344 THEORY AND ADMINISTRATION 



In order to secure capable and diligent men, the civil service must 

 be made attractive; that is, it must offer advantages such as to draw 

 into it persons who might expect to obtain wealth or distinction in 

 other occupations, as, for instance, in the legal or medical or literary 

 or engineering professions, or in commercial business. How is this 

 to be done? Many things go to make people seek public employ- 

 ment. Nowhere, perhaps, is it so much sought as in Greece, a poor 

 country offering few careers to a surplus of educated and aspiring 

 men; yet those who know Greece know that the attractiveness 

 of the profession has not given Greece an exceptionally efficient civil 

 service. But, speaking generally, the way to draw talent into state 

 service is to make it perfectly open to all citizens, to make it per- 

 manent, to pay it well, and to make it socially respected. Posts 

 ought to be filled by appointment or other than by election. Elec- 

 tion by the people is almost sure to be made on party grounds, and 

 party views are no guide to the finding of a capable man whose busi- 

 ness it will be to do official work into which party views do not or 

 ought not to enter. Election by a legislative body, such as an assem- 

 bly or a city council, may give better opportunities than does a vote 

 at the polls for ascertaining the qualifications of a candidate; but 

 it is likely to be made for other reasons than the candidate's fitness, 

 possibly party reasons, possibly the wish to please a candidate's 

 friends. The only way to fix responsibility is to give the function of 

 selection to a single person and make it his interest as well as his 

 duty to select carefully and honestly. To secure even this is so 

 difficult that an examination either fixing a minimum level of 

 knowledge or awarding posts by open competition has been found 

 a valuable expedient. 



The reasons for making the civil service a permanent service are 

 no less obvious. Unless a man is sure that he will not be dismissed 

 except for some fault, he will not spend his time and money in getting 

 a proper preparatory training, and will not feel that sort of interest 

 in his work and loyalty to the nation as his employer which go so far 

 to make him do his work well. If, moreover, the occupants of the 

 posts are frequently changed, the experience they have acquired 

 will be lost to the public and the new appointee will be for a time less 

 competent, because he will have to learn his work. As respects 

 payment, it ought to be on a scale properly adjusted to the cost of 

 living and to the incomes made in other occupations requiring a 

 similar amount of knowledge and skill, though, of course, the scale 

 may fairly be fixed somewhat lower in respect of the permanence of 

 the employment as compared with the risks which the professional 

 or commercial man has to face. It is a good plan to let part of 

 the remuneration take the form of a pension, which is practically 

 deferred pay contingent on good conduct. Where poverty forbids 



