Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/405

Rh and act under general rules ordered and approved by the governor or by the mayors of the different municipalities respectively, but are not subject to direction or influence on the part of the appointing officers as to the management of the specific examinations and the ratings to be made. Being thus independent of the appointing-power, the examinations have the essential prerequisite of impartiality and freedom from influence. This system, therefore, gives everybody an equal chance without favor and is essentially democratic.

I am aware that—mostly, if not wholly by the enemies of the system—complaints are made as to its working, charging that the examinations are too scholastic and not practical enough, that they do not sufficiently test character, and so on. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, the law or its execution were actually defective and called for amendment. To what end should such amendment be directed? Surely, if we mean to keep good faith with the people and with our own consciences, we shall exert our whole ingenuity to remedy the alleged defects by means in entire harmony with the constitutional mandate. We shall, above all things, avoid every device, aye, we shall as honest men spurn every thought of a scheme, that would strike at the fundamental principle, the essential requisite of the competitive system contemplated by the constitution—the principle that the management of the examinations and the making of the ratings shall in no wise be under the control or influence of the appointing officers.

What, then, does the bill before you provide? Under the constitution appointments shall be made “according to merit and fitness to be ascertained, so far as practicable, by competitive examinations.” So far during the fourteen years that the competitive system has been in practice in this country, and during the many more years that it