One of the worst evils of the spoils system was the fact that public employees were made to pay a large fraction of their salaries to party funds, and another was that these employees were forced to work for the party in power in order to keep their places. Both these practices are now forbidden by law in the service of the United States. No one in the service is allowed to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of others. All persons in the service are forbidden to ask or receive polit ical contributions from others in the service. Such contributions cannot be solicited in any place or building used by the government. By the rules, which have the force of law, no ques tion can be asked of candidates for appointment as to their political or religious opinions; no disclosures of such opinions can be considered; no change of rank or pay can be made because of such opinions. Under the spoils system, the office-holder got his place from his party and was taxed heavily by his party managers. The law intends to put a stop to that; it holds the officer bound only to earn his pay by honest work, and free to spend it as he chooses. The law further holds him without fear of harm or hope of aid from outside, to do his duty to his employers, the whole people of the United States. It aims to put the people and those who work for them on the same footing that is maintained in honorable private business be tween employers and employed.
The merit system has been greatly extended since the passage of the law. Under President Arthur, who signed the law in 1883, some 16,000 places were brought within its provisions. The number is now over 120,000. While this ad vance has been made there have been more frequent changes of party in the government of the country than in any like period in our history. Each succeeding President, until the present, has, in the discretion which the law confides to the President only, added to the number of places removed from the spoils system. President McKinley withdrew a con siderable number of places from the merit system for reasons urged upon him by the heads of some departments. The effect has been unfortunate. President Taft, near the close of his administration, transferred all the fourth class postmasterships to the classified service. President Roosevelt increased the number by including the deputy collectors of customs and internal revenue. The merit sys tem has been extended to the service in the Philippine Islands in a way that promises to make the work of governing there clean, effi cient and fair to a degree that could hardly have been looked for. In this region the bond of trusteeship rests upon our government with a peculiar and solemn obligation. The United States have taken control of the affairs of the people of these islands as the result of a war with Spain, without the assent of the peo ple in the first instance, and against resistance by a portion of them which was overcome by arms. It would be a sore disgrace if their affairs were not managed honestly and purely and for the interest of the governed. The merit system on the lines of the Civil Service Law has been established there, under the general guidance of an experienced and skilled exam iner from Washington. As many natives as practicable are being employed. It is still too early to judge of the final outcome, but the beginning is promising.
The chief aim of the merit system is, on the one hand, to get the best service for the govern ment— that is, for the people — and, on the other hand, to remove from the party contests of the country the corrupting influence of the vast number of business places offered as spoils to the victors. The methods of competition and probation are not perfect, and, like all other human methods, are liable to mismanagement.
But they are the best that have ever been tried, and they are very effective. The test of com petitive examination is shown to be thorough and practical by the fact that only a very small number of those who pass that test are dropped after probation or trial. Another proof is the much larger amount of work done by persons so selected. During 10 years before the adoption of the merit system in the departments at Wash ington the number of clerks increased from 3,300 to 5,523, or more than two-thirds. In the 13 years after the system was adopted the num ber actually fell off 211, or 3 per cent, while the work of the departments had largely in creased. Another proof of the efficiency of the system is the small number of changes that take place in it compared with those that take place in the branches of the service where the system is not yet applied.
The entrance examinations are held in all parts of the land, and men and women are selected for the departments at Washington with no regard whatever for their party views or the influence of politicians. This has been of great effect in laying to rest the passions bred by the Civil War, and giving to the dwellers in the South a sense of their common rights and duties as citizens of the nation. It is a great and lasting gain.
In 1884, laws for the introduction of the merit system were enacted in New York and Massachusetts, and later laws authorize the system in the service of cities in Wisconsin and Illinois. In Massachusetts and in New York the system has made much progress and the results have been good in proportion as the system has been extended and honestly and faithfully applied. But the evils of the spoils system still prevail almost without check in the service of the cities and the States through out the country. The enormous number. of places involved are still almost wholly the pnzes of party contests. The place-holders, many times more numerous than the present army of the United States, are in greater part enlisted for party rather than for public service. Effi ciency, industry and economy in the public work are hard to secure. The suppression of vice and the decent administration of the affairs of cities and States are made more difficult.
Clearly it is best that the merit system should be applied to aIl that portion of the civil service in which the duties are of a business nature and in Which the office-holders are not called on to fix the policy of the government. There is no Democratic or Republican or Populist way of being honest and industrious and intelligent which all Americans may not use. To these qualities in their service the people have a right, and no party can claim a monopoly of them. Much remains to be done to complete the work so well begun. The men in all parties who look on public employment, not as a trust, but as the spoils of party victory, resist all advance and seek to undo what has been done. They cannot succeed if the true nature of the ment system is understood, its honesty and fairness, its high utility and its fidelity to the funda mental principle of the free institutions of the American republic. From 1915 on the Civil Service Reform League conducted a vigorous agitation to bring all classes of postmasters into the classified service, all diplomatic secretaries and consular officers to be transferred to the classified service. The Leape also co-operated by request to ensure efficiency in war serv ice. Consult Roosevelt, Theodore,