Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/242

218 under rules to govern permanent as well as temporary employment, similar to those which are in force in Boston under the registration system for laborers, and as have been introduced in the navy yards of the United States by Secretary Tracy and are continued in force by Secretary Herbert. As a general principle, skilled labor requiring specific accomplishments for the work to be done, the possession of which can be well ascertained and relatively measured by competitive tests, should be put under the competitive rule. As to unskilled labor, such as street sweeping and the like, an examination as to physical fitness and a good report as to character will be sufficient to qualify for registration, those who have been registered to be employed in the order of their application for registry.

Opinions have somewhat differed among the friends of civil service reform as to whether promotions from lower to higher grades should also be regulated by competitive tests. It is readily admitted that a good title to promotion may be established by practical efficiency and the qualities constituting what is called executive ability, the evidence of which cannot be furnished by an examination in the ordinary sense. It is also true that ordinarily the superior officer knows best which of his subordinates are deserving of promotion, and that on this point no better authority can be invoked than his judgment. But it is no less true that when a public officer is subject to political influence, it is usually this influence, and not his personal judgment, that determines the promotion of his subordinates, and that this influence usually pays no regard to those considerations of the public interest by which promotions should be governed. And it is a common experience that the pressure of this influence is but seldom effectually resisted even by dutiful public officers unless their power of resistance finds some outside support. They have to be protected against that pressure by a