Evening star., 1935-01-13
PUBLIC SERVICE REPORT
URGES CAREER SYSTEM
Appointive Plan Hit as Great Evil Of
Democracy-Promotions by
Merit Advocated.
BY ] A. FOX.

n1 j, IL IOhs
</THE weakest link in American
democracy, the point at
which we fell most con-
i spicuously behind the other
self-governing peoples, is in
the appointive services. where the
great bulk of modern government Is
carried on
This conclusion is reached by the
Commission Of Inquiry on Public
Service after study to determine the
reasons why public service does not
attract greater number of competent
men and women, and to formulate a
program designed to bring about a
change.
The commission found a number of
causes for existing conditions, among
them the realization that political
spoils" figure largely in appointments.
The remedy, it counters, lies in recog-
nizing that public service is essen
TALLY career, and should be so
treated, through the adoption of prin-
ciples holding out definite promise of
reward in the way of promotion, and
thus encouraging competent persons
to embark in this field.
The commission. whose work was
financed by the Spelman fund. and
received the approval of President
Roosevelt was headed by L. D. Coff-
man, president of the University of
Minnesota. His associates were Louis
d. Brownlow, director, Public Informa-
tion Clearing House. Chicago; Ralph
Budd, president. Burlington Railroad;
Arthur L. Day. vice president, Corning
IN. " Glass Works, and Charles E.
Merriam. University of Chicago. Serv-
ing as secretary and director of re-
search was DR.. Luther Gulick of
Columbia University.
Visit Many Cities.
These investigators went to a num-
Der Of American cities-Washingto
among MISUNDERSTANDING Govern
ment officials, business men and edu-
cational leaders. London also was
visited. Their findings were supple
mented with number of monographs
on civil service practices, here and
abroad. Commissioner Leonard D.
White Of the United States Civil
Service Commission contributing one
OF these on The British Civil
Service"
Their recommendations, which have
been compiled in a report, deal with
Federal, State and local Govern
mental units.
Some have a familiar rings having
been put forward from time to time
by the Civil Service Commission. The
career idea itself was broached not
so long ago by Commissioner White
in an address in Boston. and in prin-
clple was sought to be carried out
under President Hoover by the ap-
polntment OF the Council of Personnel
Administration.
In the broader phases of the report
however, the members of the commits,
sion get of on to new-or at least.
not highly publicised-paths of per-
sonnel administration.
Ihey hold that the framework of
this advanced concept of public serv-
ice could be laid in two years. and
that much could be done toward it in
O shorter time.
The career service is proposed to be
developed in the executive arm of
Government, as differentiated from
legislative, judicial or military.
Five General Classes.
1t would fall in five general classi-
fications: Administrative work, or
general management; professional
and technical; clerical; skilled and
trades, and lastly. unskilled.
Entrance would be competitive; ad-
Vancement on merit: pay appropriate
to the service; the salaries of the top
(non-politicaD positions materially
raised, and adequate retirement pro-
visions made for each group.
Recruitment to each one OF the
career services should be articulated
with the American educational sys-
tenn and with the average age levels
of young men and women who have
reached the stage of education and
development fitting them for the
lower grades of the various services"
the report says.
This is amplified: "InaSmuch as a
Career presupposes a lifetime of
work of growing knowledge and skill,
entrance should be limited, in the
ordinary course Of events, to the low
est positions within each service and
to a young group of entrants. A
career cannot be said to exist if top
positions are generally recruited from
outside, from men who do not under
stand the work, and in such a way
as to create an effective bar to ad-
vancement from the bottom to the
top of the service ITSELF"
This system of promotion" it is
continued, is fundamental for the
of a career service; it
should therefore be the first duty of
personnel officers, and of general ad-
as we'll, to develop con-
facts between superior officers and
Subordinates, to encourage training
in the service, to maintain service
records, and to facilitate transfers,
particularly during the early stages
of a mans career, so that every en-
ploye may have a chance to advance,
so that men of special capacity may
be discovered promptly, and so that
the petrif1cation of personnel in stag
nation and forgotten places may be
prevented"
Would Guard Jobs.
It Is emphasized that employees
SHOULD be given security against dis
missal or demotion for trivial, per-
sonal, religious, racial, political or
other arbitrary or extraneous rea-
Concurrently, however, it Is
asserted that tenure of Office should
depend entirely on merit-that If
promotion is to be the reward OF
good service, demotion must logically
be the price of inefficiency.
The Commission lays particular
emphasis on the establishment OF
administrative work-that of ranking
underofficials for example as a
career service. These ordinary oper-
ations OF government are not policy
making, and consequently should be
treated as non-political factors, it
argues.
"At the present time" the report
SAYS, however, "'this essential work OF
is for the most part
placed in the hands of amateurs,
generally with no previous knowledge