Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/246

222 civilians. But the offices of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy are political offices. There are political duties connected with them. It is therefore proper that they should be given to politicians. It may be remarked, however, that almost every other government of note, the constitutional as well as the absolute, prefer for the war department a general and for the navy department an admiral. But the office of the commissioner of public works is in no sense a political office. On the contrary, politics should be kept away from it as far as possible. And I doubt whether anything else would be more calculated to keep politics permanently away from it than, in conjunction with the extension of the civil service rules over all the inferior places, the establishment of a rule making only engineers of good standing eligible to the office of commissioner.

It may also be objected that a thoroughly upright and very able business man, not a professional engineer, may sometimes be found to fill quite successfully the office of commissioner of public works. Mr. White, who has recently been appointed to that place by the reform mayor of Brooklyn, Mr. Schieren, may be pointed out as an instance. Mr. White happens to have been educated as a civil engineer. But as he has for many years past followed mercantile pursuits, we may accept him as a merchant, and as such as the model of a public-spirited business man in office. I am far from denying that his appointment was the ideal one under the circumstances. I am far from asserting that Mayor Schieren could have done better. I am far from fearing that Mr. White will be accessible to political influence. But I do say that the appointment of Mr. White has attracted so much attention because it is so far above the ordinary level. And I venture to say further, that, taking a period of twenty-five years, a majority, if not a very large majority, of