This civil service law is the biggest fraud of the age. It is the curse
of the nation. There can't be no real patriotism while it lasts. How
are you goin' to interest our young men in their country if you have no
offices to give them when they work for their party? Just look at things
in this city today. There are ten thousand good offices, but we can't
get at more than a few hundred of them. How are we goin' to provide
for the thousands of men who worked for the Tammany ticket? It can't be
done. These men were full of patriotism a short time ago. They expected
to be servin' their city, but when we tell them that we can't place
them, do you think their patriotism is goin' to last? Not much. They
say: "What's the use of workin' for your country anyhow? There's nothin'
in the game." And what can they do? I don't know, but I'll tell you what
I do know. I know more than one young man in past years who worked for
the ticket and was just overflowin' with patriotism, but when he was
knocked out by the civil service humbug he got to hate his country and
became an Anarchist.
This ain't no exaggeration. I have good reason for sayin' that most
of the Anarchists in this city today are men who ran up against civil
service examinations. Isn't it enough to make a man sour on his country
when he wants to serve it and won't be allowed unless he answers a
lot of fool questions about the number of cubic inches of water in the
Atlantic and the quality of sand in the Sahara desert? There was once a
bright young man in my district who tackled one of these examinations.
The next I heard of him he had settled down in Herr Most's saloon
smokin' and drinkin' beer and talkin' socialism all day. Before that
time he had never drank anything but whisky. I knew what was comm' when
a young Irishman drops whisky and takes to beer and long pipes in a
German saloon. That young man is today one of the wildest Anarchists in
town. And just to think! He might be a patriot but for that cussed civil
service.
Say, did you hear about that Civil Service Reform Association kickin'
because the tax commissioners want to put their fifty-five deputies on
the exempt list, and fire the outfit left to them by Low? That's civil
service for you. Just think! Fifty-five Republicans and mugwumps holdin'
$8000 and $4000 and $5000 jobs in the tax department when 1555 good
Tammany men are ready and willin' to take their places! It's an
outrage! What did the people mean when they voted for Tammany? What
is representative government, anyhow? Is it all a fake that this is a
government of the people, by the people and for the people? If it isn't
a fake, then why isn't the people's voice obeyed and Tammany men put in
all the offices?
When the people elected Tammany, they knew just what they were doin'.
We didn't put up any false pretenses. We didn't go in for humbug
civil service and all that rot. We stood as we have always stood, for
reward--in' the men that won the victory. They call that the spoils
system. All right; Tammany is for the spoils system, and when we go in
we fire every anti-Tammany man from office that can be fired under the
law. It's an elastic sort of law and you can bet it will be stretched to
the limit Of course the Republican State Civil Service Board will
stand in the way of our local Civil Service Commission all it can; but
say!--suppose we carry the State sometime, won't we fire the upstate
Board all right? Or we'll make it work in harmony with the local board,
and that means that Tammany will get everything in sight. I know that
the civil service humbug is stuck into the constitution, too, but, as
Tim Campbell said: "What's the constitution among friends?"
Say, the people's voice is smothered by the cursed civil service law;
it is the root of all evil in our government. You hear of this thing or
that thing goin' wrong in the nation, the State or the city. Look down
beneath the surface and you can trace everything wrong to civil service.
I have studied the subject and I know. The civil service humbug is
underminin' our institutions and if a halt ain't called soon this
great republic will tumble down like a Park Avenue house when they
were buildin' the subway, and on its ruins will rise another Russian
government.
This is an awful serious proposition. Free silver and the tariff and
imperialism and the Panama Canal are triflin' issues when compared to
it. We could worry along without any of these things, but civil service
is sappin' the foundation of the whole shootin' match, let me argue it
out for you. I ain't up on sillygisms, but I can give you some arguments
that nobody can answer.
First, this great and glorious country was built up by political
parties; second, parties can't hold together if their workers don't
get the offices when they win; third, if the parties go to pieces, the
government they built up must go to pieces, too; fourth, then there'll
be h---- to pay.
Could anything be clearer than that? Say, honest now; can you answer
that argument? Of course you won't deny that the government was built
up by the great parties. That's history, and you can't go back of the
returns. As to my second proposition, you can't deny that either. When
parties can't get offices, they'll bust. They ain't far from the bustin'
point now, with all this civil service business keepin' most of the good
things from them. How are you goin' to keep up patriotism if this thing
goes On? You can't do it. Let me tell you that patriotism has been dying
out fast for the last twenty years. Before then when a party won,
its workers got everything in sight. That was somethin' to make a man
patriotic. Now, when a party wins and its men come forward and ask for
their rewards, the reply is, "Nothin' doin', unless you can answer a
list of questions about Egyptian mummies and how many years it will take
for a bird to wear out a mass of iron as big as the earth by steppin' on
it once in a century?"
I have studied politics and men for forty-five years, and I see how
things are driftin'. Sad indeed is the change that has come over the
young men, even in my district, where I try to keep up the fire of
patriotism by gettin' a lot of jobs for my constituents, whether Tammany
is in or out. The boys and men don't get excited any more when they see
a United States flag or hear "The Star-Spangled Banner." They don't care
no more for firecrackers on the Fourth of July. And why should they?
What is there in it for them? They know that no matter how hard they
work for their country in a campaign, the jobs will go to fellows who
can tell about the mummies and the bird steppin' on the iron. Are you
surprised then that the young men of the country are beginnin' to look
coldly on the flag and don't care to put up a nickel for firecrackers?
15 The Curse of Civil Service Reform
Say, let me tell of one case--After the battle of San Juan Hill, the
Americans found a dead man with a light complexion, red hair and blue
eyes. They could see he wasn't a Spaniard, although he had on a Spanish
uniform. Several officers looked him over, and then a private of the
Seventy-first Regiment saw him and yelled, "Good Lord, that's Flaherty."
That man grew up in my district, and he was once the most patriotic
American boy on the West Side. He couldn't see a flag without yellin'
himself hoarse.
Now, how did he come to be lying dead with a Spanish uniform on? I found
out all about it, and I'll vouch for the story. Well, in the municipal
campaign of 1897, that young man, chockful of patriotism, worked day and
night for the Tammany ticket. Tammany won, and the young man determined
to devote his life to the service of the city. He picked out a place
that would suit him, and sent in his application to the head of
department. He got a reply that he must take a civil service examination
to get the place. He didn't know what these examinations were, so
he went, all lighthearted, to the Civil Service Board. He read the
questions about the mummies, the bird on the iron, and all the other
fool questions--and he left that office an enemy of the country that he
had loved so well. The mummies and the bird blasted his patriotism. He
went to Cuba, enlisted in the Spanish army at the breakin' out of the
war, and died fightin' his country.
That is but one victim of the infamous civil service. If that young man
had not run up against the civil examination, but had been allowed to
serve his country as he wished, he would be in a good office today,
drawin' a good salary. Ah, how many young men have had their patriotism
blasted in the same way!
Now, what is goin' to happen when civil service crushes out patriotism?
Only one thing can happen: the republic will go to pieces. Then a
czar or a sultan will turn up, which brings me to the fourthly of my
argument--that is, there will be h---- to pay. And that ain't no lie.