The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-06
PROFESSIONAL
 POLITICIANS Roosevelt Scores Them
 in Message. TAXING OF NEXT CENSUS President Disagrees With Congress About Appointments. He wants Census s1en Chosen After Competitive Exzmlnasions from List of EiigibIes Provided
 By CiviI Service.

Washington, Feb. 5.--"Professiona politicians are peculiarly evident in the case Of a great public work like the taking of the census. work which should ernphaticaliy be- done for the whole people. and with an eye single to their interest"
 In these words, President Roosevelt today summed up a message to the House of Representatives, returning, without his approval, the bill providing for the taking of the next census be- cause of the provision prescribing that the appointments shall be made on the basis of non-competitive examinations, instead of through the civil service. As passed by Congress, the bill permit ted members and Senators to designa- nate persons for positions after they had undergone a simple examination. The following Is the Presidents mes- sage:
 "I herewith return, without approval. H. R. 16.s54, entitled An act to pro- vide for the thirteenth and subsequent decennial censuses.' do this with ex- treme reluctance, because I fully real ize the importance of supplying the Director of the Census at as early a date as possible with the force neces- sary to the carrying on of his work. But it is of high consequence to the country that the statistical work of the census shall be- conducted with en- tire acuracy. Thiss is as important from the standpoint of business and industry as from the scientific stand point It Is. therefore. In my 3ndg- ment. essential that the resolution should not be open to the suspicion of bias on political and professional grounds; that 1t should not be open ito the reasonable suspicion of being a. waste of the peoples money and a fraud.
 section : of the act provides in effect that appointments to the census shall Is the real meaning of the provision that they shall be subject only to non- competitive examination. The pro- viso is added that they shall be se- lected without regard to political par ty affiliations. But there is only one way to guarantee that they shall be selected without regard to politics and on merit, and that Is by choosing them after competitive examinations from the lists of eligibles provided by the civil service commission.
 'STo provide that the clerks and other employees shall be appointed af- ter non-competitive examination and yet to provide that they shall be se- lected without regard to political party affiliations, means merely that the appointments shall be treated as the perquisites of the politicians of both parties instead of as the periQuisttes of the politicians of one party. I do not believe in the doctrine that to the victor belongs the spells; but I think even less of the doctrine that the spells shall be divided without a fight by the professional politicians on both sides: and this would be the result of per- mitting the bill In its present shape to become law. Both of the last census. the eleventh and twelfth, were taken under a provision of law excluding competition; that is, necessitating the appointments being made under the spoils system. Every man competent to speak with authority because of his knowledge of and familiarity with the work of those censuses, has stated that the result was to produce extrav- agance and demoralization. :"
 Examples of Ine1Eicieney.
 The President then quotes examples of the striking inefficiency of some of those employed in taking the census of 1900, and adds: e.
 Mir. Carroll D. Wright, who had charge of the census bureau after the census of 1890, estimates that S2.O0O.- 000 and more than a years time would have been saved if the census force had been brought into the classified service.
 srhis, of course, meant the destruc.