Canadian Forestrij Journal, November, ipi7 



1377 



A Victory Over ''Patronage'' 



Important Work of Western Forest Protection and 

 Development Freed From Political Millstones. 



The ousting" of "patronage" from 

 its long-entrcnrhod position as dic- 

 tator of Federal Government pur- 

 chases and appointments may be 

 accepted as one of the most gratify- 

 ing "drives" in Canadian political 

 history. What a true merit system 

 in making appointments to the "out- 

 side service" of the Dominion For- 

 estry Branch, for example, will mean 

 to the Canadian people cannot readily 

 be realized but most certainly the 

 cutting out of "patronage" constitut- 

 es the greatest boon to which that 

 department could fall heir. Further- 

 more, the success of the new principle 

 may easily lead to its adoption by 

 those provincial governm.ents yet ad- 

 hering to the prickly advantages of 

 "patronage" in making appointments 

 to the forest services. 



A Bouquet from Winnipeg 



Most certainly, the prying loose of 

 this keystone of Tammany ism in 

 Canada has evoked an almost un- 

 broken paeon of rejoicing from our 

 newspaper editors, quite irrespective 

 of political affiliation. Perhaps the 

 strongest expression of all comes from 

 the Winnipeg Tribune (Independent) 

 which characterizes, as a "damned 

 scoundrel" any man who ever at- 

 tempts the restoration of patronage 

 in Canada. 



A very considerable part of the 

 newspaper campaign against patron- 

 age was in response to efforts of the 

 Canadian Forestry Association for 

 months past to point out the mischief 

 wrought by the iniquitous system in 

 the Dominion Forest Service. Every 

 newspaper in Canada, having any 

 substantial circulation, was provided 

 with quotations from the Civil Ser- 

 vice Act demonstrating the sim- 

 plicity of bringing "the whole or any 

 part of" the outside service under 

 operation of the Civil Service Com.- 

 missioners at Ottawa by a mere 

 Order-in-Council. 



Following is one of the Associa- 

 tion's summarized statem.ents which 

 found wide use in the leading papers: 



Technical Services 

 "First steps in Civil Service Reform." 

 "There are certain obvious "first 

 steps" in carrying out the reform of 

 the Dominion Civil Service, as prom- 

 ised in the TJnion Government's in- 

 itial manifesto. The Civil Service 

 Commission of Ottawa has been asked 

 to report on a plan for liberating the 

 thousands of Governm.ent em.ployees 

 outside of Ottawa from the fetters of 

 the local patronage committees, so 

 that appointments and promotions 

 shall be determined through the Civil 

 Service Commissioners alone. \Vhile 

 ultimately all Government officers, 

 whether in Ottawa or in the "outside 

 service" must be brought under the 

 operation of the merit system, certain 

 branches of th'^. Government's work 

 call for immediate application of the 

 new plan for the riddance of patron- 

 age. 



^"It is doubtless highly desirable 

 that not even a junior clerk in a town 

 post office should be manipulated by 

 a local political ring, but it is of m.uch 

 more account that the members of 

 technical services should come in for 

 the first application of patronage re- 

 lief. One of these technical services 

 is the Dominion Forestry Branch, 

 with a large staff of field men respon- 

 sible for the protection from fire of 

 the enormous areas of forest in the 

 prairie provinces and a section of 

 British Columbia. 



"Since the formation of the For- 

 estry Branch, the greatest handicap 

 on its usefulness to the people of 

 Canada has been political interference 

 with appointments to the field ser- 

 vices, these services including not 

 only fire ranging and inspection, but 

 the important tree nursery work de- 

 signed to supply Western farmers 

 with shade trees and shelter belts. 



