. A history of the United States. ept the city accounts,no one could tell howthey had used themoney raised by taxa-tion. In 1871 thethefts of the TweedRing were discovered and some of the band were stories aroused the people. Civil Service Reform. — A remedy for dishonesty and mis-management was urged. Part of the officials were elected,but the larger number were appointed by the president or thegovernor or the mayor. It seemed clear that those officialswho were appointed should be chosen solely because theywere capable of doing their work well. The reformers arguedthat their fit
. A history of the United States. ept the city accounts,no one could tell howthey had used themoney raised by taxa-tion. In 1871 thethefts of the TweedRing were discovered and some of the band were stories aroused the people. Civil Service Reform. — A remedy for dishonesty and mis-management was urged. Part of the officials were elected,but the larger number were appointed by the president or thegovernor or the mayor. It seemed clear that those officialswho were appointed should be chosen solely because theywere capable of doing their work well. The reformers arguedthat their fitness could be determined best by an examinationin which all candidates were asked the same questions. Thisnew method of selecting men went by the name of civilservice reform, or the merit system. Several men, 1 The farmer grafts upon a branch of one tree a twig coming fromanother. So the dishonest official adds to the expense of a piece of workmoney for himself. The Tweed RingFrom a cartoon by Nast 502 NEW METHODS OF GOVERNMENT. James A. Garfield among them Congressman Thomas Jenckes of Rhode Island,George WiUiam Curtis, editor of Harpers Weekly, and Sena-tor Carl Schurz of Missouri, worked many years for thereform. Grant favored their plan and urged it in his messages. But Congress did not wish to losethe influence that the old system ofappointment gave it, and Httle prog-ress was made in Grants successor, President Hayes, andthe next President, James A. Gar-field, were also anxious to bringabout the change. In 1881, a few months afterGarfield became President, a disap-pointed office-seeker assassinatedhim. This event showed one dan-ger of the spoils system. It movedthe people, and, finally, Congress to action. In 1883 a long stepwas taken by giving to three Civil Service Commissioners theduty of holding examinations to test the fitness of candidatesfor certain offices.^ The plan applied chiefly to clerkshipsin Washington, but it has been slowly extended. Nearlyever
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