Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-18
NOT MADE ON merit
patronage" Governs Civil Ap-
pointments in England.
EXCLUSIVE SONS FAVORED
Each New Government Creates New
Public Service.
NO COMPETITION CALLED FOR
Positions Provided Which Entail
Salaries si,sso,ooo a Year.
Birth Governs Selections.
EXCLUSIVE SONS FAVORED
NO COMPETITION CALLED FOR
Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.

Foreign Corres pondence OF The Star.
LONDON. April 10. 1911.
England has long been regarded as the
home of the principle of competitive ex-
animation for civil service appointments,
and if you asked people here about the
way appointments were made nine out
of ten would say that the days of patron
age are over and posts were obtained
only by examination and were given to
the aittest. This belief. however, is based
upon an extremely frail foundation of
fact. but there is much excuse for it.
When certain public departments were
thrown open, as 1t was called, to the
competition to all and sundry. the thing
was done with a mighty flOurishing Of
trumpets and to a good deal Of demo-
cratic huZZaing.
1t was no wonder that the credulous,
the ingenious and the imperfectly in
formed were deceived into believing that
at last the bad old days of patronage
were over, that every schoolboy carried
a public appointment in his school
satchel and that in deed and in truth the
career was open to the talents.
! Educated Intellect Rules.
Says Lord Morley, in his Life of Glad
stone" Of this administrative reform: ut
was true to say of this change that it
placed the whole educated intellect of
the country at the service and the dis
posal of the state, that it stimulated the
acquisition of knowledge and that it res
cued some of the most important duties
in the life of the nation from the narrow
class to whom they had hitherto been
confided.''
| The change, it must be admitted.
seemed at first first glance to be great
one. but it did not take men of small
or moderate income, with sons to be
started in life. long to discover that in
point of fact the change was much
smaller than it seemed. The standard Of
examination for candidates for all the
better paid and highly esteemed posts
in the civil service was set so high as to
be prohibitive to all but an extremely
| narrow social class. To have the faint
/ est chance of passing what was called
the first class civif 1t was imperative
that young man should have received
| a university education. or at least an
education quite as long and expensive as
| a university education. The door which
was really banged and bolted in the face
of all but fortunate and limited few.
1t might be true just to say that the
patronage system was scotched, to say
that it was killed would be ridiculous. At
| the present moment an enormous and an
| increasing portion of posts in the public
service are filled by patronage and not by
competition. and the tendency toward ex-
clusiveness is growing and not diminishing
| In all directions. So far as its oppor-
| tunities Of obtaining anything worth OBJ
tanning in the way Of the public service
| is concerned "the whole educated intel
| it was fifty years ago.
New Positions Created.
It must be borne in mind that each new
government creates some new public
service Of one kind or another. This is
inevitable and in the nature of things.
for the most marked political tendency Of
our time is the tendency toward WIDEN
ing the sphere Of state activity both in
national and In municipal affairs Each
new public service created naturally i'm
plies and involves new public servants,
| and each public servant draws a salary
provided out of public funds 1t is said,
and believe with truth, that since the
| liberals came into power in 1906. they
| have established new public services
COO a year. l rather fancy that close
Investigation would prove the sum to be
very much larger than that.
The next government, be 1t liberal or
| Ices. for the tendency is irresistible and
| beyond party control, and he would be
| wild prophet who should predict an END
| to the process. Very nearly all these new
| salaried officials are appointed by pa.
| tronage-are appointed not because OF
any tested capacity of theirs, but be-
cause they are the relatives or the inti-
mate acquaintances of cabinet ministers,
cabinet ministers friends, or persons
within the official ring
An instance in point is the very con-
siderable number Of salari'd officials
which was rendered necessary by the es-
Enlistment of the new labor exchanges.
Every one OF these young men owes his
appointment to his birth, and will owe
| his future promotion, not to success in a
| competitive examination. but to his hav-
| ing had the good luck to get the ear, one
way or another, of a patron or of a pa
| irons friend. They were selected to
some extent, no doubt from the educated
intellect of the country. but very GER
| tainly it was not from the whole" edu-
| Gated intellect of the country that they
| were selected. 1t would be interesting to
the sons of working men. Many appoint
ments in the postal service come under
the same criticism.
Reaction Full of Menace.
This reaction toward patronage and
consequently toward exclusion, reac-
ton full OF menace to the working classes
and to the poorer middle classes of this
country. Is making positively riotous
Roadway. One of its portentous develop
ments was brought to light only iast
week by a unionist member of the house
| Of commons, who was violently, one
might say, almost scurrilously, attacked
by the liberal minister for his pains.
Mr.. RuRciman has scarcely any words
at all in condemnation Of the circular in
question, which instructed heads of school
departments to appoint only Oxford grad
yates to the better posts, but he could
hardly find words enough or strong
enough in censure of the member who
had dragged 1t under public notice Tie
whole incident was really remarkable
case. not of political partisanship. but
of class prejudice-and of class greed.
The reaction is not difficult to explain:
1t mint easily have been foreseen and
guarded against. The privileged classes
. in this country. the classes who harbor
an inexpugnable conviction that what
ever good things in the way of salaried
posts are going are theirs by a sort Of
, divine right have always viewed with
dislike and dissnay the claim of the work
ing classes to access to their pet preserves.
Recently that dislike and dismay have
. taken shape. Passive resistance has
, given place to vigorous aggression.
The very latest move in the old game
! is the determination Of the great public
schools and a large number of the better
what are known as board school scholars
| adj I,oc