Carl Schurz

“ One of the Senators representing a commonwealth not far distant from the District of Columbia is reported to be pestered by hundreds of women in his State for comfortable places in the Congressional Library with such furious vehemence and such indomitable tenacity that he, although not at all friendly to civil service reform, secretly prays to have the library put under the civil service rules, simply to save him from the mad-house. ”

“ According to the spoils theory, then, no civil service rules should hamper the Librarian in selecting his assistants, as he must be presumed to know best what qualifications are needed for the work to be done. The present Librarian, being a professional man of uncommon ability and large experience, no doubt possesses that knowledge in a much higher degree than most new heads of departments do when they enter upon the duties of which they are at first usually more or less ignorant. ”

“ The guileless citizen who is still impressed by the favorite argument of the spoils politicians that the head of a public department will know best what kind of help he needs, and should therefore be left entirely unhampered by civil service rules in selecting his subordinates “according to his own sense of duty and responsibility,” may study with profit the illustration of that theory furnished by what is at present going on in the Library of Congress. The Congressional Library has gradually grown to be one of the great libraries of the world. It may be destined to become the greatest. ”

“ A new edifice has been erected to house it — one of the finest public buildings, if not the finest, in this country. The collections of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, charts, and other things composing the library are soon to be taken from their old quarters in the Capitol to this new abode, and to put and keep the library in the new building in proper order so that it may be one of the greatest possible use and enjoyment to the public, the Librarian has to appoint a number of persons to assist him in his work. ”

“ A very large number of the thousands of applications which distress the poor Librarian are endorsed and more or less vigorously urged by Senators, or members of the House of Representatives, or other political potentates; and these powerful persons insist that the Librarian shall not appoint candidates selected by himself, according to his own knowledge and sense of duty, but that he shall appoint the candidates selected for him by them. ”

“ The Librarian mildly inquires about the qualifications of the candidate, and explains that taking care of a great library is a science, and that assistants to be of service must possess considerable professional knowledge and experience. The Senator grows impatient. “I am very tired of this eternal talk about qualifications,” says he. “Do you mean to say that a man presented by me is unfit? ”

“ Those to be provided for are usually persons who have been and may still be useful to the party or to the political potentate who recommends them. Those to be got rid of are office-seekers who, like mosquitoes, persistently buzz around the man of influence and make his life miserable until they get what they want or are rudely shaken off. Both classes are doubtless largely represented among the applicants for places in the Congressional Library. ”

“ To study all those documents so as to form from them any intelligent conclusion as to the comparative merits of the candidates, or even to read them all before the time when the appointments are to be made, is, for one man, a physical impossibility. ”

“ The coldness or even positive disfavor with which appointments on the sole ground of eminent fitness are apt to be regarded by the so-called practical politician was strikingly exemplified some time ago when President McKinley named Mr. ”