Patronage Monopoly and the Pendleton Bill [pp. 185-207]

PA TRONA GE MONVOPOLY AND THE PENDLE TON BILL. I99
Mill said that in England they only arrested the dunces; and
for these reasons, which are equally true here:
I. The examinations were not comparative or competitive,
but were mere "pass" or "test" examinations of single officeseekers. Outside influence or inside official favor brought
forward one from the crowd to be tested for the vacancy.
There were no means of ascertaining relative merits, no facility
for selecting the best. The patronage-mongers and monopolists aided each other in pushing their single favorites past the
isolated Board of Examiners.
2. The examining boards were mere clerks or heads of
bureaus in the departments-as they still are with us-with no
prestige, independence, or authority for standing up against
pressure or enforcing a high standard. They had neither cooperation nor union among themselves. Especially in our ser_
vice, their own places were daily at the peril of the great
politicians, officers, and monopolists whose incompetent vassals
and favorites they were expected to arrest at the gates of office.
A bankrupt cousin or troublesome dependant is pushed all the
more because unable to take care of himself.
3. But most important of all, there were no provisions that
would secure to any but such'vassals, favorites, and henchmento any but those labelled and recommended by the patronage monopolists themselves-either a right or an opportunity of being
examined at all. If the examiners were fearful of their own
fate, as they generally were, only the mere dunderheads were
kept out; and at best the same old monopolists kept all the
places for their minions, even when the worst were excluded.
Not a few very worthy men are even thus pushed in-some
because they were thought worthy, but more perhaps in ignorance
of their worth. We can see why the monopolists and politicians
made no great ado about such examinations. Now when the
reform threatens more effective tests, they incline even to praise
"pass" examinations.
A little experience rendered it plain that the old monopoly,
made more respectable by having the worst of its camp-followers
thus cast out, could flourish continually under such examinations.
It was not less clear that what was needed for a real reform was