Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/401

Rh forbade me to do, and to save my time and working strength for the public business to which I was commissioned to devote myself. And what was that way? It was to institute of my own motion, without being bound to do so by law, a system of competitive examinations for that Department, to determine the appointments I had to make. I thus voluntarily stripped myself of my own discretionary power, and I did it for my own protection as well as for the good of the service. For when after that act Members of Congress or other political potentates came to me to unload upon my Department their favorites or hangers-on, I said to them: “Welcome, gentlemen. Send on your men. They will be examined by an impartial commission, and the man who comes out best will get the place.”

And what did my bureau chiefs say whose positions corresponded to the heads of departments in our State government, and in our great municipalities? Did they insist that they knew best what kind of men they wanted to do their work, and that therefore they must have a controlling influence upon the appointments? Did they claim that if my examining commission judged of the “merits” of the candidates, they must themselves be permitted to judge of their “fitness”? Oh, no! They were dutiful and experienced men. They knew that just so long as they were supposed to have any discretionary influence upon appointments, they would be exposed to a pressure extremely difficult, and to them dangerous, to resist. They, therefore, did not only not remonstrate against my order, but they warmly thanked me for it as an act that would protect them in their endeavor to serve the Government to the best of their ability, and that would inspire the service with a new moral spirit. And so it did. It is true, in the camp of the spoils-seekers there was much and extremely profane swearing. I was