Evening star., 1938-10-16

In a recent speech former President
Hoover does a lot of mourning and
bemoaning over his successors
placing large number of Govern
ment employees under civil service.
The Pejo attitude in regard to this is
that it is intended merely to per-
petuate Democrats in office. To use
the language Of Senator Vandenberg.
it was political coup d'etat in the
name Of civil service" and the Rams
peck bill providing civil service re-
form could more accurately be termed
. bill to provide easy chairs for life
for deserving Democrats"
Now. if the policy of extending civil
service, which is so strenuously voiced
by Senator Vandenberg. by Mr.. Hoover
and by all the other candidates for
the Republican presidential nomination
in 1910 means anything, they should
applaud rather than deprecate the
present moves in that direction. OBJ
viously, the change in the civil serv-
ice laws must be made under some ad-
ministration, either Democratic or Re-
publican. Obviously. under either Of
these administrations the jobholders
will be more numerously members OF
the party in power than of the party
out of power So how is the reform
to be instituted without temporarily
at least. favoring one side OF the other?
Well, Of Course. 1t Was Different Then.
Mr.. Hoover had four years in which
to effect the changes he now advocates
so ardently. He didn't do anything
much about the civil service until
after the portents of the presidential
election of 1892 told him that his own
term of Office would terminate on
March 4 of the next year. He did in
1882 cover into civil service all the
posts in the Bureau Of Foreign and
Domestic Commerce, which had been
exempt from competitive examination.
Three or four hundred deserving Re
publicans. the salaries running up as
high as $500 year. were thus taken
care of. Just month before he re-
linquished his once President Hoover
discovered that large number Of
people in the Department OF Justice.
running from laborers and messengers
up to examiners and other high posts,
had not been subject to competitive
examination, and he thereupon issued
an executive order putting all Of them
into civil service For eight years
previous to this time the Civil Service
Commission was asking persistently
for the changes. During all his term
as Secretary of Commerce he had been
oblivious to the pleas from the Civil
Service Commission as to his own sub
ordinates in his department He only
realized how necessary to the cause Of
good government this was when Demo-
cratic succession to control of the Gov
ernment was imminent.
Another of the incidents Of the
Roosevelt administration that horrifies
the ex-President is that Messrs. Harry
Hopkins and Aubrey Williams direct
ing w. p A. activities mentioned that
they agreed with the President in
regard to certain Democratic candi-
dacies. Now. Just wonder if any
Of the offceholders under President
Hoover ever expressed agreement with
their chiefs political opinions. 1t
seems to me that Postmaster General
Brown, Secretary of Agriculture Hyde,
Secretary of War Hurley and unnum-
bered others of the Hoover regime,
not only participated actively in poll
tics, but were conspicuous figures in
the Republican National Convention
Of 1882 that renominated Herbert
Hoover for the presidency.
Big Republican Money Is o. X.
One more source of distress to the
ex-President is that some corpora ton
officials aided the Democratic Ma
tional Committee in discharging its
campaign debts. According to the
report filed with Congress there was
expended for the campaign of Mr..
Hoover in 1932-when nearly every
body was broke-more than two million
dollars. Does anybody believe this
amount. or any considerable part of it,
was given by people out of work or by
those who had to save every penny
possible during the bitter days Of the
Hoover panic?
In 1886. after Roosevelt had brought
most OF big business back to 4 divi-
dend paying basis, money was easier
to get and the Republicans spent more
than eight million dollars in the futile
effort to defeat Roosevelt's reelection.
This was 100000 more than the
Democrats spent. I suppose We are
expected to believe that eight million
came from folks on the relief rolls. It
may be recalled that practically the
whole Of the Republican campaign
fund in Maine was contributed by
half dozen Liberty Leaguers of the
highest financial rank.
No doubt money furnished by Mr..
Hoover's party is hallowed coin, like
what goes into the contribution box
at church, the money from any source
supplied to the Democrats bears the
mark of Satan. The ex-President.
who obviously would like to eliminate
the "ex." is strong wod morality these
days. In answer to the rather plaintive
appeal that the Republican spokesmen
should be specific in their objections
to the Roosevelt policies, or, to put
it more bluntly, state which OF the
New Deal enactments they would re-
peal he replied:
That morals should be re-established
as the first objectives Of government.
That every governmental sppointee
during the last six years be required
to take merit examinations open to
any competitor. Six years, you notice,
not 10, which would embrace those
appointed by Mr.. Hoover.
In conclusion" said Mr.. Hoover,
may say again that the fountains
OF justice alone spring from truth
and honesty"
To this pronouncement, in which
every decent person must join, he
added: There Is . moral purpose
in the universe"
Whois there so base in understand