who is an honest man and who capably represents the British crown. Perhaps I ought to qualify. You may do business with him if he is ready. It takes him a long time to get ready. He might remind you of the blunt old lady who, sitting on the middle of a bench in Central park and asked by a young man with his girl to move along so that they might sit together, answered, "No, I won't. New York ain't no place to be accommodatin' in." If he did, it would not be because he dropped the same letters she did, or had her pestiferous feelings, but because his temperament makes him deliberate and his training makes him resistive. In any event, he is part of a great, honest, and uniformly intelligent service. If he could have a little more of bending courtesy, a trifle more of cordial politeness, he would approach the ideal. As it is, he is a good character. He is made a better character because of the pride he has in his service. He puts H. M. S. (His Majesty's Service) upon his engraved visiting cards, and he writes it after his name in the hotel registers with the air of a man who feels that it is an honor to be associated with the British civil service.

The American cosmopolitan character, and particularly the jovial spirit of American politics, puts into the American public service the factors which the English service lacks. But the American service has not yet acquired all of the desirable ingredients which the British service has. It is not so old and, aside from that, it has more to contend with.

The provision in Magna Charta by which the King engaged not to "make any justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the realm," was the first real stroke at the theory of the feudal kings that all public offices were their personal perquisites and that all appointees must become their personal retainers and supporters. But no one then conceived the extent of the intricacies of modern public service. It was six hundred years after Magna Charta before Great Britain began to take a rational attitude concerning the constitution of the civil service. We separated from her without bringing away any information or any laws or traditions upon that subject, and until real needs and dangers appeared the pioneer life and democratic government in this country were not as favorable to the systematic organization and regulation of the public service here as the economic and political conditions in the old country were favorable to it there.

Our country is a democracy. The British empire is a monarchy - a limited monarchy, it is true, but still a monarchy. Kings and

b

queens may come and go, but the crown stays in the family and goes on forever. They are never torn up by a presidential election. That is not saying that it would not be better if they were. Their parliamentary elections are far less frequent than ours. And when the control passes from one party to another and a new cabinet results, it has no effect upon the personnel of the civil service. They are distinctly opposed to frequent changes, while we seem to like them. But that is perhaps the least of it. The masses are deliberately kept from thinking that they may enter the public service. The sons of the higher orders are especially trained for that service. All the rest are destined to simple, unofficial employment, if not to personal service. They are in a bad, though rather promising, mix-up over there just now about elementary schools. They have no such universal, common, primary school system as ours. They have universities for the higher classes but the humbler classes do not think of going to them. They do not hear that if they do not go to college they will miss their opportunity in life. There is no system of high schools to connect the elementary schools with the universities. The boys are not told that they have an equal chance with every other boy to get up near the headship of the kingdom. If they were told so it would not be true. Not many are even headed for clerkships. The great body are destined for manual work. They follow their fathers. But they are not troubled about it. They are a capable, substantial, deliberate and contented people, who often have a better time of it and live longer than some of us who are everlastingly scrambling for the mountain peaks of learning and opportunity. That is not saying that it is not better to scramble. It is only proving the point that they have had less to contend with than we in perfecting civil service.

There is no better evidence of the ability of the American spirit to meet difficult questions, and of democratic government to surmount troublesome situations, than appears in the rapid strides which have been made in this country in the growth and the regulation of the civil service. It is a cumbersome, involved, and exceedingly sensitive subject. The interests of the service call for work of widely differing qualities. Men and women are very unlike in their capacity for doing things. That must be sifted out somewhat before the original appointment. Then, officials and clerks are very unlike about learning to do things after they have the opportunity. One becomes very expert, handy, agreeable, helpful and happy. Another grows moody, jealous, subtle, and

troublesome. If rewarded on the basis of merit, the first would go forward rapidly and the other would go out. But there are endless things in public administration which in justice ought to be done which it is not expedient to do. You must be cautious about favoritism and prejudice. Time often helps you. If time does not settle the matter for you, you had better settle it for yourself, if you can. But the common rights of all citizens, and the legal rights of all in the public service must be absolutely guarded; and the moral rights which one always acquires through honesty, assiduity and real competency in doing things must be recognized also. In some way, specially trained men and women, who are few in numbers and who are not hunting places, must be had for specially expert duties. Graduates of the advanced schools must have due credit for that. The presumptions are in their favor. But the fact that a great many men and women who have never been in college can do a great many things better than a great many men and women who have been to college, must have recognition also. The situations are innumerable and their different shadings utterly beyond the common comprehension.

So far as may be, it is all to be governed by law and regulation. A system of laws and regulations which assumes to do it will be as complicated as the civil or penal code. It must be changed to meet new conditions, and it must be responsive to the growth of the service and the experiences of men and women who want to perfect it. Yet it must not be fickle. There must be substance and steadiness about it. It must stand the test of critical investigation. It must justify itself by its operation. It must accomplish what it undertakes.

Any lack of integrity in the system is absolutely fatal to it. If anybody can tamper with it; if things can be done in the dark which will not stand the light of day; if there are subtleties about it which really help partizanship, and if the men who are set to execute it are not its sincere friends, there is little hope for it. It is an accepted principle of international maritime law that a blockade in order to be binding must be effective. That is, that the law of nations will not allow a power at war to capture a neutral at a blockaded port unless it maintains a blockade which is effective enough to capture or be a real danger to all neutrals. In other words, a nation must do what it pretends, and it must be disposed and able to treat all alike. That principle is as vital Whatever is undertaken

in civil service law as in sea-going law.

must be efficiently accomplished, the blockade must be effective,

and all in like situations must be treated exactly alike, so far as law and regulation and sound purpose and good judgment can do it.

But again, while the civil service is to be controlled by law, the law is to be interpreted and executed by rational men. It is difficult, often impossible, to make a rule of law to meet all cases. So, in the enlargement and the management of the civil service, arbitrary devices or even set, examinations do not meet all situations. Absolute justice as between candidates for appointment or as between associate employees desiring promotion is not possible. If nothing but an inflexible rule, or the ability to pass examinations set by persons who can not know the personal qualities of the candidate, were to govern, justice would often miscarry very widely. All persons charged with the execution of the laws study their purpose and observe their intent. One who does that rationally and sincerely and who can not be pulled around by personal or selfish interests need not be afraid. No censure worth minding falls upon an administrative officer who mixes with the law that guides him the good sense which he ought to have and the genuine intention to gain the law's ends which must be a part of his official equipment.

But the civil service laws go further than that. They expressly confer a wide discretion upon civil service officers and upon. appointing officers. They expect all such officers to make liberal allowance for discipline gained in regular study in organized institutions, for actual experience and accomplishment as against the mere ability to pass examinations, for special study for special duties, for expertness in manipulation, for length of service, and for about everything which shows that one person has any real claim to consideration above another. And I am not sure that, with the general acceptance of the essential principles of civil service regulation, and with the fact thoroughly established that there is to be no hidden or unworthy preference given to any one, there will not be quite as much hurt to the service from the disinclination of officers to exercise the discretion which the law reposes in them as from any improper or corrupt stretching of it beyond its proper limits. There are plenty of officials who put responsibilities upon the law which the law puts upon officials. It is a convenient and safe way for the officials, but it often defeats the ends of the law and of administration. To be good laws, the civil service laws, above all laws, must have good executors.

The point of civil service regulations is to guard appointments

against incompetence, partizanship, favoritism and greed, and not to retain unsatisfactory employees in positions. If there is no way of getting a favorite into a vacancy, there is little probability that the vacancy will be created without reason. Common sentiment seems to exact less of an official clerk or messenger in a public office than in private employment. The head of the department who exacts what the manager of a private establishment must exact of employees gets much criticism for it. This is unjust, but it influences official action. If the official expects to bear his responsibility but for a couple of years, he is likely to fail to see a good many things which he will feel obliged to see if this responsibility is to be continuing. But in any event it is far from an agreeable duty to discharge an employee in a public office, and in the absence of the unlimited authority to fill the place there is more likelihood of too much that is wrong being submitted to than there is that there will be any undue exercise of the power of removal.

Discipline, the daily atmosphere which exacts regularity of attendance, aptness for work, responsiveness to authority, cheerfulness and self-respect, responsibility for specific duties and quick accountability, is as important to public service as original appointments or promotions in the service. That depends, not upon benevolent preachments alone, but upon rewards and punishments as well. It would be agreeable if we could feel that all people have correct intentions and character enough to carry them out. It would even be delightful if all the members of a large force of employees would do as well as they know. The larger number will; but the number who will see what kind of stuff their supervision is made of, who will think maneuvering will gain them an advantage, and who will limit their travels in the wrong direction only by the likelihood of their losing their heads, is by no means a negligible quantity. If they can rely upon outside influence to protect them against themselves, the service is broken down, every honest associate in the service is outraged, and they themselves are doomed to mediocrity and to a dependent, hollow, false life. Régime system - is imperative. It is stronger than individuals; it is the helper and the protection of individuals. It is not easily corruptible and it is not quickly fickle. But it is to be based upon justice and guided by sense. Theory and practice must be consistent; law and administration must cooperate; civil service commissions and executive officers and subordinate employees must all help one another in cheerful submission to a system which