er plea
of good cause would be as wanton and arbitrary as it is now, unless the
power to remove were intrusted to some other discretion than that of the
superior officer, and in that case the struggle for reappointment and
the knowledge that removal for the term was practically impossible would
totally demoralize the service. To make sure, then, that removals shall
be made for legitimate cause only, we must provide that appointment
shall be made only for legitimate cause.

All roads lead to Rome. Personal influence in appointments can be
annulled only by free and open competition. By that bridge we can return
to the practice of Washington and to the intention of the Constitution.
That is the shoe of swiftness and the magic sword by which the President
can pierce and outrun the protean enemy of sophistry and tradition which
prevents him from asserting his power. If you say that success in
a competitive literary examination does not prove fitness to adjust
customs duties, or to distribute letters, or to appraise linen, or to
measure molasses, I answer that the reform does not propose that fitness
shall be proved by a competitive literary examination. It proposes to
annul personal influence and political favoritism by making appointment
depend upon proved capacity. To determine this it proposes first to test
the comparative general intelligence of all applicants and their special
knowledge of the particular official duties required, and then to prove
the practical faculty of the most intelligent applicants by actual trial
in the performance of the duties before they are appointed. If it be
still said that success in such a competition may not prove fitness, it
is enough to reply that success in obtaining the favor of some kind of
boss, which is the present system, presumptively proves unfitness.

Nor is it any objection to the reformed system that many efficient
officers in the service could not have entered it had it been necessary
to pass an examination; it is no objection, because their efficiency is
a mere chance. They were not appointed because of efficiency, but either
because they were diligent politicians or because they were recommended
by diligent politicians. The chance of getting efficient men in any
business is certainly not diminished by inquiry and investigation. I
have heard an officer in the army say that he could select men from
the ranks for special duty much more satisfactorily than they could be
selec