These require appointments to
office, made by officials, to be made on the basis of competitive
examinations which shall test the ability and knowledge of the
applicants. By this means, within a generation, tens of thousands of
positions have been put beyond the reach of spoilsmen, and men of worth
have replaced political henchmen. Instead of a great overturn with
every new political regime, the man who has now fairly won his position
retains it for life, except in case of proved inefficiency. The quality
of the public service has been immeasurably improved, the subservience
of office-holders to political chiefs abolished. [Footnote: See
Atlantic Monthly, vol. 113, p. 270. National Municipal Review, vol.
1, p. 654; vol. 3, p. 316.] But there are still many thousands of offices
that have not been brought within the civil service, and there are
continual attempts on the part of politicians to withdraw from it this
or that class of appointments, that they may have "plums" to offer
their constituents. To the most important positions the civil service
method is, however, inapplicable; imagine a President having to appoint
as his Secretary of State the man who passed the best examination in
diplomacy! So many other considerations affect the availability of
a man for such posts that the elected officials must be given a free
hand in their choice and held responsible therefore to the people.
These important appointees will be enough in the public eye to make
it usually expedient for the career of the appointers that they pick
reasonably honest and able men-especially if the recall (of which we
shall presently speak) is in operation.
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