Part 7 (1/2)

One of the worst features of the old spoils system was the ruthless cruelty and brutality it so often bred in the treatment of faithful public servants without political influence Life is hard enough and cruel enough at best, and this is as true of public service as of private service Under no system will it be possible to do aith all favoritism and brutality and meanness and malice But at least we can try to minimize the exhibition of these qualities I once caton which very keenly excited my sympathy Under an Administration prior to the one hich I was connected a lady had been ousted from a Government position She came to me to see if she could be reinstated (This was not possible, but by active work I did get her put back in a somewhat lower position, and this only by an appeal to the sympathy of a certain official) She was so pallid and so careworn that she excited my sympathy and I made inquiries about her She was a poor woman with two children, aShe and her two children were in actual want She could barely keep the two children decently clad, and she could not give the children need Three years before she had been e her work faithfully, at a salary of about 800 It was enough to keep her and her two children in clothing, food, and shelter One day the chief of the bureau called her up and told her he was very sorry that he had to disht that she had been doing her work satisfactorily He answered her that she had been doing well, and that he wished very much that he could keep her, that he would do so if he possibly could, but that he could not; for a certain Senator, giving his name, a very influential member of the Senate, had demanded her place for a friend of his who had influence The wo her out to starve She had been thirteen or fourteen years in the public service; she had lost all touch with her friends in her native State; dismissal meant absolute want for her and her children On this the chief, as a kind man, said he would not have her turned out, and sent her back to her work

But three weeks afterwards he called her up again and told her he could not say how sorry he was, but the thing had to be done The Senator had been around in person to knohy the change had not been made, and had told the chief that he would be hiiven him The Senator was an extremely influential o And go she did, and turned out she was, to suffer with her children and to starve outright, or to live in seht befall I do not blah he lacked the courage to refuse; I do not even very much blame the Senator, who did not know the hardshi+p that he was causing, and who had been calloused by long training in the spoils systees such deeds, is a syste with practical politics can with difficulty keep a straight face when he reads or listens to soainst Civil Service Reforuments, a favorite with machine politicians, takes the for ain these very saood care of henchmen of the opposite party as of those of their own party In the underworld of politics the closest ties are soether the active professional workers of opposite political parties A friend of islature--the hero of the alpha and oa incident--once reer, Mr Roosevelt, you will understand that there are no politics in politics” In the politics to which he was referring this remark could be taken literally

Another illustration of this truth was incidentally given me, at about the saood fellow according to his lights I had been speaking to hiht in one of the New York don districts, a Democratic district in which the Republican party was in a hopeless minority, and, moreover, was split into the Half-Breed and Stalwart factions It had been an interesting fight in more than one way For instance, the Republican party, at the general election, polled so like five hundred and fifty votes, and yet at the primary the two factions polled seven hundred and twenty-five all told The sureater than the whole There had been other little details that made the contest worthy of note The hall in which the primary was held had been hired by the Stalwarts froentleman To him the Half-Breeds applied to knohether they could not hire the hall away from their opponents, and offered hientleood as his bond, that he had hired the hall to the Stalwarts, and that itto hire the doorway to the Half-Breeds if they paid hiain was struck, and theof the hostile hosts was spirited, when the ht to bar the path of the an about the details of the struggle, as he seeood-naturedly overbeen more votes cast than there were mean, you seee about this; how did it happen?” To which he replied, ”Co that votes in all the primaries”

So much for most of the opposition to the reform There was, however, some honest and at least partially justifiable opposition both to certain of the methods advocated by Civil Service Reformers and to certain of the Civil Service Reformers themselves The pet shi+bboleths of the opponents of the reforive rise to mere red-tape bureaucracy, and that the reformers were pharisees Neither statement was true Each statement contained some truth

If men are not to be appointed by favoritism, wise or unwise, honest or dishonest, they enerally means by competitive examination The easiest kind of co This is entirely appropriate for certain classes of work, for lawyers, stenographers, typewriters, clerks, mathematicians, and assistants in an astronomical observatory, for instance It is utterly inappropriate for carpenters, detectives, andthe Rio Grande--to instance three types of employ bureaucrats fro on written competitive entrance exaood competitive examination for mounted cattle inspectors bywith rifle and revolver, in riding ” steers I did my best to have examinations of this kind instituted, but my proposal was of precisely the type which most shocks the routine official et it put into practical effect

The iotten by zealous Civil Service Reformers, was to remember that the routine competitive examination was merely a means to an end It did not always produce ideal results But it was normally better than a system of appointments for spoils purposes; it soovernave satisfactory results, but was the only systeood results could be obtained For instance, when I was Police Commissioner we appointed some two thousand policemen at one time It was utterly impossible for the Coht thousand applicants

Therefore they had to be appointed either on the recommendation of outsiders or else by written competitive examination The latter method--the one we adopted--was infinitely preferable We held a rigid physical andthose who passed, we held a written coe that any good primary common school education would ence and si Occasionally a ood officer failed, and occasionally a man who turned out to be a bad officer passed; but, as a rule, the ence sufficient to enable them to answer the questions were of a type very distinctly above that of those who failed

The answers returned to soence of those answering theiven exaland States One coland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cork” His neighbor, who had probably looked over his shoulder but who had North of Ireland prejudices, made the same answer except that he substituted Belfast for Cork A request for a state other less startling pieces of inforht that he was a general in the Civil War; several thought that he was President of the Confederate States; three thought he had been assassinated by Jefferson Davis, one by Thomas Jefferson, one by Garfield, several by Guiteau, and one by Ballington Booth--the last representing a memory of the fact that he had been shot by a man named Booth, to whose surname the writer added the name hich he was most familiar in connection therewith A request to name five of the States that seceded in 1861 received answers that included almost every State in the Union It happened to be at the tiitation in the West, and the Rocky Mountain States accordingly figured in a large percentage of the answers Soo was on the Pacific Ocean Others, in answer to a query as to as the head of the United States Government, wavered between enius, for inscrutable reasons, placed the leadershi+p in the New York Fire Department Now of course so were nevertheless quite capable of ood policee the candidate who has a rudiraphy, and history of his country is a little better fitted, in point of intelligence, to be a policeman than the one who has not

Therefore I felt convinced, after full experience, that as regards very large classes of public servants by far the best way to choose the men for appointment was by means of written competitive examination But I absolutely split off from the bulk of my professional Civil Service Reform friends when they advocated written competitive examinations for promotion In the Police Department I found these exa the best men promoted, and never in any office did I find that the written coood The reason for a written competitive entrance examination is that it is impossible for the head of the office, or the candidate's prospective ie candidate or to test his ability But when once in office the best way to test anyhim actually at work

His proment formed of him by his superiors

So much for the objections to the examinations Now for the objections to the h-minded and disinterested Certain of them, men like the leaders in the Maryland and Indiana Reform associations, for instances, Messrs Bonaparte and Rose, Foulke and Swift, added common sense, broad syh-mindedness But in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston there really was a certainvery many of the leaders in the Civil Service Reform movement It was this quality which orous and intensely human people of the stamp of my friend Joe Murray--who, as I have said, always felt that my Civil Service Reform affiliations formed the one blot on an otherwise excellent public record The Civil Service Reform movement was one from above doards, and the men who took the lead in it were not men who as a rule possessed a very profound syht and life of their average fellow-citizen They were not men who themselves desired to be letter-carriers or clerks or policemen, or to have their friends appointed to these positions Having no teerly anxious to prevent other people getting such appointments as a reward for political services In this they were quite right It would be i the lines of the strictest application of Civil Service Reforhout our governmental service far more widely than is now the case

But there are other and more vital reforms than this Too many Civil Service Reformers, when the trial came, proved tepidly indifferent or actively hostile to refor social and industrial consequence Many of them were at best lukewarm about movements for the i s, and were positively hostile to nates and directed into useful instead of pernicious channels the activities of the great corporation lawyers who advised thearded themselves as the especial chahest exponents of civic virtue, and which distrusted the average citizen and shuddered over the ”coarseness” of the professional politicians, were, nevertheless, given to vices even ross as, those they denounced and derided Their editors were refined men of cultivated tastes, whose pet te,clothed in wealth and the outward appearances of conventional respectability They were not robust or powerfulmen; often they had in theed themselves to themselves for an uneasy subconsciousness of their own shortco in cloistered--or, rather, pleasantly upholstered--seclusion, and sneering at and lying about men who made them feel uncomfortable Sometimes these were bad men, who made them feel uncomfortable by the exhibition of coarse and repellent vice; and soh character, who held ideals of courage and of service to others, and who looked down and warred against the shortcos of swollen wealth, and the effortless, easy lives of those whose horizon is bounded by a sheltered and timid respectability

These newspapers, owned and edited by these arity of the yellow press, were susceptible to influence by the privileged interests, and were almost or quite as hostile to manliness as they were to unrefined vice--and were s of wealth and refineht laws, and the removal of the tariff on works of art; they favored all the proper (and even ly all the improper) movements for international peace and arbitration; in short, they favored all good, andas they did not cut deep into social wrong or make demands on National and individual virility They opposed, or were lukewarm about, efforts to build up the ar National honor; and, above all, they opposed every non-e our social and economic system in such a fashi+on as to substitute the ideal of justice towards all for the ideal of kindly charity frorateful le for Civil Service Reform have taken a position of honorable leadershi+p in the battle for those other and more vital reforms But many of them promptly abandoned the field of effort for decency when the battle took the for of small bosses and small politicians--a vitally necessary battle, be it rereat intrenched powers of privilege, a fight to secure justice through the law for ordinarythem to suffer cruel injustice either because the law failed to protect theiti them

One of the reasons why the boss so often keeps his hold, especially in municipal matters, is, or at least has been in the past, because so many of the men who clai in human fashi+on for social and industrial betterment Such words as ”boss” and ”machine” now imply evil, but both the implication the words carry and the definition of the words theue A leader is necessary; but his opponents always call hianization is necessary; but the men in opposition always call it a machine Nevertheless, there is a real and deep distinction between the leader and the boss, between organizations and hts openly for principles, and who keeps his position of leadershi+p by stirring the consciences and convincing the intellects of his followers, so that they have confidence in hireater results under hi hich is indispensable in a deain his power by open means, but by secret means, and usually by corrupt means Some of the worst and most powerful bosses in our political history either held no public office or else some unimportant public office They made no appeal either to intellect or conscience Their as done behind closed doors, and consisted chiefly in the use of that greed which gives in order that in return it et A boss of this kind can pull wires in conventions, canor withholding of office, and serves as the interether the powers of corrupt politics and corrupt business

If he is at one end of the social scale, he ents traffic in the ive protection to the purveyors of shame and sin in return for money bribes If at the other end of the scale, he h public officials, legislative or executive, to great industrial interests; the transaction being soain and sale, and so carried on in such manner that both parties thereto can uise it to their consciences as in the public interest The anization which is certain to grow up in a party or section of a party controlled by such bosses as these and by their henchanization of decent men is essential in order to secure decent politics

If these bosses were responsible for nothing but pure wickedness, they would probably last but a short time in any community And, in any event, if the men who are horrified by their wickedness were thehly in touch with human nature, the bosses would have a short shrift The trouble is that the boss does understand human nature, and that he fills a place which the reformer cannot fill unless he likewise understands human nature Sometimes the boss is a man who cares for political power purely for its own sake, as he ht care for any other hobby; more often he has in view some definitely selfish object such as political or financial advancement He can rarely accomplish much unless he has another side to him A successful boss is very apt to be awickedness in his own interest, also does look after the interests of others, even if not froood motives There are some communities so fortunate that there are very few men who have private interests to be served, and in these the power of the boss is at a minimum There are many country communities of this type But in conorance, the conditions are ripe for the growth of a boss Moreover, wherever big business interests are liable either to be iainst and blackmailed by public officials--and the result is just as vicious in one case as in the other--the boss is al at this type of boss is by keeping the public conscience aroused and alert, so that it will tolerate neither improper attack upon, nor improper favoritism towards, these corporations, and will quickly punish any public servant guilty of either

There is oftencities, who fulfills towards the people of his district in rough and ready fashi+on the position of friend and protector He uses his influence to get jobs for youngfelloho has gotten into trouble He helps out with cash or credit the ho is in straits, or the breadwinner who is crippled or for soanizes clambakes and chowder parties and picnics, and is consulted by the local labor leaders when a cut in wages is threatened For some of his constituents he does proper favors, and for others wholly improper favors; but he preserves human relations with all He may be a very bad and very corruptvice is of far-reaching dae to his constituents But these constituents are for the ainst poverty and ho is very real and very close They would prefer clean and honest governovern But an appeal ood men who do not really understand their needs, will often pass quite unheeded, if on the other side stands the boss, the friend and benefactor, who s that they are hardly aware concern them, but who appeals to them, not only for the sake of favors to coratitude and loyalty, and above all of understanding and fellow-feeling They have a feeling of clan-loyalty to him; his and their relationsprie of ainst this type of vicious boss, and the type of vicious politics which produces it, can befor and understanding of the people for and hom they are to work, and who in practical fashi+on seek their social and industrial benefit

There are communities of poor h he would be out of place in a more advanced community, if fundamentally an honest man, meets a real need which would otherwise not be met Because of his limitations in other than purely local ht such a boss; but it nize, within his liain even the boss who really is evil, like the business man who really is evil, ood work

It hest duty of the patriotic public servant to ith the big boss or the big businessto ith him on others In the same way there are many self-styled reformers whose conduct is such as to warrant Tom Reed's bitter remark, that when Dr Johnson defined patriotisnorant of the infinite possibilities contained in the word reform Yet, none the less, it is our duty to work for the reforard to the misconduct of the men the business enerally did evil, but who on soht I never hesitated to do battle against theseas they were going lad to have theht and were striving for a right end, and for as of benefit to the people--no matter what their motives may have been--would have been childish, and ainst the people

My duty was to stand with every one while he was right, and to stand against hiards individuals and as regards groups of individuals When a business ht, I support hi, I leave him When Mr Lorimer upheld the war for the liberation of Cuba, I supported him; when he became United States Senator by improper methods, I opposed him The principles or methods which the Socialists advocate and which I believe to be in the interest of the people I support, and those which I believe to be against the interest of the people I oppose Moreover, when a hteousness, and when, as far as I can see, the change is real and the man's conduct sincere, then I welcome him and work heartily with him, as an equal with an equal

For thirty years after the Civil War the creed of mere materialism was rampant in both Acos for which they deserve blae, and strive for better things, it is unwise and unjust to bar the as they work for evil, smite thee and show their faith by their works, remember the words of Ezekiel: ”If the wicked will turn from all the sins he has committed, and keep all ht, he shall surely live, he shall not die All his transgressions that he hath cohteousness that he hath done he shall live Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?

saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and live?”

Every rows to realize that politicians, big and little, are no ood Many of thesethe those held up to special obloquy, too--who, even although theyworth which many of their critics wholly lack There are few men for whom I have ever felt a more cordial and conte professional politicians hoht into contact On the other hand, in the case of some political leaders ere rew to know certain sides of their characters which inspired in ard and respect

To read ht that he was a hted devotion to the country's good I was brought into inti the two and a half years i his death I was then President, and perforce watched all his actions at close range