266 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



%iiiUx's "gKUt. 



INTELLIGENCE IN THE PUBLIC 

 SERVICE. 



AEECENT writer in one of the 

 magazines quotes John Stuart 

 Mill as speaking in one of his letters 

 to the historian Motley of " the fatal 

 belief of your public that anybody 

 is fit for anything." The trouble to 

 which Mill refers is one that dates a 

 long way back. It is not correct to 

 say that in this community or any- 

 where else the belief prevails that 

 anybody is fit for anything. No- 

 body thinks that anybody is fit to 

 repair his watch, or to fit him with 

 spectacles, or to cut him out a suit 

 of clothes. We all believe in special 

 training and special qualifications 

 when it comes to matters like these; 

 but what democratic communities, 

 from Athens downward, have re- 

 fused to believe is that any special 

 qualifications are required for the 

 art of political government. It is to 

 be observed that it is political gov- 

 ernment oyily that is regarded as so 

 simple and trivial a thing. To man- 

 age a bank, a railroad, a hotel, is al- 

 lowed on all hands to require great 

 skill and experience combined with 

 no inconsiderable equipment of moral 

 character ; but to step into the Presi- 

 dency and fill the office satisfactorily 

 does not, it has been expressly stated, 

 call for anything more than common- 

 l^lace endowments. A little more 

 seems, as a general thing, to be re- 

 quired of members of the Cabinet; 

 but, broadly speaking, Mr. Mill's 

 dictum, if we confine it — as doubt- 

 less he meant it to be confined — to 

 politics, is true, that in this country 

 " anybody is considered fit for any- 

 thing." 



What is the source of this most 

 preposterous opinion ? It is difficult 



to give any answer but one: the self- 

 interest and vanity of the populace: 

 self interest, because the unqualified 

 office-seeker does not like to think he 

 might be barred from office by lack 

 of competency; vanity, because the 

 voter who feels a sense of proprie- 

 torship in the Government does not 

 like to think that he himself or any 

 person he might recommend is not 

 " good enough " for any office in the 

 Government. Of course, it has to be 

 admitted — though somewhat grudg- 

 ingly — that offices requiring tech- 

 nical knowledge in connection with 

 this or that branch of science can 

 not be filled by persons destitute of 

 such knowledge; but it is always a 

 consolation to think that the most 

 ignorant citizen could acceptably fill 

 some higher office in which he would 

 have power to make the men of sci- 

 ence step round. 



Fortunately, there are laws oper- 

 ating even in the political world 

 which to some extent antagonize 

 false theories. It may be sound 

 democratic doctrine that any citizen 

 is fit for any office ; but when it has 

 come to filling the offices, in some 

 mysterious way conspicuously unfit 

 individuals have not infrequently 

 been ruled out. No one, of course, 

 would venture to say that they were 

 ruled out for lack of intellectual 

 qualification; but they have been 

 ruled out all the same, and left to 

 wonder how it was that their candi- 

 dature was not successful. In a few 

 cases conspicuously fit candidates 

 have been selected, to the great ad- 

 vantage of the public interests con- 

 cerned. 



The strongest proof, however, that 

 there is a certain tendency in things 

 to nullify wrong theories is the prog- 



