office. The very lowest political services have been rewarded with the
best positions. Political candidates have had to promise before their
election to make certain appointments to office which had nothing at all
to do with the fitness of the appointee; and such appointee, when
actually instated, has not only neglected his office, but sometimes
criminally misused it for embezzlement and fraudulent contracts, for
government deals in which he has had some personal advantage, or for the
smuggling in of friends and relatives to inferior positions. Politicians
have too often sought to exact all sorts of devious personal and
political services from those whom they have previously recommended for
office in order to hush them up. Through the intrigues of such men all
sorts of unnecessary positions have been created, in order to provide
for political friends from the public treasury; and the contest for
these personal nominations has consumed untold time and strength in the
legislative chambers. No one can fail to see that such sores will
develop over and over in the political organism so long as the principle
is recognized of making official appointments on the basis of party
allegiance. While criminal misuse of such a practice is the exception,
and the honourable endeavour to pick out the best candidates and their
honest performance of duty are the rule, nevertheless every thoughtful
friend of the country’s welfare must wish to make all such exceptions
impossible.
There is another unfavourable effect which such a system must have,
within the party itself. A man who is put into office by politicians,
unless he is a strong man, will labour in the interests of his
benefactors, will carry party politics into places where they do not
belong, and be ready to let the party rob him of a certain portion of
his salary as a contribution to the party treasury, as has been
customary for a long time. In this way salaries have been increased in
order that a considerable portion might redound to the party treasury,
and thus the means be won for bringing the party victoriously through
the next elections; and in this way the official has been able to assure
himself as good an office, or perhaps a better one, in the future. The
same thing happens once more in city politics where the funds levied on
city officials have made a considerable share of the party’s assets.
There has been good reason, therefore, why public opinion has for a long
time demanded, and with increasing energy, an entire change in such a
state of things; and aside from the positions of actual confidence, in
which in fact only men of a certain political faith could be of any
service, it has demanded that public offices be put on a non-partisan
basis and given out with a view solely to the efficiency of the
appointee.
Such a problem hardly existed during the first forty years of American
constitutional government; officials were appointed in a business-like
way. A man in office stayed there as long as he did his duties well, and
the advent of a new party in the higher positions had very little
influence on the lower ones. It was deemed tyranny to dismiss a
competent official in order to put a party adherent in his position. The
statistics show that at that time not more than forty-two changes on the
average were made on such political grounds every year. The opposite
practice first arose in the cities, and especially in New York, whence
it spread to the state, where in 1818 a whole regiment of party
followers was established in the government offices of the state by Van
Buren. And under President Jackson the principle finally became adopted
in the federal government. About the year 1830, it became an unwritten
law that official positions should be the spoils of victory at the
elections and go to the favoured party. People were aware that there was
no better way of getting party adherents to be industrious than to
promise them positions if they would help the party to gain its victory.
The reaction commenced at about the middle of the last century, closely
following on a similar movement in England.
As the power of the English Parliament grew, popular representatives had
demanded their share in the distributing of offices, and an obnoxious
trading in salaries had become prevalent. When at last the abuses became
too frequent, just before the middle of the last century, England
instituted official examinations in order to weed out the obviously
unfit candidates. It was not really a true competition, since the
candidate was still appointed to office by the politicians. But the
examination made sure of a minimal amount of proper training.
The American Congress followed this example during the fifties. Certain
groups of minor positions were made, for which appointment could be had
only after an examination. England now went further on the same course,
and America followed her lead. On both sides of the ocean the
insignificant examination of the candidate who had backing, became a
general examination for all who wished to apply; so that the position
came to be given to the best candidate. The Civil-Service Commission was
instituted by President Grant, and for thirty years its beneficent
influence has steadily grown, and it has made great inroads on the old
system. The regular politicians who could not endure being deprived of
the positions which they wished to pledge to their campaign supporters
have naturally tried time after time to stem the current, and with some
success. In 1875 Congress discontinued the salaries which had been paid
the Commissioners; then competitive examinations were given up, and in
their stead single examinations instituted for candidates who had been
recommended by political influence.
But here, if anywhere, public opinion has been stronger than party
spirit. Under President Hayes, and then under Garfield and Arthur, the
competitive system was partly reinstated, and while the number of
positions which were open only to those who had successfully passed the
public examinations increased, at the same time the reprehensible
taxation of officials for party ends was finally stopped. This did not
prevent a certain smaller number of positions from retaining their
partisan complexion; and the opinions and party creed of these
incumbents continued to be important, so that whenever one party
succeeded another, a certain amount of change was still necessary. So
there remain two great divisions of the public service—the political
offices which the President fills by appointment in co-operation with
the Senate, and the so-called “classified” offices which are given out
on the basis of public examinations. Public opinion and the sincere
supporters of civil-service reform, among whom is President Roosevelt
himself, are working all the time for an increase in the number of
classified positions and a corresponding decrease in the political
group.
The open opponents of this movement, of whom there are many in both
parties, are hard at work in the opposite direction, and are too often
supported by the faint-hearted friends of the reform, who recognize its
theoretical advantages, but have some practical benefit to derive by
pursuing the methods which they decry. There is no doubt that again in
the last ten years some steps have been taken backward, and on various
pretexts many important positions have been withdrawn from the
classified service and restored to Senatorial patronage.
The actual situation is as follows. There are 114,000 non-classified
positions, with a total salary of $45,000,000, and 121,000 classified
positions which bring a salary of $85,000,000. Among the former, where
no competition exists, over 77,000 are postmasterships; then there are
consular, diplomatic, and other high positions, and a large number of
places for labourers. In the classified service, there are 17,000
positions for officials who live in Washington, 5,000 of which are in
the treasury. The committees on the commission have about 400 different
kinds of examinations to give. Last year 47,075 persons were examined
for admission to the civil service; 21,000 of these for the government
service, 3,000 for the customs, and 21,000 for the postal service. There
were about 1,000 examinations more for advancements in office and
exchange from one part of the service to another, and 439 persons were
examined for service in the Philippines. Out of all these applicants
33,739 passed the examinations, and of these 11,764 obtained positions
which are theirs for life, independent of any change which may take
place at the White House. It is a matter of course that the security
which these positions give of life-long employment is the highest
incentive to faithful service and conscientious and industrious labour.
The difference between the two services was again clearly brought out in
the last great scandal, which greatly stirred up the federal
administration. The Post-Office Department had closed a number of
contracts for certain utensils from which certain officials, or at least
their relatives, made considerable profits. Everything had been most
discreetly hidden, and it took an investigation of several months to
uncover the crookedness. But when everything had come out, it appeared
that the officials who were seriously involved all belonged to the
unclassified service, while the classified service of the Post-Office
was found to be an admirable example of conscientious and faithful
office-holding. Certain it is that such criminal misuse, even among the
confidential positions, is a rare exception; it is no less sure that the
temptations are much greater there. A man who holds office, not because
he is peculiarly fitted for it, but because he has been generally useful
in politics, knowing as he does that the next time the parties change
places his term of office will be up, will always be too ready to use
his position for the party rather than for the country, and finally for
himself and his pocket-book rather than for his party.
Now, if civil-service reform is to spread or even to take no steps
backward, public opinion must be armed for continual battle against
party politicians. But it is an insult to the country when, as too often
happens, some one tries to make it appear that the opponents of reform
are consciously corrupt. The difficulty of the problem lies just in the
fact that most honourable motives may be uppermost on both sides; and
one has to recognize this, although one may be convinced that the
reformer has the better arguments on his side. The filling of positions
by party adherents, as a reward for their services, puts an
extraordinary amount of willing labour at the service of the party. And
undoubtedly the party system is necessary in America, and demands for
its existence just such a tremendous amount of work. The non-classified
positions are to the American party politicians exactly what the orders
and titles which he can award are to the European monarch; and the
dyed-in-the-wool party leader would in all honesty be glad to throw
overboard the whole “humbug” of civil-service reform, since he would
rather see his party victorious—that is, his party principles
acknowledged in high federal places—than see his country served as
economically, faithfully, and ably as possible. In fact, the regular
party politician has come to look on the frequent shake-up among
office-holders as an ideal condition. Just as no President can be
elected more than twice, he conceives it to be unsound and un-American
to leave an official too long in any one position.
The full significance of the problem comes out when one realizes that
the same is true once more in the separate state, and again in every
municipality. The states and cities have their classified service,
appointment to which is independent of party allegiance, as of governor
or mayor, and in addition to this confidential positions for which the
governor and legislature or the mayor and city council are responsible.
Municipal service has attracted an increasing amount of public attention
in recent years, owing to the extremely great abuses which it can
harbour.
Fraudulent contracts, the grant of handsome monopolies to street
railway, gas, electric-light, telephone, and pier companies, the
purchase of land and material for public buildings, and the laying out
of new streets—all these things, owing to the extraordinarily rapid
growth of municipalities, afford such rich opportunities for theft, and
this can be so easily hidden from the state attorney, that frightfully
large numbers of unscrupulous people have been attracted into public
life. And the more that purely municipal politics call for a kind of
party service which is very little edifying or interesting to a
gentleman in frock and silk hat, so much the more other kinds of men
force their way into politics in large cities and get control of the
popular vote, not in order to support certain principles, but to secure
for themselves positions from the winning party, of which the salary is
worth something and the dishonest perquisites may be “worth” a great
deal more. Even here again the service to the city is not necessarily
bad, and certainly not so bad as the scandal-mongering press of the
opposite party generally represents it. Most of the office-holders are
decent people, who are contented with the moderate salary and modest
social honour of their positions. Nevertheless, a good deal that is
impure does creep in, and the service would be more efficient if it
could be made independent of the party machine. Public opinion is sure
of this.
Each party is naturally convinced that the greatest blame belongs with
the other, and in strict logic one can no more accuse one party of
corruption than the other. The Republican party in a certain sense whets
the general instinct for greed more than the Democratic, so that its
opponents like to call it “the mother of corruption.” It is a part of
the Republican confession of faith, in consequence of its centralizing
spirit, that the state cannot leave everything to free competition, but
must itself exert a regulating influence; thus the Republican does not
believe in free-trade, and he thinks it quite right for an industry or
any economic enterprise which is going badly, or which fancies that it
is not prospering enough, or which for any reason at all would like to
make more money, to apply to the state for protection, and to be
favoured at the expense of the rest of the community. The principle of
complete equality is here lost, and the spirit of preference, of favours
for the few against the many, and of the employment of public credit for
the advantage of the avaricious, is virtually recognized. And when this
spirit has once spread and gone through all party life, there is no way
of preventing a situation in which every one applies to the public funds
for his own enrichment, and the strongest industries secure monopolies
and influence the legislatures in their favour by every means which the
party has at its disposal.
The Democrats, on the other hand, desire equal rights for all, and free
competition between all economic enterprises; they approve of all
centrifugal and individualistic tendencies. And yet if the state does
not exert some regulative influence, the less moral elements of society
will misuse their freedom, and they will be freer in the end than the
citizens who scrupulously and strictly govern themselves. And the spirit
of unrestraint and immorality will be ever more in evidence. The
Democratic party will be forced to make concessions to this idea if it
desires to retain its domination over the masses, and any one who first
begins to make concessions to individual crookedness is necessarily
inoculated. Thus it happens that in the Republican party there is a
tendency to introduce corruption from above, and in the Democratic party
from below.
If in a large town, say, the Republican party is dominant, the chief
public enemies will be the industrial corporations, with their
tremendous means and their watered securities; but if the Democratic
party is uppermost, the worst enemies will be the liquor dealers,
procurers, and gamblers. Correspondingly, in the former case, the honour
of the city council which closes huge contracts with stock companies
will succumb, while in the latter it will be the conscience of the
policeman on the corner who pockets a little consideration when the
bar-keeper wants to keep open beyond the legal hour. And since the
temptation to take small bribes are ten thousand times more frequent
than the chances for graft on a large scale, the total damage to public
morals is about the same in both cases. But we must repeat once more
that these delinquencies are after all the exception rather than the
rule, and happily are for the most part expiated behind the bars of a
penitentiary.
Most of all, it must be insisted that public opinion is all the time
following up these excrescences on party life, and that public opinion
presses forward year by year at an absolutely sure pace, and purifies
the public atmosphere. All these evil conditions are easy to change.
When Franklin came to England he was alarmed to see what fearful
corruptions prevailed in English official life; such a thing was unknown
at that time in America. Now England has long ago wiped out the blot,
and America, which fell into its political mire a half-century later,
will soon be out again and free; just as it has got rid of other
nuisances. Every year brings some advance, and the student of American
conditions should not let himself be deceived by appearances.
On the surface, for instance, the last mayoralty election in New York
City would seem to indicate a downward tendency. New York two years
previously had turned out the scandalous Tammany Hall gang with Van Wyck
and his brutal extortionist, Chief of Police Devery, by a non-partisan
alliance of all decent people in the city. New York had elected by a
handsome majority Seth Low, the President of Columbia University, to be
its mayor, and thereby had instated the principle that, the best
municipal government must use only business methods and be independent
of political parties. Seth Low was supported by distinguished reformers
in both parties, and was brilliantly successful in placing the entire
city government on a distinctly higher level. The public schools, the
general hygiene, the highways, and the police force were all thoroughly
cleansed of impure elements and reformed without regard to party, on the
purest and most business-like principle.
And then came the day for another election. Once more the independent
voters, including the best men in both parties, the intellectual leaders
and the socially dominant forces of the city, were banded together again
to save their city of three million inhabitants from party politics, and
to insure by their co-operation a continuance of the honest,
business-like administration. They made Seth Low their candidate again;
he was opposed by McClellan, the candidate of Tammany Hall, the party
which loudly declares that “To the victors belong the spoils,” and that
the thousands of municipal offices are to be the prey of party
adherents. This was the candidate of the party which admitted that all
the hopes of the worst proletariat, of prostitution and vagabondage,
depended on its success; the candidate of a party which declared that it
would everywhere rekindle the “red light,” that it would not enforce the
unpopular temperance laws, and that it would leave the city “wide open.”
On the day of election 251,000 votes were cast for Mayor Low, but
313,000 for Colonel McClellan.
Now, does this really indicate that the majority of the city of New York
consists of gamblers, extortioners, and criminals? One who read the
Republican campaign literature issued before the election might suppose
so. After reading on every street corner and fence and on giant banners
the campaign cry, “Vote for Low and keep the grafters out,” one might
think that 300,000 pick-pockets had united to force out a clean
administration and to place corruption on the throne. But on looking
more closely at the situation one must see that no such thing was in
question. Seth Low had furnished a clean administration, yet not a
perfect one, and his mistakes had so seriously disaffected many citizens
that they would rather endure the corruption of Tammany Hall than the
brusqueness and various aggravations which threatened from his side.
Of these grievances, a typical one was the limitation of German
instruction in the public schools. From the pedagogical point of view,
this was not wholly wrong; and leading educationists, even German ones,
had recommended the step. But at the same time the great German
population was bitterly offended, and the whole discussions of the
school board had angered the German citizens enough to cool off
considerably their enthusiasm for reform. Then on top of this, Low’s
administration had rigorously enforced certain laws of Sunday observance
which the German part of the population cordially hated. Here, too,
Mayor Low was undoubtedly right; he was enforcing the law; but when two
years previously he had wished to win over the German vote, he had
promised more than he could fulfill. But, most of all, Seth Low was
socially an aristocrat, who had no common feeling with the masses; and
whenever he spoke in popular assemblies he displayed no magnetism. Every
one felt too keenly that he looked down on them from his exalted social
height.
Against him were the Tammany people, of whom at least one thing must be
said: they know the people and their needs. They have grown up among the
people. In contrast to many a Republican upstart who, according to the
European fashion, is servile to his superiors and harsh with his
inferiors, these Tammany men are harsh to their superiors—that is, they
shake the nerves of the more refined—but are servile before the masses
and comply with every wish. And most of all, they are really the friends
of the populace, sincerely true and helpful to it. Moreover, just these
great masses have more to suffer under a good administration than under
the corrupt government which lets every one do as he likes. These people
do not notice that the strict, hygienic administration reduced the
death-rate and the list of casualties, and improved the public schools;
but they notice when for such improvements they have to pay a cent more
in taxation, or have to put safer staircases or fire-escapes on their
houses, or to abandon tottering structures, or if they are not allowed
to beg without a permit, or are forbidden to throw refuse in the
streets. In short, these people notice a slight expense or an
insignificant prohibition, and do not see that in the end they are
greatly benefited. And so, when the day of reckoning comes, when the
election campaigns are fought, in which distinguished reformers deliver
scholarly addresses on the advantages of a non-partisan administration
while the candidates of the people excite them with promises that they
shall be free from all these oppressive burdens—it is no wonder that
Seth Low is not returned to the City Hall, and that McClellan, who by
the way is a highly educated and cultured politician, is entrusted with
the city government.
Such an outcome is not a triumph for vice and dishonour. In two years
the reformers will probably conquer again, since every administration
makes its enemies and so excites opposition. But there can be no doubt
that even on this occasion public opinion, with its desire to reform,
has triumphed, although the official friends of reform were outdone;
such a man as the former Chief of Police, Devery, will be impossible in
the future. Public opinion sees to it that when the two parties stand in
opposition the fight is fought each successive time on a higher level.
And Tammany of to-day as compared with the Tammany of years gone by is
the best evidence for the victory of public opinion and the reformers.
CHAPTER TEN
_External Political Problems_