The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-10-28

the merit SyStem-1 am glad to
assure your great organization
Of my support in this effort"
These are words that could not
help but meet the approval Of
all those interested in the cause
Of good government. Now let us
look at the record Of the past
four years.
In July, 1888, in a signed ar
ticle in the American Magazine.
called Passing Out the Patron
age" the Postmaster General Of
the United States said:
"The Democrats have the
right-tO Supplant One-fifth, or
10000 Of the Federal office
hOlderS-the final decision on all
these questions naturally rests
with the President himself. am
simply his helper"
Then the Postmaster General
continued:
"The patronage is a reward
to those who have worked for
party victory. 1t is also an as
sistance in building party ma
chinery for the next election.
/ am a trustee of something that
does not belong to me. The
patronage belongs to the Demo
cratic Party"
All Jobs Thrown Open
Those were frank words. It
is not even necessary to read be-
tween the lines to understand
them. They meant that every
job that could be made available
to party workers, was to be
made available. They meant
that every dollar of the public
money that could be used to
help the party, was to be used.
They meant that the Postmas-
ter General-Who was also
chairman of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee, and who was
also chairman of the New York
State Democratic Committee
was authorized to create a vast
army of political mercenarieS
in order to entrench the pres
ent Administration in power.
There you have the sordid,
operating plan of a President
who claims to believe in the
ideals of Civil Service-a Presi-
dent who only a month later
wrote:
"The merit system in Civil
Service is in no danger in my
hands,"
Effect Of Plan
Now let us see how this plan
was put into effect. Here are
the figures:
On March 4, 1898, there were
100000 jobs available for pat
ronage; 100000 jobs that could
be given to loyal party workers.
But apparently this was not
enough. So the personnel of the
innumerable new alphabetical
agencies created was exempted
from Civil Service requirements.
BY June 30, 1894, the patron
age list had more than doubled
it was $4,000.
A year later, it was 264, 900.
And by June 80, 1886, it was
1926, 900.
In other words, the patronage
has tripled under the President
and his Postmaster General.
This is a direct violation Of the
Presidents promises. This is not
good government.
Now I know there has been
patronage under all admin
istrationS. No party has a mo-
nopoly Of virtue in this respect.
But never before has distribu-
ton of patronage been organized
INTO a gigantic business con-
Quoted in Government buildings
by a Cabinet officer. And this is
not good government.
And in this case the now
threadbare excuse of emergency
does not hold water. The Presi-
cent should recall that the Will.
son administration, of which he
was a member, actually in
creased the percentage of those
under the merit system during
one Of the greatest emergencies
we ever faced-the war.
Huge Patronage Army
The army available for this
Administrators political ma
chine is twice as big as the Reg
ular Army of the United States.
1t is more than twice the patron
age that any President has ever
had in this country.
The increase in the Federal
pay roll as a result of this po-
litical army is more than 500
million dollars a year.
Yet, with all the expansion of
patronage jobs, what happened