Since the spoils system is almost a second-nature tenet for elected officers of high or low degree, it is impossible to view with anything except admiration the hopeful courage of the distinguished men who are giving of their time and talents to make government service a "career" job. They realize, we suppose, as well as anybody the magnitude of the task they have undertaken. They know the obstacles which must be overcome before even moderate success can crown their efforts. No doubt they visualize their problem as comprehending not only a complete change in the mental processes of statesmen and politicians, but also the education of the masses of the people to such a degree that they will be satisfied with nothing less than the best possible selections for appointive public positions.

In the United States today there are more than three million persons drawing 2salaries from various governmental departments--national, state and municipal. They are paid about $500,000,000 annually. As to the number of these men and women who are worth the wages given them one guess is probably as good as another. But it can hardly be disputed that any business concern choosing its employees by such haphazard methods as the government uses in the selection of the personnel of its public service would face ruin from the start. The only reason why the government can go ahead in this slipshod manner is because it has no competition. Unfortunately it is its own yardstick. Otherwise it would have been discovered a long time ago that its operations were distinctly inefficient and conspicuously wasteful.

It is true that many public servants are under civil service, but even this fact does not of itself guarantee competent accomplishment. It gives the employees a certain feeling of security and prevents and orgy of firing whenever a new administration comes upon the scene. More than this, however, is demanded. In the words of the Commission of Inquiry on Public Service Personnel, it is "imperative that government employment be placed on a career 3basis so that it will become a worth-while life work with entrance open and attractive to young men and women of capacity and character, and with opportunity to advance to posts of distinction and service".

All this is a large order, especially since it is true, as we have already said, that most men elected to office are disposed to feel that victory at the polls includes a grant to a right to spoils.....

Before anything in the nature of correction can be accomplished, there must be a new kind of thinking, a different conception of political obligation, and a changed attitude toward public service. The first task is to convince the taxpayer that reform vitally affects his pocketbook. It is to the performance of this task that the Commission should immediately give its attention. It may well be questioned whether it will receive much help from certain quarters of the present Administration. President Roosevelt, to be sure, has expressed sympathy with the aims of the Commission; but nobody knows better than he how unpopular so radical a move would be, not only in 4some executive departments in Washington, but also with many of the congressmen and senators. After one has had the loaves and the fishes it is hard to give them up.