NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION 345 



the public servant to live in a style corresponding to his social posi- 

 tion, he is more likely to yield to the temptation of supplementing 

 his salary in an illicit way. The social status of the civil service does 

 not indeed wholly depend on w r hat the government gives as payment. 

 Much turns on the habits and traditions of the people, though the 

 amount of payment is a considerable factor in making men seek that 

 career. In Germany, for instance, and in France official salaries 

 are lower in proportion to the cost of living and to the incomes of 

 professional and business men generally than are the salaries of civil 

 servants of the same class in England, while their average ability 

 is as good. It would seem that employment is more sought after 

 in the two former countries than in England because Frenchmen and 

 Germans have a relatively stronger sense of the grandeur of the 

 state and because state service carries a relatively higher social 

 standing. 



Not less important is the principle, amply approved by experi- 

 ence, that the servants of the state must be kept entirely out of 

 strife of political parties. Appointments ought not to be made on 

 party grounds; promotion ought to be made either by seniority 

 or by merit; no political work ought to be expected from officials, 

 nor should they be suffered, even if they desire it, to join in political 

 agitation. It may, indeed, be doubted whether they and the 

 country would not benefit by their exclusion from the suffrage, but 

 no one who knows the temper of democracies will suggest this as 

 a practical measure. Rather may it be deemed what is called a 

 " counsel of perfection," for no nation seems to have adopted or 

 to be in the least likely to adopt it. The mode of promotion raises 

 difficult questions. If it is by seniority only, able men will be kept 

 out of the higher posts until perhaps the best working years of their 

 life are over, while dull men may happen to be at the top. If senior- 

 ity is disregarded, there will be many jealousies and heart-burnings 

 among the veterans who are passed over, and imputations of favor- 

 itism will be made, possibly often with reason, for it is so hard to 

 say w r ho are the men most worthy of advancement that an uncon- 

 scientious head of an office may indulge his personal predilections 

 or yield to the pressure of his friends urging the claims of their 

 friends. An old Scotch official is reported to have said that he 

 always gave the posts to the best men, but he usually found that his 

 relatives, belonging to the same vigorous stock as that from which 

 he came, were the men. I can say from experience that the exer- 

 cise of patronage is one of the most difficult as well as the most 

 disagreeable parts of an administrative work. Whatever care one 

 takes, mistakes will occur, and for one friend you make three 

 enemies. 



Between the political form of a government and the excellence 



