Show OFFICE SEEKING IN WASHINGTON NonParti Competitive Examinations Exami-nations To Brlnl About Political Po-litical Eof orm An editorial in the August Century with the above title after alluding to the spectacle of officeseeking presented in Washington continues UNo mater how high the purpose which may be conceded as animating the President and his advisers ad-visers no matter how sincere their determination mater termination may be to choose only fit men for office and to give the country an honest enconomical and businesslike administration ad-ministration the system under which they arc compelled to act is in its essence in its methods and results the old hateful hate-ful condemned system of spoils Their aims are thwarted by the methods of selection I se-lection imposed upon them As a rational I practical businesslike means of selecting select-ing our public servants the present system sys-tem has utterly broken down To quote Jeffersons phrase it keeps in constant excitement all the hungry cormorants for office it demoralizes the public service j and aside from all considerations of principle j I prin-ciple it imposes on the President and the other appointing officers a task whose i I proper performance is beyond human I capacity I is a task too which has j never been attempted before I is I twentyfour years since there was a I change in the party controlling the executive ex-ecutive branch of the government In that time the public service has grown I fivefold in numbers and twentyfold in intricacy and importance Methods of appointment which were merely annoying and difficult a quarter of a century ago are quite impracticable now Happily the civil service law and regulations regu-lations by providing a just and inflexible inflex-ible method of selection have taken a large part of the subordinate places out of the operations of this wretched system sys-tem The holders of these places so long as they are honest and efficient are permitted t go on with their daily duties undisturbed by the scramble of tie office seekers There is no incentive to get them out by cookedup charges or partisan par-tisan pressure for access to their places j can be gained only through the gateway of impartial competitive examinations I At the same time the power of removal < is not restricted and the civilservice rules furnish no protection to a dishonest or inefficient clerk Such vacancies as occur are filled in a quiet orderly way through the Civil Service Commission or if not required to be filled remain vacant and the salaries are saved to the people peo-ple In the treasury alone more than sixty vacancies occurring under the present Administration remain unfilled and more are likely to be added to them before the force of the department is brought down to a working basis But for the civiservice rules these places would have been instantly fled with eager partisans and every pretext which selfinterest or partisanship could invent to make more vacancies would have been made use of Indeed it is impossible to picture how greatly the outside pressure i and the inside demoralization would I have been multiplied had the places now I protected by the civilservice act been thrown into the pool for whose prizes the placehunters are struggling The obvious remedy is to extend the system of impartial selection to all places except those by which the policy of the Administration is shaped But before this can be done there must be rooted out of the public mind the notion that any public place can properly be bestowed as the reward of partisan service The I great administrative offices must be filled by adherents of the dominant party not to reward them for their services to the party but that the mil of the majority of I the people as expressed at the polls maybe may-be executed But in any broad public i I view it is a matter of utter indifference I whether the men who fill the minor I ministerial clerical and laboring places belong t one party or the other There I is no difference in principle between the services required of civil officers and those performed by officers of the army and navy All that is required in either case is honesty capacity and trained obedience obedi-ence to the Constitution the laws and the lawful orders of their superiors The Jeffersonian test covers the whole ground Is he honest is he capable is he faithful to the Constitution The chief obstacle to the extension of the merit system is the fact that for twen tyfour years the public offices have been monopolized by one political party I was to be expected that the opposition party on coming into power should wish lart1 at least a part of those places with fl its own adherents But it is plain that some check must be placed on the gratification I fication of this wish if we are to get any efficient work in the line of retrenchment I and reform out of the present Administration i Adminis-tration After the division of the public offices between the two parties had been in some degree equalized there will be the best opportunity that has ever occurred oc-curred of putting the whole public serVIce from high to low the few great administrative adminis-trative offices alone excepted on a permanent per-manent nonpartisan footing To accomplish accom-plish this the lower grade in every branch of the service must be thrown open to impartial im-partial but searching competitive examinations examin-ations and all of the higher places up to the very top must be filled by the pro I motion meritorious subordinate This is the natural logical and as we believe I I inevitable outcome of the civilservice reform re-form movement Whether this goal can be reached in one administration remains to be seen j but when it is reached one of the greatest political revolutions that t this country has ever seen will have been accomplished Our elections will then acomplshed j no longer be mere scrambles for the i I spoils of office but what our theory ot spois ofce j i government intends they shall he pure j contests of principle |