National Affairs: Civil Service

An old and familiar complaint against the New Deal is that it has virtually wrecked the Civil Service system by loading deserving Democrats into all sorts of good jobs. A prime statistic: in three years Roosevelt, Farley & Co. have made 150,000 straight political appointments, have reduced Federal employment under the merit system from 80% to 63%. A prime reason: in setting up emergency agencies the Administration short-circuited the Civil Service to get men quickly.

Touchy on this subject, President Roosevelt used a protest from the Lawyers Security League of Manhattan to defend his Civil Service record last week. Wrote he:

“… I find that in the past two or three years the positions brought within the competitive classified service by executive orders outnumber by more than 9,000 the comparatively few which have been taken out of the classified service. . . . Either by Act of Congress or by executive order the following agencies have been added to those which operate under the Civil Service law:

Alien Property Custodian Bituminous Coal Commission Farm Credit Administration Federal Communications Commission National Labor Relations Board Securities and Exchange Commission Railroad Retirement Board Motor Carrier Bureau of the Interstate Commerce Commission Social Security Board Public Utility Regulation Soil Conservation Service United States Railroad Administration National Training School for Boys Certain positions in the CCC camps Rural Electrification Administration “As to the exemption from the classified service of positions of attorney by Congress, you will, of course, appreciate the fact that when Congress takes such action there is no power resting in the President to bring such positions within the competitive classified service. I have recommended to Congress approval of bills . . . which would give to the President authority to issue executive orders which would bring within the classified service groups of positions and Federal agencies which are now exempt by statute.”

Unimpressed were the President’s Civil Service critics with his argument that the fault lay with Congress rather than with the White House, with his implication that he was powerless to get Congress to do his bidding. Wrote Pundit Arthur Krock of the New York Times:

“A fair summary of the situation seems to be this: Neither political group has any real interest in the Civil Service. The spoils system has been more widespread under this administration than previously because the establishment is larger. Only if they could be promised a half-and-half division of the jobs would the managing politicians be willing to classify all except the top layer of Federal job holders.”