27
and the moral sense of the country should in that event be united in demanding for these dependencies a civil service organized upon merit rules as strict, and upon examinations as exacting, as are those of the India Service of Great Britain, that is, rules and examinations far more strict and far more exacting than those which at present govern our classified service.
Now, if the merit system in its fullest development should be considered indispensable for the government of the colonies, in case they come, will there be any hope of obtaining it unless it be considered equally necessary for our home service? I may therefore be permitted to point out in what manner the system we have may still be improved and extended. In the first place all public officers who have any power over their subordinates in the way of promotion or reduction in grade, or of appointment or removal, should be made to understand that they will not be permitted to take any liberties with the civil service law and the rules. In this respect nothing would seem to be more desirable, in order to restore that necessary discipline which in some quarters seems to have become dangerously lax, than the removal of offending officers, by way of warning example. This would prevent much mischief in the future, and save the President himself much otherwise inevitable and exceedingly vexatious tribulation. Secondly, in accordance with the pledge contained in the Republican platform, that the operation of the civil service law should not only not be restricted, but, on the contrary, extended wherever practicable, in would be fitting, and greatly to the public interest, that the assistant postmasters, the employees of the District of Columbia, those of Congress, those of the Congressional Library, the fourth class postmasters, the whole clerical force of the Census Bureau, and the laborers, should be brought into the classified service—the unskilled laborers by means of registration.
Nor should we fail to repeat that, for reasons often set forth by this League, the four-years-term laws, which have been denounced by almost every one of our prominent statesmen in the first half of this century, from Jefferson down, as a prolific source of favoritism, profligate intrigue, and political demoralization, should at last be repealed.
It is gratifying to observe that in several States and municipalities the cause of civil service reform is prosperously advancing.
