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troubles originally complained of. This applies to at least nine-tenths of the cases on record in which the rule has been suspended. They were, in themselves, of very little real importance. And as to the very few instances in which the men of extraordinary qualifications needed for a particular place could really not be obtained by the ordinary competitive process, I doubt not that the ingenuity of the Civil Service Commission will be able to find a method of making proper appointments possible in a regular way, without exposing them to the least possible suspicion of arbitrariness or partiality.
We are told that so far no present harm has been done by the suspensions of the rules. But what incalculable harm may they not do in the future if they are permitted to stand as precedents! We cannot always expect to have a convinced and militant friend of civil service reform in the Presidential chair. Must we not look for the contingency of that chair being occupied by a President who dislikes the merit system, or who does not care enough about it to protect it with a strong will against the greed of his political friends? Will not he or his political friends find in the record of suspensions, even as it now stands, precedents, or what they may artfully construe as precedents, to serve as justification for any arbitrary appointment they may wish to make, thus eventually wrecking the whole system? And is it not, therefore, devoutly to be wished that the Administration should take an attitude forever preventing those suspensions of the rules from becoming precedents to be used for such evil ends?
The Administration would thereby add to the many excellent things it has already done for the cause of civil service reform another one, and, indeed, one no less important than any of them, and thus encourage the hope, which we all confidently cherish, that it will carry the work as far onward as Executive action can carry it.
