The Washington herald., 1914-01-14
SPOILS SYSTEM
DEMANDS ACTION
Up to MIR. Wilson to Declare
Himself For or Against
Merit Principle.
DANGER OF EARLY RAIDS
President Reported Ready to Support
Civil Service by Serving Notice
on Congressmen.
BY JOSEPH p. AMIN.

President Wilson, through the ill-ad-
vised but not unexpected action Of the
House Committee on Postofices and
Postroads, is confronted with the neceJ-
sity of declaring himself for or against
the bona fide practice of the civil serv-
ice principle
While the President has taken occa.
sion to assure the country of his ardent
support CT the practice and principle
he has not yet taken step which
would seem to promise practical opposi-
tion against future raids from within
his own party.
Ready to Prove Himself Friend.
Now, it is. authoritatively reported, the
President Is ready to prove himself a
friend indeed of the civil service by
notifying Congressional leaders that he
will not sign bills seeking to resuscitate
the dying spoils system of appoint
ments.
Unless President Wilson steps to the
front and serves notice upon his South
ern friends in Congress, that he will
Permit no further civil service raids, be.
fcre many weeks the time will have
gone by when such a stand will be OF
any use. If the provision i'm the post
Office appropriation hill. reported out
Monday, for exempting from civil serv.
Ice protection of assistant postmasters
becomes law, the breach in the civil!
service barriers will be too wide to DC
closed except by a revuls:on OF party
feeling.
AS the feeling of the Democrats in
Congress now indicates. only the early
and firm resistance of President Wilson
can prevent a return OF the spoils sys-
tenn. Already, under the action of the
Democrats. the civil service system has
received in the last nine months harder
blows than it had met since 1883 The
first and only legislative backward step
taken in that time was in the form of a
bill which the President signed. after
ward giving out a carefully worded ex-
PLANTATION of his action, This was the ur-
gent deficiency bill. which contained
clause eXempting from civil service re-
Guirements deputy United States mar
shals and deputy collectors Of internal
revenue.
Hungry Democrats Lcnicnt.
The tremendous pressure which the
civil service system has been forced to
bear from the horde of hungry Democrats
must not be underestimated, nor is-there
any doubt but that more serious raids
would have been accomplished except for
the tacit understanding that President
Wilson would not sanction anything in
the form of general or blanket repu-
citation of the civil service principle
Moreover, 1t is pretty thoroughly under
stood that the civil service issue. when
compared with that of the tariff, cur
rency, trusts, and other national issues
calling for constructive legislation, is not
a burning question, and that the >Presi-
dent, in Justice to the country and his
party. could not wantonly ALLEVIATE his
party's friendship because of tentative
forays on civil service preserves at a
time when he needed that party support
TO secure the enactment of these and
other important pieces of legislation.
Because of these really important con-
siderations, President Wilson's refusal to
dare much for the civil service principle
has been leniently regarded by friends
of the efficiency and merit system up
to this time. But with the promise of
a second and most serious attempt to
legislate a partial repeal Of the-civil
service law of 1886. friends of the civi!
service here and throughout the coun.
try will demand firmer stand from the
President than he has been called upon
to take so far.
Public Printer Makes Statement.
Reports of serious partisan preferment
in promotions and demotions at the Gov
ernment Printing Office under the admin
istration of the new Public Printer Cor
nelius Ford, OF New Jersey, have never
been satisfactorily answered. A recent
publication indicated that wholesale de-
motions, almost exclusively among Re
publicans, have been followed by a cor
respondingly consistent promotion of
Democrats. In view Of these undenied
charges, the following published state
ment is illuminating:
Public Printer Ford last night said
that he deplored the suggestion that
politics was being played. He reiterated,
however, his statement of last June. that
in the matter of changes to raise the
printing office to a higher standard Of
efficiency Democrats would be given the
preference"
A. these incidents have had a cumuia-
tive force which have taken form in {:
demand that President Wilson do what
ever is necessary to prevent the enact
ment of the spoils system rider to the
postoffice appropriation bill. The demand
carries with it the hope that President
Wilson will make his attitude so plainly
understood that further attempts to tear
down the merit system in the government
service will be discouraged before they
reach the calendars of the two Houses
Of Congress.