ure plan, coupled with a proper merit
system, would make 1t possible for
moro Of them to secure positions 1t is
understood that Senator Cumnnins,
which will make the investigation,
leans decidedly to some such limited
tenure plan, and that above all things
he. is opposed to any such permanent
tenure as would bring the government
untImately to face q civil pension pro-
gram.
The members Of the senate commit
tee on civil service, which will make
the proposed investigation. are Cum
minis, chairman; Perkins. LaFollette,
Lodge. McLaurin, Clarke OF Arkansas:
Rayner and Owen. Their sittings.
which will be held mainly thru sub
committee. will occupy some months
before tuM report will he possible.
various banks in the United States
are 70 be sued by the agents Of the
Turkish government, in the effort to
extract from them large sums deposited