The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-09-01
MERIT SYSTEM
IN PRISON RULE
TERMED VITAL
Indiana Must Danish All
Politics. Says Head of
Civil Service Unit.
Continued From Page One

comes a protecting cloak for the
politicians.
The abuses that creep into an
enforcement agency that is not
maintained under the civil service
merit system is best illustrated BY
what happened with the prohibition
enforcement unit when % first was
created
appointments were permitted
without civil service restrictions.
Immediately the politicians got
their henchmen in and u wasn't
long before the unit was filed with
many sCoundrels. crooks and
cheaters.
Because Of the scandals that re-
suited from this system Of spells
appointments. congress was forced
10 throw out all OF the prohibition
agents and require their positions
10 be filed on a basis Of strict COM
petitive civil service tests.
Mentions New York Success
Both Major Doran and Seymour
AalH aAAaAar ASSISTANT Il Nllel-Aa aNAAH-
tary. have attested to the i'm
provement that resulted in the pro-
hibifion enforcement unit through
selection of trained. competent en-
forcemeut officers. selected through
the machinery OF the civil service
commission.
Appointments TO most OF the pO-
lice forces throughout the country
are on a merit basis. The success
OF the New York state police force
and Of New York City's excellent
police department is based almost
entirely on the sound method of Sc
lection Of members Of the forces
after civil service tests
ID. Worth Clark. assistant attOr-
ney-general. at the Idaho Peace
Officers Association convention IN
June. 1894. strongly advocated the
civil service system as essential in
the selection Of a state police force.
To intrust 10 unframed nOvices
and politicians merely in quest Of
Job the administration and manage
ment Of penal institutions, which
positions require character. educa-
ton and experience. and a proper
social viewpoint, is TO invite disas-
ter.
Fundamental in Program
Reorganization OF our penal sys-
TEN and construction of up-tO-date
jails and correctional institutions is
but a small part OF any constructive
program.
The most important element is
the personnel that must man these
institutions. How well managed and
impartially administered these insti-
tutiOns viii be VIII depend on the
training and fitness of the person.
mel That IS why the merit system
is so fundamental in any construc-
tive program.
What happens when employees of
a penal institution are appointed
without the merit system is best
illustrated by the experience in the
Eastern penItentiary. Lewisburg. Pa.
When a new warden was appointed
in 1926 he found "A majority of the
guards we're men who had been
given positions for some political
work that they had done. or who
could not be employed elsewhere,
and a large proportion of them we're
corrupt" There were 10 guards in
that institution when he took charge
and in two months I had to dis
charge ninety-five Of them" he said.
That has been the experience of
most of the penal institutions
throughout the country where ap-
pOintmentS have been permitted
without civil service requirements.
McAneny Is President
The state of Indiana never can
hope TO divorce its state police force
or its penal institutions from the
baneful influence of politics unless
IL insists upon the strict application
Of the merit system to those agen-
cies."
President of the National Civil
Service League IS George H. Nc
Aneny. former controller of New
York City. and long prominent in
civil service reform there. Ogden II.
Hammond is treasurer.
The ce-preSidentS include James
r. Angel. Yale university preSi-
dent: Sir Robert L. Borden. William
Cabell Bruce. Robert Catherwood.
fO.mer President Charles G..
Dawes. William Dudley Foulke. Will
liam Browne Hale. Ogden II. HAM
mond. A. Lawrence Lowell, preSi-
dent emeritus Of Harvard univer-
Sity Franklin MacVeagh. Nelson S.
Speurer Russell Whitman Mr.