1 84 Civil Service Reform 



the service should be put directly under the control 

 of the Commission. 



The Cabinet officers, though often not Civil Ser- 

 vice reformers to start with, usually become such be- 

 fore their terms of office expire. This was true, 

 without exception, of all the Cabinet officers with 

 whom I was personally brought into contact while 

 on the Commission. Moreover, from their position 

 and their sense of responsibility they are certain to 

 refrain from violating the law themselves and to 

 try to secure at least a formal compliance with its 

 demands on the part of their subordinates. In most 

 cases it is necessary, however, to goad them contin- 

 ually to see that they do not allow their subordi- 

 nates to evade the law; and it is very difficult to 

 get either the President or the head of a depart- 

 ment to punish these subordinates when they have 

 evaded it. There is not much open violation of the 

 law, because such violation can be reached through 

 the courts ; but in the small offices and small bureaus 

 there is often a chance for an unscrupulous head 

 of the office or bureau to persecute his subordinates 

 who are politically opposed to him into resigning, 

 or to trump up charges against them on which they 

 can be dismissed. If this is done in a sufficient 

 number of cases, men of the opposite political party 

 think that it is useless to enter the examinations; 

 and by staying out they leave the way clear for the 

 offender to get precisely the men he wishes for the 

 eligible registers. Cases like this continually oc- 

 cur, and the Commission has to be vigilant in de- 



