Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-01-22
THE civil SERVICE VICTORY.


THE civil SERVICE VICTORY.
The date OF the vote by which the
House of Representatives has sustain.
cd Mr.. Taft's order placing 5000
fourth-class pOstmasters in the caIssi.
fed service makes that victory Dartic.
ularly significant. Thirty years ago,
says the st. Louis Globe-Democrat, the
civil service law was enacted. Pres
idents Grant, Hayes, Garfield Gin his
%inausural) and Arthur urged Congress
to make the tenure of the minor an.
pofntive federal offices independent of
partisan changes in the White House,
and a bill was passed on March 3,
1871, under which Grant appointed a
commission to ascertain and act on
the fitness of candidates for aopoint.
i've posts. The politicians of both par.
ties, however, were against it, and in
1874 congress refused to make further
appropriations for it. The assassina-
ton of Garfield in 1881 by a disap-
pointed. office seeker aroused a public
sentiment in favor Of the eradication
of the spoils system, which congress
dared no longer resist, and the pres.
ent civil service law, giving the pres.
ident power to place certain officers
on the merit roll, was signed by Arthur
on January 16, 1883.
1t is often said that this act was a
democratic measure, but the only. ba-
sis for the claim is that it was report.
ed to the senate by George H. Pendle.
ton, an Ohio democrat. 1t was passed,
however, by a congress republican in
both branches, and signed by a repub-
lean president. 1t went through the
senate by a vote of 50 (23 republicans,
II democrats and l independently to 5
Gall democrats), and the house passed
1t by a poll of 155 Q01 republicans, 40
democrats and 5 independently. I'm
der the operations OF thiEi law the
number of federal appointive Offices
which have been taken out Of the
reach OF the favor or disfavOr of the
politicians has steadily increased un-
der successive presidents. The officers
under it are chosen by competitive ex-
aminations, regardless of their politics
and can be removed only for cause.
This is the order in which the presi-
dents have added to the merit roll:
Mckinley, Harrison, Arthur Gin two
years. and Taft, McKinley's additions
to the list being a little over 800 and
Taft's $4,000. .,
Partisan politics of a particularly
obnoxious brand was shown by the
democrats of the house in attempting
to nullify the presidents order under
which the ~fourth-class postmasters
were placed on the merit list. Taft
issued this order in October, three
weeks before the election, but he had
it in mind for more than a year prior
to that date. When he issued the or
der he did not know what the result
of the election would be. 1t was his
intention, had he carried the country,
to have asked congress to broaden the
scope of the act so that he could put
in the classified service many offices
not covered by that law. The civil
service act Of 1888 was one of the most
beneficent pieces of legislation ever
placed on the national statute book. It
was the result Of a crusade started by
Thomas l.. Jenckes, a Rhode Island
congressman, in 1867, supported later
on by Grant and the other presidents
along to and including Arthur, and by
pub%lic-spirited men in private life,
among them being Dorman B. Eaton,
George William Curtis, i. L. Godkin,
and Horace White. It has taken four
fifths of the federal posts out of the
reach of the spoilsmen, has enabled
presidents to give more time to their
legitimate duties than they could do
previously, and has improved the char
of the civil service. Even yet,
however, President Wilson will have,
in round figures. 1000 appointive
posts to fill, 10000 of which are sub
iect to approval by the senate.