The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1909-02-11

In these words President Roosevelt
ummed up a message to the House of
Representatives, returning without his
approval the bill providing for the TAX
ing Of the next. ensus because of the
provision providing that appointments
shall be made on the basis of non
competitive examinations, instead of
through the civil service commission.
AS passed by congress the bill per-
mitted members and senators to desig-
mate persons for positions after they
had undergone a simple examination.
Incidentally the president referred to
the provision authorizing the printing
OF reports by private concerns. and laid
stress OF the point that where work
was so allotted the elght-hour law
should be applied in effective fash
ion."
Outside of those matters h presi-
dent said that on the whole the bill
was satisfactory to him and represent
ed an Improvement On previous legiSla-
ton on the subject.
The House adjourned without action
ON the message.
Text Of Message.
The message is as follows:
TO the House. of Representatives.
herewith return, without approval, Fl. r.
1854. entitled AN act to provide for the
18th and subsequent decennia1 censuses."
I do this with extreme reluctance, because
i fully realize the Importance OF supply
ing the director of the census at as early
a date as possible with the force neces-
gary to the carrying on of his work. But
1t is Of high c~onsequence to the country
that the statistical work ct the census
This is as important from the standpoint
of business and industry as from the
a ssse3 i%udern asahoe essential that III .ne the Result IL
should not be open to the suspicion of bias
or political and personal grounds; that it
should not be open to the reasonable sus-
niciOn of being q waste of the nenn1ofl
money and a fraud.
Section Z of the act provides in effect
under the spoils system, for this is the
real meaning of the provision that they
shall be subject only to noncompetitive
they shall be selected without regard to
political party 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 examination from the
lists Of eligibles provided by the civil serv-
North's Views.
Tho present director of the census in
his last report states the exact fact about
these noncompetive examinations when he
says:
that everyone OF the many thousands who
will pass the examinations will have an
equal right to appointment, and that per-
sonal and political pressure must In the
end, as always before, become the deter
III AoSIol L SSd ~ lLS BT6dL
body Of these temporary employments. /
can not too earnestly urge that the direc-
Tor OF the census be relieved from this
unfortunate situation"
To provide that the clerks and other
employees shall be appointed after non-
competitive examination. and yet to pro-
vide that they shall be selected without
regard to political party affiliations,
means merely that the appointments shall
ticians of both parties. Instead of as
the ~perGuisites of the politicians Of
one party; I DO not believe in the
spoils;. but 1 think even less of the doc
trine that. the spoils shall be divided with
out a fight by the professional politicians
suit of permitting the bill in its present
shape to become a law Both of the last
census, the 18th and 18th, were taken
under a provision OF law excluding com
petition; that is. necessftating the ap-
pointments 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 extrayaganee and generalization
Mr. ROBERT +. Porter, who took the Gen.
sus of 1880. states that
The efficiency of the decennial census
materially iessened If it were provided
that the employees should be selected in
accordance with the terms of the civil
Frederick II. Wines, the ~ssistant direc.
tor of the census Of 1900, states as fol.
lows:
"A mathematical scale was worked GU,
by which the number of assignments tc
each senator and representative was de.
termined In advance. SO many appoint.
ments to g senator. a smaller number te
a representative. half as many to a demo.
crat as to a republican. and in democratic
states and congressional districts the as.
signments were made to the republican
state and district committees. The as.
s1gnees named in the first instance the per.
SONS to be examined. They were after.
wards furnished Zach with a list of those
named who had passed and requested t.
name those who they desired to have an.
pointed. Vacancies were filled In the same