88
best served or substantial justice may be done without injury to the integrity of the merit system and without subjecting the appointing power to the suspicion of arbitrary action or of favoritism, is one of the complicated questions on which there may well be a difference of opinion. The shortest way to solve the difficulty is no doubt that the President should take each case of that kind in hand, form his judgment upon it, and, if he finds that what he thinks the best thing to do cannot be done under a strict enforcement of the rules as to this special case, order action according to his judgment. And this seems to be the practice recommended by the Civil Service Commission, or at least a majority of its members, to the President and adopted by him.
But many members of this League, of whom I am one, although recognizing the expeditiousness of this practice in accomplishing the object immediately in view, look upon it as a very dangerous venture as to its ulterior consequences.
It is one of the most fundamental principles of the merit system that appointments to places in the classified service, under the competition rule, shall not be made at the arbitrary will of the appointing power, but solely on the ground of merit, as shown by open competitive examination supplemented by practical probation during a certain period. This is to exclude from the action of the appointing power the motive of personal or political favoritism. It is essential that this principle be maintained—not only to the end of securing to the public service, on the whole, the best class of public servants, but also—and this is hardly less important—to inspire the general public with confidence in the honesty, the good faith of the system—a confidence without which civil service reform, in spite of all the prestige it has gained, will again have to struggle hard for existence. It can survive occasional miscarriages of an honest application of its principles. But the loss of popular confidence in its good faith will seriously threaten its life. It is, therefore, supremely important that whatever may be calculated to weaken that popular confidence be carefully avoided, and
