commission making any sort of suggestions as to the qualifications to be embodied in standards upon which rural mail carriers are to be appointed, the whole country would ring with denunciations. But if these instructions were to ask that the candidates for these positions should be 'in sympathy with the national administration,' these people would be violating both the letter and the spirit of the civil service law. But the anti-saloon league does virtually the same thing and little is said.

"The sheer impudence of this attempt to inject into the civil service standards private prejudices and private opinions is almost beyond belief. However, it is merely characteristic of the league authorities, who seem to think they have extra-legal functions and powers, and that it is part of their job to run the government."

The Enforcement Unit has become so corrupted by means of the spoils system that it has become doubtful how far it can be redeemed under any administration whatever. After the enactment of the law it was for a time pretty generally observed. There was no general outbreak of crime and not many open violations of it. But when these places were filled by corrupt political appointments and it was found the law could be violated with impunity, with the connivance of those who were there to enforce it, things became worse and worse. The corruption of the Enforcement Bureau was the initial step in nullification. It was the match which lit the flame which afterwards became a general conflagration. If these men had been honest, violations could have been mainly curbed before they had spread so disastrously. As we have already seen, Mr. Haynes and Mr. Wheeler did not know that the

spoils system they had sponsored was loaded with such dynamite. The corrupting influence of spoils politics is shown by the experience of the Narcotic Bureau, established in 1915, long before the Volstead Act. It was in the classified service and went on for many years without any scandal at all and it was not until serious abuses had developed in the Prohibition Enforcement Bureau that any important derelictions existed.

There was some improvement in the Prohibition Enforcement Unit after the control of that unit passed into the hands of Mr. Andrews. The rum-running fleet that was organized while Haynes was Commissioner and openly patroled a great part of the Altantic seaboard has been sensibly diminished and what remains of it has taken to cover, but the traffic is still enormous. I spent last March in Nassau and I saw there huge vessels from Scotland filled with whiskey sufficient to supply the Bahamas for a lifetime. All day long, and I presume all night long, men were unloading the thousands of cases, storing some in ample receptacles provided, until the rum-runners should appear and take them away to Florida or elsewhere in the United States. This traffic could not be carried on without the connivance of large numbers of government employes. The constant violations of the provision against home manufacture of intoxicants seem to be as rampant as ever and there is a widespread belief that the general nullification of the Volstead Act will continue indefinitely in very large sections of the country. It certainly will if Roy Haynes is to be the commissioner.

Following the address of Mr. Foulke the Council of the League adopted the following resolution:

In view of the long continued participation of Roy A. Haynes, while head of the Prohibition Service, in the distribution of political spoils, leading to the utter demoralization of this service until it became a national scandal, the National Civil Service Reform League would regard his permanent appointment, or that of any of his subordinates who cooperated in this distribution, as disastrous to the future of the bureau as well as to the entire civil service of the country.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEAGUE

The following formal resolutions were adopted by the League at the session held May 11, 1927:

There are but nine states in the union that have civil service laws in operation, and in general our smaller cities, as well as our counties, are still largely subject to the spoils system. The merit system is approved by the great mass of our people, and even political organizations nominally support it, but often secretly try to defeat its purposes. The League solicits the active cooperation of every citizen to the end that the civil service may be kept free from corruption.

1. The League calls to public attention evidence that has recently been brought to light respecting the alleged sale of offices, particularly places in the postal service in certain Southern states. An insistent demand for prosecution and constant vigilance on the part of the public is necessary to effect a permanent cure.

2. Many appointments to postmasterships and positions in the rural free delivery service continue to be made as the result of political favoritism, in spite of the examination system. This is due to the practice of the Post Office Department of deferring to the advice of members of Congress and of local political leaders for selections from eligible lists. The corruption ensuing from this practice extends even to the point of causing removals on specious charges so as to bring about new appointments through political recommendations. The League voices a demand on behalf of the people of the country for the complete removal of the postal service from the corrupting influence of appointments under the spoils system. This can best be brought about by a rigid application of the rule of appointing the person standing highest on the eligible lists as provided in the original regula

tion established under the direction of President Roosevelt for the appointment of rural carriers in 1903.

3. After seven years of trial of the enforcement of the prohibition act under the spoils system Congress has finally yielded to the demand on the part of both those in sympathy with the purpose of the act and those opposed to it by providing that all positions in the prohibition bureau, with the exception of the Prohibition Commissioner, shall be filled through competitive examination. Had this method of appointment been applied to the force as originally organized in 1919 and 1920 the story of the enforcement of the prohibition law would have been a very different one. To eradicate the evil influence of political spoils from the Bureau by the application of the merit system at this late date, after all the corruption and scandal of seven years have thoroughly saturated it, is a long and difficult task. The League warns the public that, while improvement will follow, the civil service system applied to this important agency of the government at this late date will not at once eliminate the evils which have honeycombed the operations of this bureau. The Civil Service Commission is to be strongly commended for the able and efficient manner in which it has undertaken the task suddenly thrust upon it. Even with adequate appropriation the task would be great. However, owing to the failure of Congress to make a deficiency appropriation for the Commission, this task of properly conducting the necessary examinations is made exceedingly difficult.

4. The League again urges upon the President the importance of extending the merit system to many administrative places within his jurisdiction which are still subject to spoils appointments. Among them are positions under the Federal Farm Loan Board, the United States Tariff Commission, the Federal Trade Board, the Federal Reserve Board and the Superintendent of Prisons and Wardens of the Federal Penitentiaries. The League also urges that Congress extend to the President the power in his discretion to bring under the merit system the various administrative positions hitherto exempted by act of Congress. Among these are Collectors of Customs, Collectors of Internal Revenue and Deputy Collectors, United States Marshals and their deputies, and presidential postmasters.

5. Various functions of personnel management in the federal government are scattered among different government agencies. The League urges prompt action to bring these functions together without delay under the United States Civil Service Commission, to the end that the merit system

in the federal civil service may comprehend not only original selection of employes through scientific tests of fitness, but classification of positions, standardization of salary schedules, maintenance of service records, and an adequate promotion system through competitive examination.

6. The administrative branch of the federal government is composed of ten major departments, each headed by a Cabinet officer, and fifty-seven miscellaneous independent boards, bureaus and commissions. There is vital need of reorganization in all these departments and bureaus in order that work of the same character may be coordinated and overlapping functions and duplication of effort eliminated. The efficient service of all employes of the government depends in no small degree upon the efficiency of the organization of the government machinery. The League has dedicated itself to a study of the needs of the government with respect to reorganization of the departments and invites all citizens interested in this subject to join in its effort for their improvement.