Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/247

Rh non-professional men put into that office on the ground of general business ability would either be politicians at the start, or soon become subjected to political influence, to the detriment of the public interest. On the other hand, I am far from pretending that every civil engineer put into that place would be absolutely proof against political influences. But I think I risk nothing in saying that, taking a period of twenty-five years, a large majority of professional engineers in that position would not become subjected to political influence, but fight it off, greatly to the benefit of the public interest. And it is such averages that we have to look to in considering the wisdom of a general rule.

The same reasoning applies to the sanitary department, which certainly should be under the exclusive control of men versed in sanitary science, who have a professional conscience to guide them, a professional reputation to take care of and a professional ambition to spur them on.

It applies equally to the police department, the direction of which should be confided not to a board composed of politicians who almost necessarily will think it their principal business to distribute spoils and to put the police to political uses—nor to mere amateurs in the police business, but to one responsible man to whom the discharge and the study of police duties has become a life-calling, who has won a reputation in that line, a professional policeman, whose natural ambition it will be to make a name for himself as a great chief of police, and who, being charged with full responsibility for the conduct of his department, will not be inclined to permit politics to deprive him of that name. The same may be said of the fire department, but it is unnecessary to elaborate.

The selection of fit men for these places, under such restrictions as indicated, would properly be confided to the executive head of the municipality, the mayor. He