in America the examinations were superimposed upon a custom of rotation in office and spoils, while in England permanence of tenure was already the rule; and partly from the fact that the system is applied in America to positions requiring routine or clerical work, whereas in England it affects also positions involving, directly or prospectively, a much greater amount of discretion and responsibility."

He points out that the result of the competition is that the men who win the appointments are men of education and intellectual power, and that it is contemplated that they will prove the best material from which to draw the permanent under secretaries and other staff officers at the head of the different services. These form the class of men whom he has elsewhere denominated permanent experts and to the existence of which he attributes, in an admirable paper recently read by him before the National Municipal League, the reason for the superior municipal government found in European cities. In this paper he says:

"At the present day any work of a complex nature, whether public or private, which is carried on without proper assistance from experts, is certain to be inefficient. But, on the other hand, experts acting alone are apt to take disproportionate views. They exaggerate technical difficulties, or they tend to follow precedents and become tied up by red tape, losing touch with the real demands of the public. A government conducted solely by professional officials would be undesirable, even if our people would tolerate the idea. In order, therefore, to achieve good results, and avoid inefficiency on one side and bureaucracy on the other, the administration must contain both experts and men who reflect the general trend of public opinion. The proper relation between these two classes of men is easily stated, although in all probability it cannot be prescribed by statute. The correct management, and for the most part the suggestion of improvements, ought to lie with the expert, but he ought to work under the constant supervision and control of non-professional men representing the community at large. The expert ought to devote his whole time to the business, and receive a salary high enough to pay for the time of a man with the capacity required. The person who oversees him ought to be expected to give far less of his time. If he gives much it is because he undertakes to do himself what had better be left to the expert. Ordinarily he ought to do no more than a publicspirited citizen should be willing to do for the public without compensation, for his duty is not to administer, but to supervise and direct the administration."

Although Professor Lowell is speaking of the na

tional service in his chapter on The Permanent Civil Service, he points out later in the work that his statements are equally applicable to the English municipal civil service. He says (Vol. II., p. 175):

"The traditional position of permanent officials in England, and their relation to their political chiefs, have been described in an earlier chapter, and they apply to municipal government. It is often said that the Council determines the general policy to be pursued, while the officials carry it out in detail, and this describes, no doubt, the legal situation, but it is very far from expressing the actual influence of the officials upon the administration of the borough. In the first place no sharp line can be drawn between policy and details, and then an official who has in any degree the confidence of his committee will always influence them very largely about the general policy of his department. His position is like that of a permanent under-secretary of state. The members of the council, like the ministers, assume the responsibility for what is done. They are expected to shield the official from blame, and naturally take the credit for good government. He enjoys, therefore, a large measure of real power, freedom from attack and a permanent tenure of office in consideration of self-effacement."

He attributes (p.200) the uprightness and good conduct of the English municipal government in large part to "the position of the permanent officials. Their professional character ensures their efficiency, their effacement shields them from any temptation to achieve a cheap notoriety, and their permanence relieves them from the need of doing personal favors to retain their posts. They carry on the current administration, in most cases they suggest the improvements, and their presence is a bulwark of integrity."

And finally, in stating his conclusions, he says (Vol. II., p. 514) that the comparative absence in English political life, not only of corruption in its grosser shapes, but also of the pressure for patronage, the insistence on private and local interests and the logrolling that vex many states, is largely due to the fact that politics turn almost wholly on public questions, and this in turn must be attributed to a number of factors.

"At the head of the list may be placed the existence of a permanent civil service, covering not only inferior and clerical positions, but also those which involve responsible work of a high grade; in fact, all the government offices below the rank of minister. * In most of the departments, indeed, the holders of all but a few of the very highest positions in the permanent service are selected by open competitive examina

* * *

tions followed by promotion. Such a system, which constitutes, perhaps, the most essential difference between the English and American governments, prevents the use of public office as party spoils and keeps politics out of the Civil Service. It promotes consecutive, business-like administration and renders possible party changes without dislocation of public functions. It leaves ministers and representatives free to devote their attention to national questions, without being distracted by the need of satisfying a horde of applicants or rewarding faithful retainers, and it eliminates geographical considerations altogether.

*

"The filling of responsible positions by competition could hardly be successful except by the method the English have employed; that is, the selection of a large number of very young men by an examination testing their general education and ability, and then promotion to higher posts of those among them who show the qualities required. No examination can measure administrative capacity; that depends upon personal aptitudes which lie to a great extent outside the field of scholarly attainment. On the other hand, as the chapter on the Permanent Civil Service points out, familiarity with the work to be done, immediate fitness for employment, essential as it is when the office is to be held for a short time, is of little importance in selecting young men for a life-long career. What is more, to require it actually drives away many of the best applicants by obliging them to devote a great deal of time to learning things that will be quite useless to them if unsuccessful in the ordeal."

And he adds that the opposite practice of an examination bearing upon technical preparation was tried in Holland for admission to the colonial service in Java, but was abandoned in favor of a general examination.

We think that Professor Lowell's statement that the filling of responsible positions by competition could hardly be successful except by the method of selecting a large number of very young men by an examination testing their general education and ability, and then promoting to higher posts those among them who show the qualities required, will admit of modification. He himself points out in his Chapter on Boroughs and their Permanent Officials (Vol. II., p. 172) that the prevalent English custom of selecting men for any post in public or private life is by means of an advertisement and the submission of testimonials, and that when a vacancy occurs in the position of town clerk or borough surveyor it is the general habit to advertise for his successor, even in cases where the

councillors have made up their minds to promote a subordinate already in the service of the borough. It is, we believe, entirely practicable to pursue the method employed by private corporations when a superior position is to be filled, although, for the purpose of eliminating political influences, it should be safeguarded by some machinery which they do not employ. The competition would be almost wholly in the matter of record, of past results. Under such circumstances there ought to be no lack of candidates, although we might apprehend that there might be if the examination be of the technical character which it now is for minor positions. Men of standing would not hesitate to compete as they now do compete for private places-where the competition would not subject them to what they would consider an undignified and narrow scholastic examination.

There is no reason why we should not look forward to the broader English method of improving the general character of the entire service and filling the higher places by promotion. That is, indeed, the ideal scheme. But that is, at present, not very practicable, and would bring no immediate relief. In the meantime we should promote, to the extent which lies in our power, the more practicable plan which we suggest.

Since the date of our report, there has been a number of instances which have been brought before the public of inefficiency of municipal administration which undoubtedly would have been avoided, if the officials at the head of the departments had been, as Professor Lowell calls them, experts. In the City of New York, a citizen's investigating body, The Bureau of Municipal Research, has recently held a most successful exhibition to bring home to the citizens, graphically, the immense extent in that city of municipal recklessness and extravagance of administration and mismanagement. No condition of affairs, such as was disclosed, could have existed if the heads of departments had been competent and held responsible to an overseer. In Boston, the Finance Commission has

discovered that the county officers and the office of collector, in both of which the subordinates are outside of the civil service rules, have suffered most from a packing of unnecessary employes, and the commission has also pointed out that in some of the departments where the subordinates are under civil service rules, there is still a considerable amount of unnecessary employment. There are methods of evading the rules, such as appointing laborers to do clerical work, making temporary appointments, asking for special classifications for which there are no immediate eligibles, or offering a position at such a low salary that none of the eligibles on the list will accept it but the one or two favorites who were admitted into the plan of raising the salary after they had received their appointments. These are not new expedients, but they would not be used if the head of the office were himself not concerned in seeing that appointments were made for political reasons. What is true of New York and Boston is true of almost every other municipality, and it is unnecessary, and would not be especially profitable, to go into detail. In all of them are to be seen the same recklessness and often corruption of administration. It may be that the character of the civil service, especially that part on which falls the responsibility, is not to be charged with being the sole cause of the general lamentable municipal conditions, but it is beyond controversy that its improvement and separation from politics would greatly better them.

In addition to the discussion which the subject has received, we have been able to make some agitation for the specific adoption of the scheme outlined in our report. This has been done in the City of Boston. The Chairman of the Council of the League proposed the scheme to the Boston Finance Commission, which is drafting a new charter for that city, and appeared before it in July last upon a hearing to consider his suggestion of modifying the city charter so as to provide for the selection of the heads of departments and bureaus upon a basis of comparative attainment and achievement as determined by an examination of ex