Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/412

388 questions correctly, he got the place. Why should not this happen again? If Mr. Commissioner should be ashamed to do the thing himself, he can, under this bill, delegate the job to some district committeeman, or to the nearest barkeeper. They will do the business with zest.

Will you say that the Governor would stop such scandals by ordering proper rules for regular competitive tests to be made? Well, there are other tricks equally effective. If the appointing officers manage the examinations, they may simply furnish the favored candidates beforehand with the questions to be asked, and with the correct answers. You think such things will not be done? I tell you such things have been done. Some time ago the majority of the fire board of the City of New York in its original composition wanted a certain favored person to pass a competitive examination in order to get a certain place. They wished that the questions should be “practical,” and, “knowing the work to be done,” they furnished a set of questions to the city civil service commission to be propounded to the candidates. What happened? The civil service commission framed a different set of questions, although running in the same line. When the examination papers were taken up, it was found that the favored candidate had, in the place of the questions put by the civil service commission, written down the questions coming from the fire board, with the correct answers. The fraud was evident. It failed. Why did it fail? Because the examination was managed by an independent civil service commission. Had it been managed by the fire board, the appointing officers, the fraud would, of course, have succeeded, and the favored candidate would have got the place by a so-called competitive examination. And when that fraud had failed, the fire board caused to be put through the legislature a bill transferring all examinations for the fire