FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



other than incompetency. As a matter o£ fact, their politics were 

 never asked. I doubt whether in later years any of the Cabinet 

 officers knew the politics of their subordinates any more than 

 they knew their religion, except possibly of the few men im- 

 mediately surrounding them. But what a great relief it was, not 

 only to the government employees, but even to the members of 

 Congress themselves, when the Civil Service reformers, headed, 

 I remember, by George William Curtis, finally secured the 

 passage of the Civil Service Law, and the Civil Service Com- 

 mission was eventually established! 



But the Civil Service Law is by no means perfect. I was the 

 head of a Bureau for many years, and the Bureau grew rapidly 

 in size. My personal acquaintance with entomologists and with 

 teachers of entomology was very great, and I always felt that 

 I could pick my assistants much better than any Commission 

 with its series of examinations. And then, too, I always objected 

 to the clause in the law that provides for State representation in 

 the Civil Service, since it was always obvious to me that the 

 Government wanted the best men and women utterly irrespec- 

 tive of the states in which they voted. In the early days, meeting 

 from time to time socially with General Black and John R. 

 Proctor, each of whom for a time was President of the Com- 

 mission, I always tried to discuss this question. General Black, 

 I remember, defended the clause, but Proctor agreed that I was 

 right. 



I should like to say more about the poor clerks and the lazy 

 clerks of those days. But I must confine myself more to scientific 

 matters, and more especially to entomology. 



It was difficult to learn the exact names of many of the insects 

 we were studying in Comstock's time. I had taken up the para- 

 sitic Hymenoptera, and Comstock had taken up the scale-insects. 



[36] 



