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Show Russia Finds Us Not So Easy Instead of Buying They Seek a Loan; Taking a Crack at "Spoils System" By EARL GODWIN Washington. We're trying to give Russia a break; but it looks to me as lf those Soviet fellows wanted too much. This government did the fair and square and decent thing when it quit sulking and "recognized" Russia. Rus-sia. Franklin Roosevelt, in his own inimitable way, had a heart to heart talk with a Russian government official offi-cial named Lltvinoff who came over here to smooth away the difficulties; and when Lltvinoff promised that the Communists of Russia would quit trying to undermine our form of government, and would deal with us like other folks, everything was arranged ; and the United States and Russia were again on speaking terms. The Russian government sent over here as ambassador a sporty Slav named M. Troyanovsky who opened up the old Russian embassy and gave a party to which no one but the very top notch of society was Invited. If those poor Russian peasants who are paying for It could have seen the way Troyanovsky scattered high priced food and poured champagne by the barrel there might be another revolution. But that's the way to get things done in Washington ; at least M. Troyanovsky figured it was. Well, what Cordell Hull, secretary of state (who has no use for this trick type of champagne and caviar diplomacy), has been trying to do is to open a market for some of our goods, manufactures and farm stuff. He has also been trying to get Russia Rus-sia to pay something on the enormous enor-mous amount of money they borrowed bor-rowed during the war, - but every time he has asked Troyanovsky for a little bit on account, the Russian backs off and gives another party. We finally had the negotiations around to the point where we thought we had the Russians ready to buy something from us; that's what this "recognition" business was for, largely. But Troyanovsky had other Ideas; he went to the State department and told Cordell Hull that his government was not quite ready to buy anything Just yet; but would appreciate a long term credit of about a hundred million mil-lion dollars. Cordell Hull didn't even stop to talk; all he said was that If that was the best Russia could offer, It was no use carrying on any further conversations. So the Russian ambassador am-bassador left looking rather glum. To put It In our home town language: lan-guage: Uncle Sam opens a store and stocks It up with everything he has. There's a fellow in town who owes him money and is hanging back from buying anything because he doesn't know just how Uncle Sam is going to take it; but Uncle says: "Come on in and make your purchases pur-chases and pay for them, and let the old debt go until another day, just as long as you Intend to pay it eventually." So the other fellow comes into the store and says: "I don't want to buy anything, Uncle Sam, but as long as you're feeling so generous about that money I owe you, suppose sup-pose you let me have another hundred hun-dred million or so." Enough to make anyone' discouraged, discour-aged, Isn't it? CRACKING "SPOILS SYSTEM" They're beginning here in Washington Wash-ington to take another crack at what Is commonly called the "Spoils System." The administration Is putting force behind legislation to extend the civil service; to appoint to government gov-ernment jobs only persons fitted by training and education to do the work. Probably most people believe that the government today Is made up of an army of Roosevelt Democrats: but actually, out of about 600,000 men and women working for Uncle Sam, 461,000 of them got on the government gov-ernment payroll and are staying there because they were appointed without regard to politics, after having taken an examination which had something to do with their qualifications. This vast army does the work of the sustained government govern-ment activities; the post office, the patent office, the Department of Agriculture, the Labor department; the treasury, with Its wide ramifications ramifi-cations running all the way from the health to the tantalizing and Irritating Ir-ritating Income tax work ; and all i the rest I You will say that the post office j Is still In politics; and as far as the I appointment of some of the post-I post-I masters is concerned, that Is a po-j po-j lltlcal matter. But as many a congressman con-gressman will tell you, when he rec-I rec-I ommends one man as postmaster, j he makes one friend and a hundred enemies. For that reason there Is I a growing strength in congress to j put all the postmasterships under the civil service. j I don't know how many employees j were added by the New Deal's va rious emergency organizations, the Federal Emergency Relief administration, adminis-tration, the Public Works administration, adminis-tration, the Agricultural Adjustment administration and the other 50 alphabetical al-phabetical offices; but ot amounts to something like SO.OOO, and there are 50 000 applications for jobs that will never be filled, In one office alone, that of PWA Administrator Ickes. Despite the fact that the taw. creating these emergency jobs required re-quired that they be filled from civ 1 service lists, the pressure for polity ca pie was terrific and tbl. new army of workers was recruited almost al-most entirely from the ranks of Rooseveltlan Democrats. There ha never been anything quite so well organized as the job system bu It by the Democratic national committee commit-tee by James Farley, firman (and also postmaster general). . . . Faney put In command of the job-picking business an effective business man named Emll Hurja who sees to it that an applicant for a government job, outside the civil service, comes to Washington with proof that he or she voted for Roosevelt in 19.i-or 19.i-or for a Democratic congress in 1934. And when I say proof I mean PROOF it must be based on a statement from the precinct captain or local Democratic chairman that the applicant cast a. Democratic vote. Now this Is the spoils system brought to its finest degree of perfection per-fection ; and as long as the system lasts, the Hurja-Farley Idea Is 0. K. But President Roosevelt, like every other President since Cleveland, knows that real efficiency In government govern-ment Is no different from efficiency In business or on the farm the man who does the best work is the man who is really fitted for the job. Then there Is another angle to It Members of congress would welcome a 100 per cent merit system because they can't place in a government job every constituent who wants one. I remember one congressman, Sidney Mudd of Maryland, who had a serious seri-ous nervous collapse from the worries wor-ries brought on him by nearly 20,000 voters who demanded places on Uncle Sam's pay roll. Also I remember remem-ber a congressman from Indiana who rushed up to the White House roaring roar-ing for a post office job for one of his henchmen: "But this guy can't read," said the President's secretary who handled han-dled the the matter. "What's that got to do with It, he's a Republican, ain't he?" Now this fellow didn't get the job; and the congressman lost his through the machinations of his Illiterate Il-literate Job-hunting constituent. Government service should be on the highest possible plane, and year by year it's getting there. The civil service commission, created 53 years ago when the government service was at its lowest moral ebb, has been working all that time to improve im-prove the personnel of your government's gov-ernment's army of workers. That commission is just as Independent as the Supreme court; even the President can't upset its decisions nor interfere in any way with Its appointments. It is looked upon here in Washington as unapproachable and 100 per cent sincere. Some of us talked to President Roosevelt about extending the civil service to the entire government force. We learned that he favors It A TYPICAL AMERICAN This quiet fellow with the soft low voice whom we call "Jimmie" Moffet, Is the head of the Federal Housing administration, and to me he is typical of the kind of American Amer-ican who starts work at $50 a month and before he is forty years old has done things almost beyond the Imagination Imag-ination of us ordinary folks. In fact when Jimmie Moffet was only thirty years old he was given the job that was 1017 of supplying this country and Allies in the World war all the oil they needed. If he couldn't buy it he could grab It This was one of the war's colossal colos-sal jobs. England was so short of gasoline that she couldn't move her troops around on that European field of battle; France was stalled for gas, too : and those nations needed need-ed It by the fleet-load. All of us have had a hard time digging up even a gallon of gas on a dark night, when the tank ran dry; so just multiply mul-tiply difficulties like that by the demands de-mands of whole nations at war. Just to make it worse, the Germans were torpedoing tankers right and left; and despite every effort gas was not getting to Europe in anything like adequate quantities. No one would guess what Jimmie did. He dumped gasoline and oil Into the ballast tanks and false bottoms bot-toms of all the shipping, freight, war vessels and what not and let 'em all go. Some of It failed to arrive ar-rive ; but enough of it got to Europe to help win the war. Well, when a fellow has that sort of Ingenuity, he's bound to get somewhere some-where ; and after the war the Standard Stand-ard Oil company of New Jersey, parent par-ent company of them all, put him In charge of their huge fleet Jimmie found rackets, rake-offs, Inefficiency; Inefficien-cy; and changed them all for good feeling, honesty and unparalleled efficiency. And so on; this lad was Just a natural born problem solver in the higher brackets; which accounts for the fact that President Roosevelt picked him for the vast nation-wide job of stimulating house building and house repairing as an essential Item in recovery. . Western Newspaper Union. |