Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-02
A NATIONAL DELUSION
Continued from page 4

and Senators and lining up the political
influences "back home" in strenuous efforts
to land jobs, there are few indeed who will
get piece of the payroll. There are now
under the civil service a total of 262, COS
officers and employees who, by the terms of
be discharged or forced to resign except for
inefficiency. OF course the President has
the right to set aside the civil service regu-
lations wherever he sees fit and to extend
the power of his patronage; but this has not
been done to any marked extent since the
Inauguration of President Mckinley, and
Woodrow Wilson is credited with the pur
pose of not disturbing civil service en-
ployees.
THE so-called presidential patronage in
Washington and throughout the coun-
try is greatly restricted When Mr.. Wilson
assumes office, he will have the privilege of
appointing to office LOSS people in the city
of Washington, and outside of Washington
9,OO6, making total of 1O,O64 presidential
appointees. The highest salaried position
in the gift of the President is a position as
foreign ambassador, which pays $17 500 and
entails such a tremendous expense for en-
pertaining in diplomatic circles that the only
man who can take it has to regard his salary
as pin money for his wife. Forty-six foreign
Diplomatic appointments at his disposal
range from $1,000 to ST., 800. The mem
bers of his Cabinet draw salaries of $4,000
a year.
But the great bulk of presidential ap-
pointments is taken up by postmasters,
district attorneys, United States marshals,
customs officials, and federal judges. Prac
ticallv all these selections are made on the
recommendation of and with the advice of
the Representatives and Senators from the
districts and states concerned. COnSe-
uuently, anybody who wants place to work
for the government must look almost uni
versally to the political leaders in his COM
munity.
1t is impossible to estimate accurately
how many applications have gone to Wash
ington since election day. In the first four
teen days following the election Senator
Pomerene of Ohio received more than one
thousand. Another Senator had his letters
of application handled in bushcl baskets.
A member of the House received one letter
stating that the writer of it had been super
intendent of schools in his county for two
terms, and that therefore he felt perfectly
fitted to receive the appointment to the
court of St. James. This ambitious person
was informed that he would doubtless be a
credit to the diplomatic service, but that he
would find the post he sought too expensive
for his purse.
At any time of year the pressure for pub
lie place in Washington is tremendous, in
conceivable to those people who do not live
in the capital. But the incoming admins
tration finds the pressure unusually severe,
because the Democrats are taking control
of public affairs after a sixtcen-year tenure
by the Republicans. On every hand among
the Democrats there is this thought, "Our
party is in at last, and we deserve the spoils.
All of us ought to get jobs of one kind or
another And this feeling is so widespread
because, in a way that it is impossible to ex-
plain, the public has fixed in its mind the
conviction that government job is soft
thing.
But Jobs in a city where prices are kept
up by millionaire colony and in a country
where the cost of living is unusually high,
can never be soft if they are underpaid and
offer little or no opportunities for careers.
AS Mr. Nage1 intimates, there is one sort of
man who will find the government payroll
exactly to his liking. That is the unambi-
tious, unimaginative, and lazy man. There
are Washington jobs you can hold if you
have a calloused conscience and want to do
just enough work to keep yourself from be-
ing fired.