Evening star., 1938-01-16


r. Alan Arthur. elevated to the Pres
/ idency by the pistol Of disap-
pointed Office seeker, signed the
Civil Service Act, with which its sponsors
hoped to break the backbone of the patron
age or spoils system in the Federal Gov-
ernment
One week ago today the Civil Service
Commission, submitting its annual report
to the President, cited the continued in
roads that are being made in the field of
employment that properly should be re-
served for merit appointments, and added:
This growing tendency to introduce
legislation in Congress exempting positions
from the civil service law is a matter of
grave public concern"
To compare the broad aims of January.
1883, with this appraisal of 1888 is not to
reflect such progress as advocates ex-
pected would flow from the admitted re-
form that civil service promises. That
single phrase quoted from the commission
report. however, points to the major Stun
bling block that has gotten in the way
the unWllllngness of too many people in
nigh places to forego any opportunity to
put constituents. friends or relatives on
the Federal payroll. Congress- in passing
laws that sacrificed principle to expedi-
ency, has been the principal offender. But
the legislators have not lacked enthusiastic
collaboration from the sdelines Except
in rare instances. statutory loopholes have
been seized upon with eagerness by those
in position to benefit
Without Parallel.
The patronage motif that has been in
tertwined in the fabric of the New Deal
with employment advancing from less than
100000 to more than 800 900, and the ratio
OF civil service personnel dropping con-
currently from 80 per cent to around go
mas been condemned, and justly so, from
every available sounding board. But while
the extent of this condition is without
parallel, there is nothing new about the
philosophy that underlies it.
Civil employment always has been con-
sldered spoils of war, from crossroads pre-
cinct to Capitol Hill, by those in position
70 proht from political victory. In the
meantime public that had the remedy
IN its hands has for the most part been
content to look on in cynical indifference,
1hat Is the reason for the situation that
exists today and that may continue.
NOR Is mass distribution OF patronage a
Democratic invention. The Republicans.
now loudly protesting minority, never
were faced with the opportunities their
opponents have enjoyed in the past five
wears Rift fho1, al,
very well with the material at hand.
When an ''emergency'' force was set up
In the Mckinley administration because of
the exigencies Of the Spanish war it was
small. but not too small to be exempt from
civil service
The decennial census of 1910 provided
another vehicle for the spoilsmen. But
Theodore Roosevelt vetoed that measure
passed late in his second term-because
1t was based on spoils and forced repassaee
OF civil service bill.
Prohibition Force Casualties.
The prohibition unit created in the
Harding administration was, patronage
organization, and when scandal forced a
Cleanup under President Coolidge only
half Of the force of 2,400 could satisfy civil
service requirements, several hundred fall
Ing to pass the character examination that
included finger-printing.
In more modern day the Reconstruct
ton Finance Corp, established under
President Hoover when the economic clouds
began to lower, was-and still is-a nom
civil service agency.
Even the original Civil Service Act,
adopted in response to the unmistakable
demand of public that was fed up on
spoils abuses, was not without its conces-
sion to patronage. Senator John j. ingalls,,
Republican. of Kansas fatnered the amend
ment to provide for State apportionment
OF offices in Washington on the basis of
population, device that is only an at
tempt to see that everybody gets share
OF available Jobs. And when the depart
ments themselves decided upon their in
itial classifications under the act they
created excepted groups which went 80 far
as to include chief clerks and the chiefs of
divisions and bureaus
The years have witnessed improvement
along this latter line, for, until the cur
rent upheaval started in 1888, the tendency
has been toward reduction Of the number
OF exemptions among such supervisory I'M
der-ohciaS. and even the present admin
stration made but few changes in the
minor commands of the old-line estab-
lishments.
Elsewhere. however. in many higher
grades, the trend has been in the opposite
direction, and in recent months the Senate
has begun to step in and demand the
right to confirm appointees in salary
brackets from $4,000 up, effectively taking
the appointive power from administrative
onicers and Handwriting those who would
guide their selections entirely on the basis
Of merit