Speech of Senator Miller, December 15, 1882

One of the principal objections made against this system, one of the principal arguments against it, is that it is not founded upon sound business principles. Of late it has been a very popular saying that the only reform needed in our civil service is that it should be conducted upon sound business principles. I may be pardoned for assuming that I know somewhat of the methods which prevail in the business interests of this country, and I do not hesitate to say that this bill, and the system which is to be established by it, if honestly and fairly carried out, will come nearer putting the civil service of this country upon sound business principles than it ever has been hitherto or than it ever can be under any other system.

It may be true that our large corporations and business establishments do not submit their employed to competitive examinations for admission; but it is true of our great commercial houses that a majority of the clerks therein employed come in as errand boys or office boys and gradually work their way up, step by step, and are educated in the profession. In this way the principal clerical offices in our great business establishments are generally filled. When you come to our manufacturing industries the managers of them do submit their applicants to some examination. If their duties are to be simply mechanical, they inquire of them where they learned their trade, "in what manufacturing establishments they have been employed," "what are their credentials and recommendations." They look upon the man and they satisfy themselves as to whether he will suit for the employment, and after this is all done and this examination is made, which is all that is necessary, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred every man who is set to work in our great manufactories goes in upon trial. If his work give satisfaction he is assured that he will be retained so long as his work is satisfactory.

Who ever heard of a business man employing a laborer or a clerk because some political friend recommended him as a good Republican or a good Democrat? He wants to know what the man knows about the business. How is it with our great railroad corporations? Many of them require as great ability as the management of any of the great Departments of this Government. What would be thought of any of our great railroad corporations if upon an annual election the old board of trustees should be voted out and a new board of trustees should be voted in and the new board of trustees should proceed to remove every locomotive driver, to remove every conductor, every brakeman, every trackman, to turn them all out simply and solely because they had come into their positions under another board of direction? How long would such a board of trustees control the management of any railroad in this country? Only long enough for the stockholders to have another meeting.

This thing is not done in business life anywhere. A man holds his position because he is fit to hold it, and he holds it so long as he properly discharges the functions of the position. This is the way great business interests are managed in this country. The bill proposes to do precisely the same thing with the civil service of this Government. It proposes to put it in such a condition that if at any time the people of this country see fit to turn over the control of the Government from one party to another, all these merely ministerial and clerical duties shall go on undisturbed; that the Post-Office Department, which reaches to every home throughout the length and breadth of the land, shall not be thrown into confusion and disturbed by a change of all the men that are connected with the postal service; and that the Treasury Department, that reaches into every district in its collections and its distributions of money, shall not be overturned and disturbed because there may be a new Secretary of the Treasury or a new President.

The proposed reform properly carried out will result in putting the civil service of this country upon sound business principles. Such are a few of the objections that have been made to this system. I will not pause to notice others.

From The Congressional Record. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1882. 316.