Judge — December 18, 1920 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JUD once I. Sieicuer, Secretar Jastes S. Metcacet Reuse P. Sreicuer, Presiden Persrron Maxweet Con kas GE Rotaver, Treasurer ¢ Editor J. A. Waroros, Ant Editor Hasutros, Editor Grant E Associ. E NTER a new character on the national stage. The lady office-seeker, claiming her reward for services to the party. Feminine persistency is a well recognized quality and when a woman goes out to get anything she usually gets what she is after. In the pursuit of office, however, the female of the species can by no possibility be more deadly than the male. When a man becomes infected with the office-seeking disease, it lasts as long as he does, and no one but the family undertaker can clamp the lid on his ambition to serve his country and draw a salary or collect fees for his services. i EVEN before the morning of November third these patriots (male and some female) had begun to scan the lists, ap- praise the emoluments, and make their selections. By now } most of them have probably settled on what they want and started on the second phase of the ignoble quest. This involves finding out and bombarding every one approachable who could possibly have any influence with the incoming administration. There are novices at the women will fall in this class game—and probably most of the who think that all they have to do is to ask and they will receive. They have small idea of the humiliations and heartbreaks which await them. The older birds who know something of the political ropes take the more circuitous route of making life miserable for their Senators. Representatives, bosses, and every one else who could possibly lend weight to their projects for securing an income from the government | HE Vice-President-elect is said to have put a crimp in this | process by his methods of handling the Massachusetts office-seekers since he has been Governor of that State. He let it be known that he would appoint no one who backed up h application by more than one indorsement or reference. This saved his own time, made life easier for those who were sup: posed to have influence with him or the party, and let him sce at once the best argument the office-secker ‘could adduce his own behalf. It was then up to the Governor to look for further information if he thought he wanted it | This system modified or claborated might save the new | administration at Washington a vast amount of time and perse- | cution, and simultancously lead to a better standard of appoint i ments. Add for instance to the Coolidge method the provision that all applications should be made in writing, and that any office- 4 seeker would be immediately disqualified if he, or any one in “ his behalf, sought to further his cause by a personal interview. What a tremendous saving of time and energy for every one concerned! It would be a death blow to that large element among the office-seekers whose only recommendation is the effrontery and persistency by which they worry themselves into jobs. It would greatly help the appointing powers in the over- whelming task ahead of them. It would even mean a fairer distribution of the rewards of partisan appointments for partisan services. By it no limit would be placed on information about the applicant in addition to his own flattering statements. It would mean in every case the exercise of a cooler judgment on more trustworthy evidence. W often wonder why we have so many incompetents in office. Partisan politics with offices the rewards for political activity supplies the answer in the majority of cases, and this has been the explanation ever since there were govern- ments and politics. It is responsible for the existence of the whole obnoxious breed of office-seekers and professional poli- ticians. Qualified men are not looking for government jobs. They find better pay and greater security in private enterprises. The honor and patriotic duty of serving the vernment do not appeal very strongly to the ten-thousand-dollar man who is qualified to fill a five-thousand-dollar office. Least of all will he enter into the mean struggle for appointment necessary under our present system where he will have to compete with hordes of one-thousand and two-thousand-dollar men to whom the job is a glittering prize. The Coolidge plan, made even more drastic, might help the new President and his administration. T would save us the pitiful spectacle with which W ashington is to be afflicted for the next few months. ( seeking would not be such a popular game if every one could be familiar with life in the hotels and boarding-houses of Washington during the early life of a new administration, particularly when its party has been out of power for some time. The decadence of the confident office-seeker from expectation and hope to disappointment and despair, from affluence to tatters, is not pleasant to view. Jvpce. recalls one case where the victim of the disease came to Washington with his eye firmly set on the appointment of Ambassador to England. After months of waiting he went away, poor in purse but happy, as American vice-consul at Mumbo Jumbo.