Evening star., 1933-04-30

service jobs at that end Of Pennsyl-
vania avenue.
or take the lower ranks OF Govern
ment employees, In Alaska, for exam
pie, where there are 400 unclassified
positions. One salary, that Of the senior
administrative oflcer Of the Bureau Of
Biological Survey, is $5,400. Very few
of the salaries are as high as $4,000;
some are as low as $54o The larger pro-
portion Of the jobs are as teachers in
Indian schools. They also include ply
sicians, nurses, game wardens, deputy
marshals, deputy collectors. United
States attorneys. clerks, stenographers,
engineers-all the small army OF peo-
pie, many Of them experts in their own
line, who are necessary to run a great
territory. II they are of any use in
their jobs what have these people to do
with politics? Imagine teacher in an
Indian school, loved by her children.
doing a great piece Of work In helping
and uplifting her students. There
comes a change Of administration In
far-away Washington and the teacher
has to 60 because she Is not DEM
ocrat. or a Republican, as the case
may be. It is not playing fair with the
/ Indians; 1t is not playing fair with
the taxpayers who support the teacher.
Look for a moment at the admins
tration OF justice throughout the
United States. When the Department
of Justice appeared before the Budget
Committee Of the House of Representa-
tives q Congressman noted that the
appropriation for Federal judges was
reduced by 25 per cent for the next
fiscal year. He asked why this was.
whether there were fewer cases to be
heard The answer was that 1t always
had been useless in the year OF a
change Of administration from one po-
litical party to another to ask for the
full number of judges because It takes
the new, politically appointed district
attorneys q year to learn their jobs
With cases crowding the docket. with
court calendars getting more and more
in arrears, with the sad truth, facing
us that delays In the administration
Of Justice are an announcement to
crime, we are still willing to slow up
what machinery We have to enable
more or less unframed young lawyers
to learn to be district attorneys+this
because they happened to guess right
on the political complexion of the next
administration.
Sought Port Position.
A woman was talking the other day
to one Of the Civil Service Commission.
She had civil service rating as a ste
nographer-not even a first-class ste
nographer. She had looked through
the list Of positions not protected by
civil service and had decided that she
wanted to be collector of one Of our
important ports. She was in no way
qualified. but this did not matter. She
had worked for the party and had the
backing Of her two Senators. She had
resigned her position and come to
Washington from the West to push her
case. In all probability the person she
succeeded got the position with as
little real reason four or. eight or IL
years ago and may well be no loss. But
what business in the world except the
business Of Government would choose
its important officials in such manner?
In every other line Of work q man or
a woman Is not only promoted for efd-
cheney in the lower ranks, but, showing
suf1cient aptitude and intelligence, goes
on to the top. There can be no doubt
that this inability to 60 ahead beyond
q certain point slows down the tempo.
If brilliant work means the eventual
loss Of the job, there is. not much in
centive to rise above mediocrity.
Not long ago was discussing the