Vol. 67

Civil Service

The report of a and the Administration special committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, embodying the result of its investigation of the Federal civil service and the enforcement of the reform law and rules under the present Administration, shows that while much has been done to take the business of the Government out of the hands of the politicians, much still remains to be done. In passing the law of 1883 Congress intended to bring under its provisions the entire subordinate Executive service-" all that vast number of appointed officials who carry into effect the orders of the President, . . . whose duties do not change with a change of administration, and who have nothing to do with framing the political policies of the Government." From the date of the passage of this act until May last the extension of its operation was steadily continued, each President placing under it, from time to time, additional offices. The committee reports, however, that, while the system in many of the branches which have been longest classified remains unimpaired, the law has not been thoroughly and honestly enforced, and that the President, with the exception of the very admirable start made in the Philippine service, has ignored a number of excellent opportunities for its extension. The committee declares that the President is not continuing the work, and that the progress of the reform has been checked. This is at variance with the declared purposes of the President and with the declarations of the Republican party. Investigation of the facts seems to show that "exceptions" from the requirements of the Civil Service Law have been almost twice as numerous as appointments made under the law. The League declares that the appointment of local Federal officers of the Presidential class has been dic

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tated almost exclusively by Senators and Representatives whose selections the President has ratified, and that while good men have been secured under this system, the vast majority of the appointees are active local politicians, who create a serious obstacle to the satisfactory administration of civil service rules. Among the Presidential offices in the general branches the changes have been almost universal. In the consular service during the first year of the Administration more than ninety per cent. of the salaried offices were refilled, and during the same period in the Indian service more than sixty-two per cent. of the agents were changed.

Violations of the Law

The report charges that there have been serious violations in the Civil Service Law in the classified service-chiefly in the Internal Revenue service, the Land Office service, the Government Printing-Office, the field forces of the Department of Justice, the Pension Bureau, and in a number of custom-houses and post-officesespecially in the post-office in Philadelphia. In many instances the Civil Service Commission has addressed remonstrances to the departments concerned in these violations, but has not in any case obtained satisfactory results. Three years ago the League addressed a letter directly to the President, calling his attention to these violations and asking that measures be taken to stop them. A year later it presented a second report to the President, in which violations throughout the service were enumerated, with exhibits. The corrections made, however, were few; and in no case was an officer who had violated the rules removed for that offense. The report also charges numerous indirect evasions of the law, especially in the Post-Office Department, where, by devices

which the League holds to be particularly reprehensible, nearly a hundred appointments have been made in spite of the earnest protest of the Civil Service Commission. The report also calls special attention to the President's order of May 29 last, the effect of which it is proposed to review in a separate report. That order has effected the removal from the competitive to the "excepted" list of about four thousand places, and from the classified to the unclassified of about six thousand, and marks, according to the report, the first great reduction in the efficient working of the merit system. In general, the report shows that the Civil Service Reform system is firmly established, but not so firmly established that its usefulness during any particular Administration cannot be seriously curtailed. It also shows the logical effect in the administrative field of the President's theory of politics. Now that he has entered upon his second term, it would give great satisfaction to those who have found the President's course on the whole wise if he would display much greater independence of the political managers of his party. This is what he is bound to do by the declarations of his party and his own public utterances no less than by the spirit and letter of the law.

There are two Co. Polygamy and Divorce stitutional Amendments before Congress: one forever prohibiting polygamy in the United States and empowering Congress to enact laws for the punishment of polygamists; the other providing for uniform marriage and divorce laws by Congressional legislation. These two provisions ought not to be entangled. The one ought not to be made dependent upon the other. Certainly the former ought not to wait upon the latter. There are serious theoretical objections to a Constitutional Amendment giving Congress power to legislate upon the subject of marriage and divorce. A uniform divorce law enacted by Federal authority would certainly lower the standard in some States; it is not certain that under its administration the standard would be raised in other States. Rights of property are very closely connected with laws of marriage and divorce. The States

cannot under a Federal system agree to transfer their jurisdiction over property questions to the Federal Government. There are still greater practical objections. A Conference of Commissioners appointed by the various States has been organized for the purpose of securing uniform State laws, and considerable progress toward securing this uniformity has already been made in the action of these State Boards of Commissioners. Until this endeavor to secure uniformity by State action-an endeavor which, if successful, would secure also at least some uniformity of pubiic sentiment as well as of legislationhas been tried and proved hopeless, no other conflicting experiment should be undertaken, because no other conflicting experiment will be likely to succeed. Whatever may be right or necessary in the future, for the present an Amendment to the Constitution transferring marriage and divorce from the State to the Federal Government ought not to pass, and in all probability cannot pass. On the other hand, the Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting polygamy and empowering Congress to enact laws for the punishment of polygamists, if submitted by Congress, would be almost certain to be ratified by the necessary number of States of the Union. Three-fourths of the States must unite in order to secure any Amendment to the Constitution. Three-fourths of the States would now ratify any such Amendment as this, if proposed by Congress. The committee who have this matter in charge ought to report instantly for action the Amendment prohibiting polygamy, and reserve the other Amendment for further and fuller consideration. Readers of The Outlook who are interested in securing now the prohibition of polygamy would do well to exert whatever influence they can, through local meetings, local press, or correspondence with their representatives in Congress, to bring about this desirable result.

pose it proposes that each of the States enact a law forbidding divorce for any cause arising prior to the residence of the complainant in the State, unless for a ground adequate in the State where the cause arose; or for any cause arising in the State, unless he has been an actual residen. in the State for one year with a bona-fide intention of making it his permanent residence; or for any cause arising out of the State unless he has been such a resident for at least two years before bringing suit. Such provisions, adopted by all the States, would go far to prevent the fraudulent divorces now so easily obtained by persons migrating to the divorce-granting State for a few months for no other purpose than to secure a divorce; and this is the first and by far the greatest evil to be prevented. One step at a time is a good motto in all legal reform, and this is certainly the first step to be taken.

The White House

Few pieces of greater good fortune have befallen this country than the beauty, the dignity, and the architectural significance embodied in the National Capitol. When one recalls the number of public structures of all kinds without beauty, dignity, or architectural significance for public use which have been erected in all parts of the country, it is impossible to be too grateful for the happy accident which made the National Capitol really interpretative of the highest life of the country. The Executive Mansion-commonly known as the White House-has a kindred dignity and appropriateness; and any attempt to modify it ought to be executed under the most competent direction. The report that, under an appropriation of six thousand dollars, secured from Congress last year, plans and models for a reconstructed White House have been secured from a man whose training in other departments may be admirable but who is at present an employee of the Naval Department, without consulting architects or taking expert advice, has awakened grave apprehensions, and has called out as influential a protest as has ever been made in this country touching any question of fine art. The Fine Arts Union of Washington, representing the American Institute of Architects, the

Washington Society of Artists, the Architectural Club, the Water Color Club, with the indorsement of a long list of art and architectural societies in all parts of the country, have formally protested "against any alterations or additions to the Executive Mansion being devised or executed without the examination and advice of an expert commission composed of architects, landscape architects, and sculptors of National reputation." This protest embodies the artistic conscience as well as the artistic instinct of the country. The plans secured by the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds may present admirable features, but the Executive Mansion ought not to be touched save by the hands of the first architects in America; nor ought anything to be done without the advice of a commission of experts. The matter is far too important to be left to the judgment of any public official, and the building far too prominent and National in its character to be changed by the unaided skill of any architect, especially of a man whose experience in this department has been very limited, and who is at present an employee in the naval service of the Government. The inappropriateness of this arrangement must be apparent to any intelligent person. If the protest of the Art Societies of the country does not promise effectually to prevent this scheme for reconstructing the White House, it will be the business of all those who care for the beauty of the National Capital, for the appropriateness of its buildings, and for the preservation of the essential features of the present White House, to bring to bear upon Congress a pressure of public opinion sufficient to arrest premature action and to place the matter where it belongs in the hands of the first experts in the United States.

by no means an impressive street. This avenue ought to be stately and impressive to the eye; it ought to be a noble approach to the Capitol. The action of the American Institute of Architects in urging the adoption of a comprehensive plan for the embellishment of the Capital should receive careful attention from Congress, and, in some form, should be adopted. The most important project that has taken definite shape in this direction is the plan to extend the Government reservation from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. Mr. Samuel Parsons, Jr., the well-known landscape. architect, has been consulted, and has prepared a series of maps and models which have been submitted to the Senate Committee of the District of Columbia, and have commanded universal admiration, not only for their skill and the ingenuity with which obstacles have been overcome, but also because of the noble setting which the carrying out of this plan would give to many public buildings, and the immense addition which it would make to the impressiveness and beauty of the city. It is proposed, if we understand the plan aright, to secure for Government uses the entire west side of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Pennsylvania Railroad offers the chief obstacle to the execution of the plan-an obstacle which ought to be overcome in some form by the co-operation of that great and intelligent corporation, or which might be masked by some of the devices of landscape architecture. If this space could be taken, and new buildings of worthy architecture placed in it as they are needed, Washington would become the most beautiful capital in the world. If, in addition to this, the proposed new Memorial Bridge across the Potomac could take a monumental form, the result would amply justify a large expenditure of money.

The most recent figures about Immigration immigration into the United States show that nearly half a million of people have come in this country from other parts of the world in 1900, and most of these will become permanent residents. The Immigration Bureau states that of this year's incomers not far from a hundred thousand come from Austria-Hungary, from Italy, and from Russia respect

ively, while only about fifty thousand come from Great Britain and Ireland. It is pointed out as a fact of some interest that, out of the total of not much less than half a million, only four thousand, or less than one per cent., come from the tropics. The reason is quite evident, and only confirms the generally recognized law that man in his migrations over the world almost never selects a colder country than that to which he has been accustomed. Only about two hundred and fifty emigrants came to the United States from the Philippine Islands and Hawaii. This may be in large measure due to the law above stated; but it is as yet altogether too early to predict with any confidence the possibilities of the immigration from our new possessions.

Endowment

One clause in the pro

the

of Public Schools Posed revision of Charter of New York City appears to us, with all respect to the Charter Commission, to furnish a signal illustration of how not to do it. Under the present law a certain percentagefour mills on every dollar-of taxable property in New York City is set aside for school wages. The revisers propose to repeal this law and to leave the salaries of the teachers in the public schools to be fixed by the Board of Aldermen. The municipalities in this country have not hitherto had so intelligent and noble a body of city fathers as to make it apparently wise to intrust the expenditures for public education to their decision. There would be little reason to think, from the experience of the past, that they would support a generous, broad, and compre.hensive policy, and there is very much reason to suppose that they would use the power of the purse, if once put into their hands, for the purpose of advancement of political favorites in the school organization. It is the universal judgment of all experts on this subject that the schools ought to be taken out of politics. It appears to us that the effect of the revisers' proposition would be to afflict the schools even more than heretofore with

ice of political favoritism. On the other hand, Devis Law, as it is called, has this merit, that it provides something in the nature of a permanent endowment for the public schools, and thus put them

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the basis upon which the higher edutional institutions of this country are pat. The benefit of this method is that secures the pecuniary independence of e teachers and prevents those delays in = payment and those constant changes in Salaries which have been one of the vices

the public-school system of the past. it is, indeed, affirmed that four mills on every dollar of taxable property in New York City furnishes a larger fund than is necessary for educational purposes. Whether this is so or not we do not know; but if so, the remedy would be, ot a disendowment, but a lesser endowment.

The South African War

General De Wet continues to be the striking figure in South Africa. Repeated eports that he has been captured have acked confirmation, but as we write more probable reports are current that This attempt to break through the British lines, now supposed to surround him, has been frustrated, and that he is now at Sennekal with a considerable force, and is thought by some to be threatening Winburg, which General Knox is occuying with a large British force. The lamazing audacity of the Boer commandos which have invaded Cape Colony continues to be a fertile subject of comment; Cape Town despatches declare that they have been driven back toward the Orange River, but apparently they are still in the jenemy's country. The fear of an extensive rising among the Cape Colony Dutch, so prevalent last week, has in some measure subsided. In London the chief topic of discussion with regard to the South African war has been the resignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Spragge, who comanded the Yeomanry at the disastrous affair of Lindley. Other resignations are Other resignations are predicted, and one is named, that of Sir Henry Colvile, who was also discredited the opinion of many military critics at Lindley. Preparations are being made or a worthy welcome to Lord Roberts, hose place in the popular heart is secure. Lord Roberts reached Gibraltar on Friday of last week, and no doubt will be in England before these words are read. At Gibraltar Lord Roberts in a speech paid a special tribute to the courage and

skill of General Sir George White for his splendid defense of Ladysmith.

China

Somewhat unexpectedly, the news came on Monday morning of this week that the Chinese Emperor (or whoever may be controlling the Imperial policy) had accepted the demands of the Powers as set forth in the preliminary note agreed upon last week. If exception has been taken to any of the provisions of the note, it does not yet appear. LiHung-Chang and Prince Ching are au thorized in an Imperial edict to negotiate on the basis of the note, and to ask for a suspension of hostilities. The Chinese Peace Commissioners declare that the Emperor wishes the negotiations closed as soon as possible, and hopes to return to Peking by the end of February. No one seems to know definitely the relations existing at present between the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, but it is significant that of late the Emperor's name has been put to the front in all dealings with the Chinese court. A rumor from Shanghai that the Empress Dowager had secretly installed a new Emperor under the title Tung-Hsu is hardly credible. Punitive expeditions. continue to be sent out from Peking, and there is much complaint among the Chinese, especially against the Germans, who, the Chinese say, are acting so as to provoke hostilities whenever possible.

Cable despatches describe the formation in Manila of the first political party under the American régime; it will be called, we judge from the despatches, the Autonomist party. The principles. advocated by its leaders include full recognition of American sovereignty, but also native autonomy in local affairs whenever possible. It is stated that several of the more intelligent Filipino leaders who are disposed to accept something less than independence are interested in this movement. The declaration of principles was adopted at a meeting of Filipinos by a vote of 123 to 6. Despatches also state that the Philippine Commission has completed the bill imposing tariff on imports into the Philippines, and that it has been mailed to Washington for approval. Nothing of great importance has occurred

Politics in the Philippines