Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-10-27
REMNANT Of SPO|LS
SYSTEM IS FELT HERE
Limit on Washington Employees in
Government Proves to Be
Hardship.

| One of the results Of the acute de-
| the mischief of that remnant of the Old
spoils system, the superintendent of
| clerks among the states. When the
clerical force was established on a civil
service basis Congress still insisted that
| the needs Of the government for help
+! should be supplied IN proportion to
| population. Is membeys OF Congress are
elected. This scheme, while it gave
members of Congress no actual control
| over the selection of applicants for civil
! Service positions. nevertheless retained
enough OF the element of spoilsmanship
/ to make 1t attractive to many pol!ti-
clans In Congress who hitherto had
| been elected on promises to take care
| of their friends. 1t is possible. although
! it may not be historical fact. that the
| civil service laws could not have been
enacted had not this concession Of clerI-
| cal appor tionInent among the states been
made. However this may be. it still
! exists in the law and has handicapped
! the government tremendously in equip
| ping its offices with competent workers,
| Notwithstanding n little loophole In the
| law which permits an overriding OF the
! apportionment in emergencies.
| Washington People Suffer.
| Tho people OF Washington have been
! made to suffer beyond all reason By
the restriction which provides that only
limited number OF Washing onians
may be employed IN the government
| service. Washington IS essentially a po-
| lltical city and presumably the country
desires that this should be SO. Neither
! Congress nor much public sentiment in
Washington has encouraged the coming
! here of manufacture, and the private
business of Washington is confined al
most exclusively to mercantile estab-
/ lishments ad such idustries. like brew
! ing baking and repair shops. as Gator
| to the individual needs of the citizens
| The result has been that the young
| people brought up In this city have
| been unable to enter the commercial
| field and have been compelled to rely
| almost exclusively upon retail estab-
| .!shments. real estate concerns and the
| government service for employment
| Difficult to Find Work.
1t has been extremely difficult for the
simon-pure Washingtonian to find en-
| ployment for his sons and daughters
| and many of them of necessity have
struck out for other cities in which to
f, make their living. But naturally.
Washington, like all other communi-
! ties. has been turning out stenogra-
| pliers by the hundred. yet under re-
! strct!ons of the civil service law gov
| erning apportionment only a limited
/ number OF them could find work in the
| various departments.
The washington Star. very able and
| influential newspaper. has begun a
| campaign for the correction of this
ut and
, fact. demands the abolition of the
! whole appnrtionmeut system. on the
| ground that II is a relic of the days OF
| political graft which should be de-
X. stroye1. Now is the time more than
| ever to root out the whole despicabie
system and to leave the government
| free to send out not only into the DIS
trict of Columbia, but into PennsylVa-
| mia. New York. New Jersey, Massachu-
sets and. in fact, into all-the highly
| developed adjacent industrial coinnu-
| mites. for the skilled workers whose
services are greatly needed in the
emergency of war