the only Commissioner was Mr. Charles Lyman, of Connecticut, who
resigned when I did. Honorable Hugh S. Thompson, ex-Governor of
South Carolina, was made Commissioner at the same time that I was,
and after serving for three years resigned. He was succeeded by Mr.
George D. Johnston, of Louisiana, who was removed by the President
in November, 1893, being replaced by Mr. John R. Procter, the former
State Geologist of Kentucky, who is still serving. The Commission
has never varied a hand’s-breadth from its course throughout this
time; and Messrs. Thompson, Procter, Lyman, and myself were always a
unit in all important questions of policy and principle. Our aim was
always to procure the extension of the classified service as rapidly
as possible, and to see that the law was administered thoroughly and
fairly. The Commission does not have the power that it should, and in
many instances there have been violations or evasions of the law in
particular bureaus or departments which the Commission was not able to
prevent. In every case, however, we made a resolute fight, and gave
the widest publicity to the wrong-doing. Often, even where we have been
unable to win the actual fight in which we were engaged, the fact of
our having made it, and the further fact that we were ready to repeat
it on provocation, has put a complete stop to the repetition of the
offence. As a consequence, while there have been plenty of violations
and evasions of the law, yet their proportion was really very small,
taking into account the extent of the service. In the aggregate it is
doubtful if one per cent. of all the employees have been dismissed for
political reasons. In other words, where under the spoils system a
hundred men would have been turned out, under the Civil Service Law, as
administered under our supervision, ninety-nine men were kept in.
In the administration of the law very much depends upon the Commission.
Good heads of departments and bureaus will administer it well anyhow;
but not only the bad men, but also the large class of men who are weak
rather than bad, are sure to administer the law poorly unless kept well
up to the mark. The public should exercise a most careful scrutiny
over the appointment and over the acts of Civil Service Commissioners,
for there is no office the effectiveness of which depends so much upon
the way in which the man himself chooses to construe his duties. A
Commissioner can keep within the letter of the law and do his routine
work and yet accomplish absolutely nothing in the way of securing
the observance of the law. The Commission, to do useful work, must
be fearless and vigilant. It must actively interfere whenever wrong
is done, and must take all the steps that can be taken to secure the
punishment of the wrong-doer and to protect the employee threatened
with molestation.
This course was consistently followed by the Commission throughout
my connection with it. I was myself a Republican from the North.
Messrs. Thompson and Procter were from the South, and were both
Democrats who had served in the Confederate armies; and it would be
impossible for anyone to desire as associates two public men with
higher ideals of duty, or more resolute in their adherence to those
ideals. It is unnecessary to say that in all our dealings there was no
single instance wherein the politics of any person or the political
significance of any action was so much as taken into account in any
case that arose. The force of the Commission itself was all chosen
through the competitive examinations, and included men of every party
and from every section of the country; and I do not believe that in any
public or private office of the size it would be possible to find a
more honest, efficient, and coherent body of workers.
From the beginning of the present system each President of the
United States has been its friend, but no President has been a
radical Civil Service reformer. Presidents Arthur, Harrison, and
Cleveland have all desired to see the service extended, and to see
the law well administered. No one of them has felt willing or able
to do all that the reformers asked, or to pay much heed to their
wishes save as regards that portion of the service to which the law
actually applied. Each has been a sincere party man, who has felt
strongly on such questions as those of the tariff, of finance, and
of our foreign policy, and each has been obliged to conform more
or less closely to the wishes of his party associates and fellow
party leaders; and, of course, these party leaders, and the party
politicians generally, wished the offices to be distributed as they
had been ever since Andrew Jackson became President. In consequence
the offices outside the protection of the law have still been treated,
under every administration, as patronage, to be disposed of in the
interest of the dominant party. An occasional exception was made here
and there. The postmaster at New York, a Republican, was retained by
President Cleveland in his first administration, and the postmaster
of Charleston, a Democrat, was retained by President Harrison; but,
with altogether insignificant exceptions, the great bulk of the
non-classified places have been changed for political reasons by
each administration, the office-holders politically opposed to the
administration being supplanted or succeeded by political adherents of
the administration.
Where the change has been complete it does not matter much whether it
was made rapidly or slowly. Thus, the fourth-class postmasterships were
looted more rapidly under the administration of President Harrison
than under that of President Cleveland, and the consular service more
rapidly under President Cleveland than under President Harrison; but
the final result was the same in both cases. Indeed, I think that the
brutality which accompanied the greater speed was in some ways of
service to the country, for it directed attention to the iniquity and
folly of the system, and emphasized, in the minds of decent citizens,
the fact that appointments and removals for political reasons in places
where the duties are wholly non-political cannot be defended by any man
who looks at public affairs from the proper standpoint.
The advance has been made purely on two lines, that is, by better
enforcement of the law, and by inclusion under the law, or under
some system similar in its operations, of a portion of the service
previously administered in accordance with the spoils theory. Under
President Arthur the first classification was made, which included
14,000 places. Under President Cleveland, during his first term, the
limits of the classified service were extended by the inclusion of
7000 additional places. During President Harrison’s term the limit was
extended by the inclusion of about eight thousand places; and hitherto
during President Cleveland’s second term, by the inclusion of some six
thousand places; in addition to which the natural growth of the service
has been such that the total number of offices now classified is over
forty thousand. Moreover, the Secretary of the Navy under President
Harrison, introduced into the navy yards a system of registration
of laborers, which secures the end desired by the Commission; and
Secretary Herbert has continued this system. It only rests, however,
upon the will of the Secretary of the Navy; and as we cannot expect
always to have secretaries as clear-sighted as Messrs. Tracy and
Herbert, it is most desirable that this branch of the service should be
put directly under the control of the Commission.
The Cabinet officers, though often not Civil Service reformers to
start with, usually become such before their terms of office expire.
This was true, without exception, of all the Cabinet officers with
whom I was personally brought into contact while on the Commission.
Moreover, from their position and their sense of responsibility they
are certain to refrain from violating the law themselves and to try to
secure at least a formal compliance with its demands on the part of
their subordinates. In most cases it is necessary, however, to goad
them continually to see that they do not allow their subordinates to
evade the law; and it is very difficult to get either the President or
the head of a department to punish these subordinates when they have
evaded it. There is not much open violation of the law, because such
violation can be reached through the courts; but in the small offices
and small bureaus there is often a chance for an unscrupulous head of
the office or bureau to persecute his subordinates who are politically
opposed to him into resigning, or to trump up charges against them on
which they can be dismissed. If this is done in a sufficient number of
cases, men of the opposite political party think that it is useless to
enter the examinations; and by staying out they leave the way clear
for the offender to get precisely the men he wishes for the eligible
registers. Cases like this continually occur, and the Commission
has to be vigilant in detecting and exposing them, and in demanding
their punishment by the head of the office. The offender always, of
course, insists that he has been misunderstood, and in most cases he
can prepare quite a specious defence. As he is of the same political
faith as the head of the department, and as he is certain to be backed
by influential politicians, the head of the department is usually
loath to act against him, and, if possible, will let him off with, at
most, a warning not to repeat the offence. In some departments this
kind of evasion has never been tolerated; and where the Commission
has the force under its eye, as in the departments at Washington,
the chance of injustice is minimized. Nevertheless, there have been
considerable abuses of this kind, notably in the custom-houses and
post-offices, throughout the time I have been at Washington. So far as
the Post-Office Department was concerned the abuses were more flagrant
under President Harrison’s Postmaster-General, Mr. Wanamaker; but
in the Treasury Department they were more flagrant under President
Cleveland’s Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Carlisle.
Congress has control of the appropriations for the Commission, and
as it cannot do its work without an ample appropriation the action
of Congress is vital to its welfare. Many, even of the friends of
the system in the country at large, are astonishingly ignorant of who
the men are who have battled most effectively for the law and for
good government in either the Senate or the Lower House. It is not
only necessary that a man shall be good and possess the desire to do
decent things, but it is also necessary that he shall be courageous,
practical, and efficient, if his work is to amount to anything. There
is a good deal of rough-and-tumble fighting in Congress, as there is
in all our political life, and a man is entirely out of place in it
if he does not possess the virile qualities, and if he fails to show
himself ready and able to hit back when assailed. Moreover, he must
be alert, vigorous, and intelligent if he is going to make his work
count. The friends of the Civil Service Law, like the friends of all
other laws, would be in a bad way if they had to rely solely upon the
backing of the timid good. During the last six years there have been,
as there always are, a number of men in the House who believe in the
Civil Service Law, and who vote for it if they understand the question
and are present when it comes up, but who practically count for very
little one way or the other, because they are timid or flighty, or are
lacking in capacity for leadership or ability to see a point and to put
it strongly before their associates.
There is need of further legislation to perfect and extend the law
and the system; but Congress has never been willing seriously to
consider a proposition looking to this extension. Bills to provide for
the appointment of fourth-class postmasters have been introduced by
Senator Lodge and others, but have never come to anything. Indeed, but
once has a measure of this kind been reported from committee and fought
for in either House. This was in the last session of the 53d Congress,
when Senators Morgan and Lodge introduced bills to reform the consular
service. They were referred to Senator Morgan’s Committee on Foreign
Affairs, and were favorably reported. Senator Lodge made a vigorous
fight for them in the Senate, but he received little support, and was
defeated, Senator Gorman leading the opposition.
On the other hand, efforts to repeal the law, or to destroy it by
new legislation, have uniformly been failures, and have rarely gone
beyond committee. Occasionally, in an appropriation bill or some other
measure, an amendment will be slipped through, adding forty or fifty
employees to the classified service, or providing that the law shall
not apply to them; but nothing important has ever been done in this
way. But once has there been a resolute attack made on the law by
legislation. This was in the 53d Congress, when Mr. Bynum, of Indiana,
introduced in the House, and Mr. Vilas, of Wisconsin, pushed in the
Senate, a bill to reinstate the Democratic railway mail clerks, turned
out before the classification of the railway mail service in the early
days of Mr. Harrison’s administration.
The classification of the railway mail service was ordered by President
Cleveland less than two months before the expiration of his first
term of office as President. It was impossible for the Commission to
prepare and hold the necessary examinations and establish eligible
registers prior to May 1, 1889. President Harrison had been inaugurated
on March 4th, and Postmaster-General Wanamaker permitted the spoilsmen
to take advantage of the necessary delay and turn out half of the
employees who were Democrats, and replace them by Republicans.
This was an outrageous act, deserving the severe condemnation it
received; but it was perfectly legal. During the four years of Mr.
Cleveland’s first term a clean sweep was made of the railway mail
service; the employees who were almost all Republicans, were turned
out, and Democrats were put in their places. The result was utterly to
demoralize the efficiency of the service. It had begun to recover from
this when the change of administration took place in 1889. The time
was too short to allow of a clean sweep, but the Republicans did all
they could in two months, and turned out half of the Democrats. The
law then went into effect, and since that time there have been no more
removals for partisan purposes in that service. It has now recovered
from the demoralization into which it was thrown by the two political
revolutions, and has reached a higher standard of efficiency than ever
before. What was done by the Republicans in this service was repeated,
on a less scale, by the Democrats four years later in reference to
the classification of the small free-delivery post-offices. This
classification was ordered by President Harrison two months before his
term of office expired; but in many of the offices it was impossible
to hold examinations and prepare eligible registers until after the
inauguration of President Cleveland, and in a number of cases the
incoming postmasters, who were appointed prior to the time when the
law went into effect, took advantage of the delay to make clean sweeps
of their offices. In one of these offices, where the men were changed
in a body, the new appointees hired the men whom they replaced, at $35
a month apiece, to teach them their duties; in itself a sufficient
comment on the folly of the spoils system.
Mr. Bynum’s bill provided for the reinstatement of the Democrats who
were turned out by the Republicans just before the classification of
the railway mail service. Of course such a bill was a mere partisan
measure. There was no more reason for reinstating the Democrats thus
turned out than for reinstating the Republicans who had been previously
turned out that these same Democrats might get in, or for reinstating
the Republicans in the free-delivery offices who had been turned out
just before these offices were classified. If the bill had been enacted
into law it would have been a most serious blow to the whole system,
for it would have put a premium upon legislation of the kind; and after
every change of parties we should have seen the passing of laws to
reinstate masses of Republicans or Democrats, as the case might be.
This would have meant a return to the old system under a new form of
procedure. Nevertheless, Mr. Bynum’s bill received the solid support
of his party. Not a Democratic vote was cast against it in the House,
none even of the Massachusetts Democrats being recorded against it.
In the Senate it was pushed by Mr. Vilas. By a piece of rather sharp
parliamentary procedure he nearly got it through by unanimous consent.
That it failed was owing entirely to the vigilance of Senator Lodge.
Senator Vilas asked for the passage of the bill, on the ground that it
was one of small importance, upon which his committee were agreed. When
it was read the words “classified civil service” caught Senator Lodge’s
ear, and he insisted upon an explanation. On finding out what the bill
was he at once objected to its consideration. Under this objection it
could not then be considered. If it could have been brought to a vote
it would undoubtedly have passed; but it was late in the session, the
calendars were crowded with bills, and it was impossible to get it up
in its regular order. Another effort was made, and was again frustrated
by Senator Lodge, and the bill then died a natural death.
In the final session of the 53d Congress a little incident occurred
which deserves to be related in full, not for its own importance, but
because it affords an excellent example of the numerous cases which
test the real efficiency of the friends of the reform in Congress.
It emphasizes the need of having, to watch over the interests of the
law, a man who is willing to fight, who knows the time to fight,
and who knows how to fight. The secretary of the Commission was, in
the original law of 1883, allowed a salary of $1600 a year. As the
Commission’s force and work have grown, the salary in successive
appropriation bills for the last ten years has been provided for at
the rate of $2000 a year. Many of the clerks under the secretary now
receive $1800, so that it would be of course an absurdity to reduce
him in salary below his subordinates. Scores of other officials of the
Government, including, for instance, the President’s private secretary,
the First Assistant Postmaster-General, the First Assistant Secretary
of State, etc., have had their salaries increased in successive
appropriation bills over the sum originally provided, in precisely
the same way that the salary of the secretary of the Commission was
increased. The 53d Congress was Democratic, as was the President, Mr.
Cleveland, and the secretary of the Commission was himself a Democrat,
who had been appointed to the position by Mr. Cleveland during his
first term as President. The rules of the House provide that there
shall be no increase of salary beyond that provided in existing law in
any appropriation bill. When the appropriation for the Civil Service
Commission came up in the House, Mr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky,
made the point of order that to give $2000 to the secretary of the
Commission was to increase his salary by $400 over that provided in the
original law of 1883, and was therefore out of order. He also produced
a list of twenty or thirty other officers, including the President’s
private secretary, the First Assistant Postmaster-General, etc., whose
salaries were similarly increased. He withdrew his point of order as
regards these persons, but adhered to it as regards the secretary
of the Commission. The chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Mr.
O’Neill, of Massachusetts, sustained the point of order; and not one
person made any objection or made any fight, and the bill was put
through the House with the secretary’s salary reduced.
Now, the point of order was probably ill taken anyhow. The existing
law was and had been for ten years that the salary was $2000. But, in
any event, had there been a single Congressman alert to the situation
and willing to make a fight he could have stopped the whole movement
by at once making a similar point of order against the President’s
private secretary, against the First Assistant Postmaster-General,
the Assistant Secretary of State, and all the others involved. The
House would of course have refused to cut down the salaries of all
of these officials, and a resolute man, willing to insist that they
should all go or none, could have saved the salary of the secretary
of the Civil Service Commission. There were plenty of men who would
have done this if it had been pointed out to them; but no one did so,
and Mr. Breckinridge’s point of order was sustained, and the salary
of the secretary reduced by $400. When it got over to the Senate,
however, the Civil Service reformers had allies who needed but little
coaching. In the first place, the sub-committee of the Committee on
Appropriations, composed of Messrs. Teller, Cockrell, and Allison,
to which the Civil Service Commission section of the Appropriation
bill was referred, restored the salary to $2000; but Senator Gorman
succeeded in carrying, by a bare majority, the Appropriations Committee
against it, and it was reported to the full Senate still at $1600. The
minute it got into the full Senate, however, Senator Lodge had a fair
chance at it, and it was known that he would receive ample support.
All that he had to do was to show clearly the absolute folly of the
provision thus put in by Mr. Breckinridge, and kept in by Mr. Gorman,
and to make it evident that he intended to fight it resolutely. The
opposition collapsed at once; the salary was put back at $2000, and the
bill became a law in that form.
Whether bad legislation shall be choked and good legislation forwarded
depends largely upon the composition of the committees on Civil
Service reform of the Senate and the Lower House. The make-up of these
committees is consequently of great importance. They are charged with
the duty of investigating complaints against the Commission, and it is
of course very important that if ever the Commission becomes corrupt
or inefficient its shortcomings should be unsparingly exposed in
Congress. On the other hand, it is equally important that the falsity
of untruthful charges advanced against it should be made public. In the
51st, 52d, and 53d Congresses a good deal of work was done by the Civil
Service Committee of the House, and none at all by the corresponding
committee of the Senate. The three chairmen of the House committee were
Mr. Lehlbach, Mr. Andrew, and Mr. De Forest. All three were able and
conscientious men and stanch supporters of the law. The chairman in
the 52d Congress, Mr. John F. Andrew, was throughout his whole term of
service one of the ablest, most fearless, and most effective champions
of the cause of the reform in the House. Among the other members of
the committee, in different Congresses, who stood up valiantly for
the reform, were Mr. Hopkins, of Illinois, Mr. Butterworth, of Ohio,
Mr. Boatner, of Louisiana, and Mr. Dargan and Mr. Brawley, of South
Carolina. Occasionally there have been on the committee members who
were hostile to the reform, such as Mr. Alderson, of West Virginia;
but these have not been men carrying weight in the House. The men of
intelligence and ability who once familiarize themselves with the
workings of the system, as they are bound to do if they are on the
committee, are sure to become its supporters. In both the 51st and
the 52d Congresses charges were made against the Commission, and
investigations were held into its actions and into the workings of the
law by the House committee. In each case, in its report the committee
not only heartily applauded the conduct of the Commission, but no less
heartily approved the workings of the law, and submitted bills to
increase the power of the Commission and to render the law still more
wide-reaching and drastic. These bills, unfortunately, were never acted
on in the House.