Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-09
Save the Merit Principle.

cave tuC NACAAG
In the House Yesterday Chairman Bur
Lesson Of the committee appropriations
undertook 10 Justify the paragraph in the
legislative bill conference report which
fixes the departmental clerks tenure at
seven years. and in the course OF his re
marks quoted from ''one of the leading
evening papers of Washington to Illus
trate what he styled the misrepresenta-
tion which had been locally given TO the
proposition. Pressed to name the news
paper Nj. Burleson said he did not care
to particularize The Star has no COM
FUNCTIONS in the premises and cheerfully
acknowledges that the quotations read
were from its own columns. Moreover.
it repeats now that which Mr.. Burleson
cited and denied. namely. that it will be
the effect OF the seven-year tenure law
that at the end of that period all clerks
in office at the time of the enactment. I'M
less meanwhile they shall have died. re-
signed or been dismissed will be subject
TO REORGANIZATION. in competition with
those fresh from schools and more capa-
BILE of meeting the academic tests of the
civil service: or else dependent for re-
appointment upon the favor OF their
chiefs themselves subject to political
pressure and personal influence. And
The Star repeats, also. its assertion that
This seven-year tenure plan will work out
as resumption OF the spols system,
with the public places used as patronage.
regardless of the merit principle.
The sole justification for the seven-year
plan which Chairman Burleson under
takes TO advance is that the departmental
service is congested with old and inefh-
cient clerks. 1t is to relieve this conges-
ton that a system Of periodical removals
is projected. The only alternative the
chairman declared in effect is to pass
civil retirement law. whereby the govern
ment may place these elder employees on
q pension-whether supported by public
funds exclusively or by the compulsory
contributions Of clerks. or q combination
of the two He declares in the most en-
phatic manner that no such civil retire
ment measure can pass. Not fifty men
on the floor of the House would vote for
it, he asserts. BE that as 1t may. here Is
the dilemma, as the chairman Of the APP
propriations committee sees it. to submit
to the continued congestion of the elderly
and therefore inefficient clerks In the de-
partments. or to subject them all period
ically to the test Of denomination, or
reappointment upon their records. in
either case clearing out the incompe-
tent.
II that is an actual predicament, and
not a mere subterfuge conjectured for
the purpose of justifying an action which
does not square with the principles Of
civil service reform. it Is. indeed. sorry
plight for Uncle Sam. He must put up
with poor service because he is tender
hearted, or he must be businesslike and
has
deserving but inefficient elders for the
good of the service. Putting aside as for
the present hopeless the possibility Of
fair and humane and businesslike system
of retirements such as many of the most
enlightened corporations of the day are
adopting for their employees. let it be
conceded that some method is needed to
weed out the incompetents. Who are
they? How are they to be determined?
The provision now written into the ap
preparation bill puts the test to them in
the form of a septennial examination-in
competition, The Star insists. with fresh
students better able to pass the academic
requirements than the experienced. prac-
tically trained clerks-or Of executive dis
elimination. supposedly based upon their
records.
Right here is the point OF disagreement
between advocates of the seven-year plan
and its opponents. The former insist that
the highest concepts OF civil service re-
form can be maintained under this sys-
tenn of executive reappointments without
examination. The latter aver that ex-
ecutive reappointnent is almost certain
to be based upon influence and favorit
ism. To test the future the only possible
method is to look 10 the past. How was
the department service treated i'm the old
days before the civil service law was
PASSED? Were clerks retained strictly
upon their merits? We're appointments
made solely with reference to the good of
the service and without regard for parti
san fortunes: IL Chairman Burleson and
the others who urge this departure from
the principe that has governed public
service appointments SO successfully dur
ing the pas; thirty years and more can
guarantee that department executives
Will be subjected TO no pressure for rat
r"nacc. and that clerks will no; seek and
obtain influence for disappointment. and
that all reappointmeuts will be made
s.rictly ard sCrupulous'y upon merit
alone, in short. il they can guarantee
that official human nature will be altru-
istic and unseliish. and strong for the
right and immune from the political
forces. then il will be granted that this
proposed mode is perhaps better. from
the viewpoint OF the government business
alone than retention OF cierxs who have
been worn out in the public service ana
the consequent congestion of the depart
ments.
So little confidence. however. is felt in
such a condition in the years TO come
that merit will be invariably the test of
reappOintment and retention under the
fixed tenure plan. that those who fear
return to the spoi.s system look now to
the President for the veto of this danger
GUS measure.
Some of the country's legislators are
too busy fighting steam rollers to think