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legislative enactment, from the actual facts, rather than an artificially created provision. The bill is by no means the first and only legislation offered; but this is no place in which to give a detailed history of the efforts of the past fourteen years.1 It will, however, be of service to examine the bill, point by point, and see what its essential features are, and wherein it marks an advance.

It consists of seven sections, and in point of brevity, conciseness, and directness, it is a noticeable improvement over the many similar bills which have preceded it. As we have already seen, the principle on which this legislation is founded is that "There can be neither patronage, nor favoritism in making appointments, promotions, or removals. Proceeding, therefore, on the abundantly ascertained principle that the preeminently fairest method of acting impartially is by a system of examinations, the bill provides such a system. (Sect. 2, part 2, rule 1.) The whole of part 2, of section 2, is devoted to prescribing the details of this plan. The remainder of section 2 relates to the organization of the commission which is to act as the medium through which "to inform the conscience of the appointing power," to use the language of the United States Attorney-General's decision of 1873. Sections 3, 4, and 5 provide for various necessary details of executing the system, and securing improved results over those of previous bills, in the extension of the system beyond the limits of the capital of the country; in making specific provision for the use of buildings in the various parts of the country for the purposes of examinations; and in making the tampering with these tests of merit a criminal offence. Section 6 provides for the necessary arrangement of the various officers in groups and graded classes, for the purpose of promotion; and here the organizing talent of Mr. James has clearly been made available. The final section, evidently the outcome

1 For references to these efforts at legislation see the writer's pamphlet, entitleď "The literature of civil service reform in the United States," p. 9-12.

2 The 1st section establishes the "Civil-service commission;" the 2d prescribes its duties; the 3d appoints a "chief examiner;" the 4th provides for necessary expenditure; the 5th guards against abuse of authority; the 6th provides for classified grades of offices; the 7th prescribes date of operation, and discriminates between this and certain former legislation.

3 Mr. Eaton's pamphlet, p. 40.

"Official opinions of the attorneys-general," v. 13, p. 524.

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of some careful study of conflicting legislation, sharply descriminates between the provisions of this bill and those of several earlier enactments, and fixes the date at which it shall take effect. The official organization to which the bill commits the execution of the plan is worthy of attention, and differs essentially not only from that of the act of 1871, now in force, but from that of each one of the six bills introduced by Mr. Jenckes (1867-71) and from that of the English civil-service commission. The Jenckes bills provided for a board of three (or, in some cases, four) commissioners. The act of 18711 commits the matter solely to the charge of three officers in each department. By the Pendleton bill "two shall be experienced officers in the publicservice in Washington, but not in the same department;" but the other three "shall hold no other official place under the United States" (Sect. 1), the latter provision securing the undivided service and attention of at least a portion of the board to the single purpose of executing these rules. Other features peculiar to this bill are the selection of these commissioners from different parties, "in order to be as far as possible removed from partisan influences;" the fixing of a secure tenure for their (ie, the commissioners) holding the position, and a specific declaration as to what their duties are; the act of 1871 having left this matter too largely to inference. As regards the nine fundamental rules

( it is to be noted that "original entrance to the public service" " shall be at the lowest grade; " that "promotions shall be from the lower grades to the higher, on the basis of merit and competition." Also that there shall be a period of probation before any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid." Two other provisions are also in the direction of cleaner politics, namely: "That no person in the public service is for that reason under any obligation to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and that he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so," and "that no person in said

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1" Revised statutes," sect. 1753.

A bill was introduced at the last session of congress, by Mr. Willis, of Kentucky, entitled: " A bill to prevent extortion from persons in the public service, and bribery and coercion by such persons." For the text of this bill, sce Civil Service Record, no. 5, Sept. 19, 1SSI.

service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body."

It should be noticed, also, that the proposed legislation is noteworthy for what it does not prescribe as well as for what it specifically covers. Three points in particular deserve attention. First, it is subversive to the slightest degree possible of the legislation of 1871, its aim being avowedly to supplement and complement what has been found of service in that act.1 Second, it prescribes nothing concerning the "higher officers" who sustain relations of personal confidence, judicial officers, and a few others, too miscellaneous to be classified. Third, it is silent as regards tenure of office. Leaving the first of these points to be treated more fully under another head, let us examine the other two. In thus leaving, as it does, the higher officers of the government," this simply follows the example of all previous bills, and selects for the scope of its operation the "subordinate officers and the clerks by which the federal administration is carried on," embracing the employés of the seven executive departments at Washington, and the larger customhouses and post-offices throughout the country. It will be observed that in the consideration already given to the practical operation of the reform, the instances were almost solely in the Washington and New York offices. In the former city the whole number of clerks is considerably above five thousand, and in the latter about two thousand five hundred. "These," remarks the. Civil-Service Commission report of 1874 (p. 33), "are the places, under the rules of competition, about which the great struggle for patronage goes on and the great abuses gather." A sweeping change of this entire body is not now universally believed to be a necessary condition of popular government.

"A party is merely a voluntary association of citizens" (says Mr. Curtis, in his Saratoga address), " to secure the enforcement of a certain policy of administration, upon which they are agreed. In a free government this is done by the election of legislators and of certain executive officers who are friendly to that policy. But the duty of the great body of persons employed in the minor administrative places is in no sense political. It is wholly ministerial, and the political opinions of such persons no more affect the discharge of their duties than their religious views or their literary preferences. All that can be justly required of such persons, in the interest of the public business, is honesty, intelligence, capacity, industry, and due subordination; and to say that when the policy of the government is changed by the result of an election from protection to free trade, every book-keeper and letter-carrier, and messenger and porter, in the public offices ought to be a free-trader, is as wise as to say that if a merchant is a Baptist, every clerk in his office ought to be a believer in total immersion."

1 This act (the legislation of 1871) "will remain in force so far as consistent with the bill." - Pendleton report, p. 12. 2 "Civil-Service Commission report," Apr. 15, 1874, p. 32.

3 See Chapter 7.

The language of the Pendleton bill prescribes (Section 6) that its provisions may extend to those custom-houses and post-offices "where the whole number of said clerks and persons shall be altogether as many as fifty." Of these offices there are about forty in the United States.

Yet no one professes to believe that this is the only group of positions at the disposal of the government. How is it, to take only one for instance, as regards the great number of consular appointments?1

Speaking of the dissatisfaction of American merchants in China with our consular system, a writer who is personally familiar with the facts says: "They contrast, for instance, that of Great Britain, which makes the service so honorable and attractive that entrance thereto is eagerly sought by an excellent class of specially fitted men. This system they contrast with one which makes it possible to send a man to perform commercial, judicial, and almost diplomatic functions among an ancient, formal, oriental people, because he has been an efficient 'worker' in the primaries of Oshkosh or Yuba Dam. Yet our system does not save us money, for satisfactory establishments at the leading ports, where alone they are needed, would cost less than the present aggregate. Our consular system is something to make the very gods of solemnity laugh.' "2

It is scarcely necessary to add anything to this presentation of abuses, with which the public is only too familiar, except to remember the preposterous fact that the contemptible and half-balanced wretch who murdered the late president was an applicant for one of these positions. All this is true, and a "reformer" who had given the subject some

1 The offices to which the legislative provisions of 1871 (and those of the Pendleton bill also) do not apply, are enumerated in its 13th rule. See, also, "Civil Service Commission report," 1874, P. 32.

• Eaton's "Civil service in Great Britain," p. 440, where the language is quoted from the International Review, Apr., 1879, p. 357-59

earnest attention, but not an exhaustive study, - nay, we may almost say, one who had not been practically and intimately concerned with the constructive work of executing and formulating reforrned methods, - would, we think, be inclined to call at once for the immediate abatement of these abuses by legislation, as well as the others. It shows, as we believe, the cautious, moderate, and reasonable spirit in which the reform has been approached by the framers of this bill, that they have left, for the present, this group of offices, which are compassed with more practical difficulties as regards legislation, and "apparently with a view to the most ample experience before its general enforcement,"1 have limited the proposed system to the group above indicated.2

As regards tenure of office, a writer in the North American Review, April, 1881 (v. 132, p. 312), soberly declares that one of "the significant provisions of the bill" is "the tenure to be for life, and removal only for cause;" a statement so extraordinarily far from the truth that it is charitable to suppose he had never read the bill itself. The fact that similar statements have been widely repeated renders it important that the provisions of the bill should be intelligently examined. The bill does not even refer to tenure of office except in section 2, part 2, rule 6, which provides the officer "will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so" (i.c., to engage in party work or pay party assessments). Having ascertained what the bill does actually provide, we may go farther, and ask whether it ought to provide more.

This feature of the reform, tenure of office, has received extended discussion, and as a result of the careful attention

1 North American Review, v. 132, p. 555.

2 Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, who has been an intelligent observer of the reform movement during the past fourteen years, says: "Do we not endeavor to cover too much ground in our discussions of this subject, and in that way diffuse, scatter, and differ, rather than concentrate upon one thing, and, accomplishing that, move on to the next? Civil-service reform proposes to reach the best possible civil service by bringing about many changes, all necessary, but having an order of precedence and different degrees of importance." - Letter to the Springfield Republican, dated July 19, 1SS1.

3 A writer in the same periodical suggests that this mis-statement resulted from information "confined to the contents of a telegraphic despatch found floating in the newspapers" (v. 132, p. 549).

4 See Mr. Eaton's article, "A new phase of the reform movement." - North American Review, June, 1881, v. 132, p. 546-58.

Also his article, "Tenure of office." - Lippincott's, June, 1881, v. 27, p. 580-92. Also his remarks on this subject in his volume, "Civil service in Great Britain," p. 368-69.

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