Evening star., 1941-01-17
Pioneer Days Of
Civil Service
Theodore Roosevelt's Fight
Against Patronage
Shown in Files
Bu J. A. For.


Federal Government are recalled by let
ters of Theodore Roosevelt, one of the
early members of the Civil Service
Commission, which recently have been
collected from old files by the present
commission as part of permanent ex-
| hibit of civil service incunabula.
Covering the six years the energetic
ct RI spent on the COMMISSIONS 1T
| tie publicized period of his career-the
correspondence has timely interest just
| now when the 58th anniversary OF the
enactment of the Pendleton Civil Service
Act is being observed.
A noteworthy fact disclosed by the
letters is that the hair shirts OF half
| century ago were the same as those OF
| today, hostile politicians, sometimes
| critical press, public indifference and
charges of discrimination from disap-
! pointed job-seekers, to name few. With
customary vigor, however, the youth
full commissioner met every issue head
on, making his presence felt so effectively
that one journalistic opponent paid the
rather dubious compliment of referring
to the infant commission as "the Roose-
velt commission of farce and fraud"
Despite the handicaps under which
the merit system operated, however,
| Commissioner Roosevelt had no fear as
to the eventual outcome.
.I feel there is no doubt as to the fu-
ture of the cause" he wrote President
| Cleveland when resigning in 1895 to be-
come police commissioner in reform
administration in New York City. In
less than a decade, he was laborlng In
the White House to make this prophecy
| come true.
The 3o-year-old Roosevelt was ap-
pointed to the commission in 1889 by
President Benjamin Harrison on the
| strength of a speech he made at
civil service reform meeting in Baltl-
more. The administration had just
| changed and civil service or not, Re-
publican partisans appear to have been
calling for house-cleaning, thereby
following a precedent set four years
earlier when the Democrats came into
power a short while after the civil
service law was signed by President
Arthur.
At that juncture, the new commits
sioner stepped in.
"Oficers cannot be held responsible
| for having made a clean sweep in the
| past before any policy in the matter of
wholesale removals was formulated" he
| told his associates on the commission IN
a formal communication, but certainly
in all cases that hereafter may happen
it ought to be distinctly understood that
sweeping and wholesale removals should
afford cause for demanding full ex-
PLANTATION of the reasons why they were
made. And unless such explanation can
be given fully and in detail the presump-
ton should be that the removals were
made for political reasons and were
therefore contrary to the law"
The other members of the commission
seem to have joined in this view, for
six months later, he invited House
| Committee on Civil Service Reform to
inspect the work of the commission and
see 1.-The safeguards we employ to pre-
vent fraud, or favoritism or the like
I'VE are just completing number of
Investigations into the observance of the
civil service law in the departments at
Washington and in various local Offices
and customs houses during the past year,
and, to a certain extent, during the
terms of the preceding incumbents," Mr..
Roosevelt continued.
In the departmental service at Wash
ington, aside from a small special divi-
sion of the Pension Bureau, the law is
working satisfactorily, and is being, and
has been for the last half dozen years,
observed with substantial integrity.
On the other hand, in the local offices,
there exists the widest variety in its
observance, and in only few is it as
well observed as at Washington. We do
our best to prevent any evasion or viola
ton of the law at the local Offices, but
it is wholly impossible under present
circumstances to make matters in these
offices as they should be-"
One of the serious drawbacks to prop
er administration, he pointed out, was
the arrangement under which the COM
mission was forced to depend on an
examining force made up of workers
detailed from other agencies, and some
of the departments are unable to give
us the proper details"
1--WE should be given force of 10
examiners, whose salaries should aver
age at least 81 500, and these should be
given to us outright" he added.
Today, the commission has an ex-
amining force of nearly 300 persons
In Washington alone, and another large
field force. The salary range is up
to $500.
While much of the Roosevelt cor
respondence consists of exchanges with
other officials, it includes letters indi-
eating that he was exceedingly careful
to acknowledge communications from
private citizens, particularly if they in
volved complaints. Invariably the rea-
sons actuating questioned commission
actions were set out in detail
The contention, oftimes advanced now
that civil service examinations deal too
much with theory, already was rising
to plague the commission in Roosevelt's
time, as is evidenced by letter to Con-
necticut correspondent, with whom he
compared the operation of the British
and American civil service systems. Com
menting that British examinations were
so much more difficult and scholastic
than ours for postmen and sorters," the