"The following testimony to the good effects of the system is given by Commodore Henry Erben, the efficient commandant of the New York Navy-Yard, than whom no one is better able to judge:

"In my opinion the system works admirably, its advantages being as follows: "(1) There is no favoritism in taking on men. When one is found incompetent, he is discharged and another taken on until a first-class workman is obtained.

"(2) The foremen are not bothered by outside parties to give employment to friends, political or otherwise.

"This enables the foremen and quartermen to be more independent of their men, and hence better discipline is kept and better results obtained.

"(3) The men do better work than under the old system, feeling themselves more independent, and knowing they will retain their places as long as the job lasts, and also that advancement in grade is open to them by continuous good conduct.

"(4) The general effect of the system has been to reduce the cost of all work done in the yard during the year about 25 per cent.

"Under these rules the navy-yards have now been conducted for fifteen months. During these fifteen months occurred a Presidential campaign, the first within the memory of the present generation in which the yards have not been used as a political machine. In all departments of labor and at all the yards the question whether a man was a Republican or a Democrat has been absolutely and totally ignored. The foremen, whether new or old, are to-day in every case the foremen recommended by the board, and the old had no advantage in the selection, for every foremanship was vacated before the selection was made. Not a workman has been taken on except in accordance with the rules, and, while in former Presidential campaigns the yards have been packed with voters, in the last no increase whatever took place during the sixty days before the election, nor was a workman employed beyond the normal number. The evidence of increased efficiency under this system is clear and unequivocal.

"It is believed that no pretext can now be raised for a change in the working force upon a change of Administration. If such a change occurs for political reasons, it will mark a backward step in our naval administration, and will introduce anew into the yard the festering influence of political corruption. To preclude such a possibility I recommend that the system now in operation, whose efficiency has been proved, be made permanent by suitable legislation.

"The time has come when the Navy must cease to be the football of political parties. It has become a great national interest, which should receive the support of patriotic men, whatever their political faith.

"It could not command this disinterested support as long as the taint of political favoritism hung about its workshops. When the Department first stated the policy which it proposed to carry out it was denounced by those interested in maintaining the old syetem, the sincerity of its utterances was doubted, and there were few who believed that any practical results would be accomplished.

"To-day the policy outlined nearly two years ago is an accomplished fact, and its results are patent to all the world."

Secretary Herbert, who succeeded Secretary Tracy as head of the Navy Department in 1893, continued in operation the navy-yard regulations of his predecessor. In his first annual report to the President (see Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1893, p. 51), he says:

"There is no doubt that the system of employing laborers without reference to their politics and making merit the sole test of their retention and advancement is greatly to the benefit of the Government. Unless some such system as this be followed, there is no practicable method except to take the recommendations of members of Congress, who are better acquainted with and have more knowledge of their constituencies than any other persons to whom the head of a Department has access. Senators and Representatives, interested as they are in the success of the Government and of their party, as a rule, it may be safely presumed, will only recommend those whom they believe to be competent for places under the Govern

ment, but the knowledge they have of the capacity of laborers to build and repair ships is generally restricted within very narrow limits. They certainly can not judge of the competency of laborers with as much accuracy as they display in selecting persons for clerical places, and everyone knows that in this, though actuated by the best intentions, they make frequent mistakes.

"A misfortune of the method of taking on laborers to oblige their friends, and not because of their capacity or skill, is that the influence that procures an appointment is frequently used to secure the retention of an incompetent employee."

In the light of a fuller experience, Mr. Herbert has this to say concerning the continued application of the regulations in his report for 1894 (see Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1894, pp. 38, 39):

“The system of employing workmen at navy-yards through a board of labor, taking them without reference to politics and in the order of their application, giving preference to veterans and those with former navy-yard experience, has been adhered to, and continues to be commended without exception by all naval officers and others whose duties have brought them in contact with it. It is believed that those taken on through these labor boards at the several yards are politically divided approximately in the proportion that parties bear to each other in the vicinity of such yards. No instance of favoritism in the employment of labor is believed to have occurred, and, indeed, no well founded complaint on that score has at any time been made. In a few instances officers, through a misunderstanding of the rules, have given workmen employment irregularly, and in these cases corrective measures were promptly applied. The only complaint against the rules which has been made with any show of plausibility is to the effect that foremen recommending laborers to be dropped for want of work have been influenced by political considerations in selecting those whose services are of least value. A careful investigation of every such charge seriously made has not shown any of them to be well founded; but the Department, in order to prevent occasion for such complaints hereafter, has amended the rules so as to provide that the commissioned officers on duty as heads of department in navy-yards shall personally acquaint themselves with the quality of the work done by each employe and themselves be held responsible for all discharges.

"It is hoped and believed that during the coming two years the system as at present carried out will result in such a fair and equitable distribution of employees at navy-yards that all political parties will agree that this method of employing labor, so heartily commended by all who understood its merits, should become permanent. The labor at navy-yards has so increased in efficiency that many of the superintending officers contend, and it would seem with much show of reason that the Government can now fairly compete with private concerns in the cost of constructing vessels and machinery."

QUOTATIONS FROM TESTIMONY OF HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE AND RETRENCHMENT, FEBRUARY 1, 1898, RESPECTING THE BENEFICIAL OPERATION OF THE MERIT SYSTEM AT NAVY-YARDS.

Senator LODGE. I should like to ask you, as you have passed from the Civil Service Commission to an Executive Department, what is your practical experience with the classified service?

Assistant Secretary ROOSEVELT. My practical experience as police commissioner and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy not only convinces me that the application of what is called civil-service reform to these departments works an improvement, but that it is practically indispensable if really good work is to be gotten out of the two departments.

If to-day, as to the Navy Department, the law was abolished, the Department, in self-defense, would have to reestablish it, so far as it might by departmental regulations, if it was to get really good service out of the Department; and if you wish I can give you some examples of what I mean and some reasons for the statements I make.

Senator LODGE. I shall be very glad to have you do that, but I wish to ask you one question before you come to it. What would be the effect on the time of the head of the Department, you may say, supposing that the yards and the Department itself were deprived of civil-service regulations?

Assistant Secretary ROOSEVELT. It would mean that the great part of the time of every officer, who ought to be engaged in the transaction of public business, would be taken up in trying to reconcile conflicting claims to appointments. Senator LODGE. Now you may state what you desire to say.

Assistant Secretary ROOSEVELT. I have a little memorandum here which I do not believe has ever before been made public, and which may be of interest right on this point.

The old system of employing laborers in the navy-yards, the men being appointed for political reasons, in accordance with the wish of local politicians, was in vogue when the new navy began to be built; and I want it distinctly understood that I do not reflect in my statements upon any particular man or any particular Secretary. The old system worked just about the same way under any Secretary, and it had so to work; but it gradually grew so intolerable that under Secretary Tracy the present system of registration of laborers was put into effect, and it very speedily produced an almost complete elimination of politics in the appointment and retention of the laboring force.

There had formerly been a great abuse in the way of employment of labor in the navy-yards just before election, and a law was passed prohibiting such employment except in the case of urgency. The law accomplished nothing. Urgency was always declared. In the Presidential election of 1888 the old system of appointment of laborers for political reasons obtained. On September 1 of that year there were fourteen hundred and odd employees in the Brooklyn Navy-Yard. On November 1 there were 2,500. By December 1 the number had shrunk again to less than 1,400. Over 1,000 men were employed during the two months before election, and were discharged inside of a month after the election. That was in 1888. During the course of the next Presidential term the service was practically classified, the registration system was established, and on September 1, 1892, 2,200 men were employed. On November 1 there were 2,052 men. Instead of 1,000 more 150 less were employed. On December 1 the same number were still employed.

Mr. BAKER. Is there any reason why the Department could not enforce proper examinations by themselves?

Assistant Secretary ROOSEVELT. There is every reason for knowing that it would be absolutely impossible for them to do it. It could not be done.

Mr. BAKER. Why not?

Assistant Secretary ROOSEVELT. From the simple fact that there would then be no outside power to supervise the departments and enforce the examinations, and a good head of a department would enforce them and a bad head would not. Then, whenever any new man came in he would always be assured by all his political friends that the former man had not enforced them, and therefore that he ought not to either. A system of departmental examinations, like the system of class examinations, is a mere cloak for the most rampant form of spoils politics, and it is worse than ordinary spoils politics because it has the element of hypocritical pretense about it.

QUOTATIONS FROM TESTIMONY OF HENRY H. BROGDEN, FIRST CLERK IN THE WASHINGTON NAVY-YARD, BEFORE THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL SERVICE AND RETRENCHMENT, FEBRUARY 1, 1898.

Mr. PROCTER. I should like to ask Mr. Brogden what his experience has been in the application of the civil-service rules to the force in the department, both clerical and mechanical?

Mr. BROGDEN. It has improved the force wonderfully, sir; both.

*

Mr. BROGDEN. I think it would be very injurious if the law were repealed. We get a very much better character of people in every way, in the clerical or semiclerical force.

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION AT NEW YORK NAVY-YARD BY HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY, 1897. The Department fully sustains the conclusions of Commander Davis as to the charges against Mr. Bowles. In as far as they relate to alleged political discrimination, or the appointment of outsiders and the retention of unworthy in preference to worthy men, these charges are not only disproved, but are shown to rest upon nothing more substantial than malicious or frivolous gossip, or else upon the belief of the less competent workmen that they, and not their superior officers, are the proper judges of their efficiency. The attention of Constructor Bowles will be especially called to that part of Commander Davis's report warning him as to being sometimes overharsh and following too implicitly the recommendations of leading men and quartermen; but it is evident that the real reason for the attacks upon Mr. Bowles is to be found not in the fact that he has done badly but that he has done well. He has shown great energy and capacity in handling men; he has paid heed solely to the needs of the Government work, and has sought to establish a high standard of efficiency among the laborers in the yard; he has absolutely disregarded all political considerations in the appointing and employing men; and the opposition to him evidently arises mainly from the fact that under him for the first time it has been impossible to procure the reinstatement or retention of men guilty of misconduct who possess political influence. The evil of occasional harshness in discipline is trivial compared with the evil of allowing men to shirk, or be guilty of other misconduct, provided they have political influence; and it is because of his refusal to permit this that Mr. Bowles is attacked.

The standard of work in the Brooklyn Navy-Yard has been very appreciably raised under Constructor Bowles. The complaints against him have now twice been investigated, once by me personally, and once at great length by Commander Davis. The widest latitude has been given to every one who had any accusation whatsoever to make, and it is evident that there is no foundation whatever for these charges. There can be no possible excuse for any further investigation and the case will not again be reopened.

As regards the charges made by the veterans, it appears that there is no ground whatsoever for complaint against Mr. Bowles, and the testimony of the witnesses produced tells very strongly in his favor and incidentally shows that under the labor board scrupulous heed is paid to the rights of veterans. But in the Department of Yards and Docks it does appear that Mr. Reed, a veteran, was discharged when Mr. Menocal admits that he was as good as the three nonveterans who were retained. Ir. Reed will accordingly be reinstated, not because he has any legal claim, for he has none, but because it is the policy of the Department, where men are equally good, to retain the veterans in case it is necessary to make a discharge. The legal rights of the veterans have not only been carefully preserved by the Navy Department, but in its labor regulations it has gone very far beyond what the law requires in giving preference to veterans, having, indeed, gone to the very verge of the line

which divides inefficiency from efficiency in the effort to do all that is possible for the soldiers and sailors of the late war. In appointments from the lists the veterans are given an absolute preference, and when discharged, if they have behaved welleven though less well than the others-they are still given preference. In consequence, the Department at times has serious difficulty in getting its work done, for some of the divisions are so crowded with veterans, now for the most part elderly men past their prime of life, that the work is in constant danger of deterioration. All that saves the work from deterioration is strict obedience on the part of the head of the division or bureau to the Department's orders that in making discharges the men who do inefficient work shall invariably be discharged first. The sole test is the efficiency of the man's work. To introduce any other test-to make, for instance, an allowance on behalf of a veteran for inefficient work—would speedily produce the most damaging effect upon the Department, and would mean the liability of causing. at any time, some great structural weakness or defect in the ships of war, to which the nation's honor is intrusted. Such a course is not to be contemplated for a moment and will not be urged by any patriotic man.

In giving preference to veterans in employment so completely as we now give it, we have gone to the very verge of what the conditions of good administration will permit. In making discharges it is absolutely necessary that they be made strictly in accordance with the degree of efficiency of the workmen. Where men are of equal efficiency the veterans will be retained. Where there is a difference in efficiency the most efficient man will be retained; and the efficiency must be determined, not by statements of interested parties, but by the deliberate judgment of the officers who are responsible for the work done, and whose interest guarantees that, though they may occasionally make errors, on the whole they will undoubtedly retain the men most capable of doing that work.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT,

Acting Secretary.

EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS OF OFFICERS AT THE NEW YORK NAVYYARD RELATIVE TO THE EFFECT OF THE ENFORCEMENT OF PROMOTION REGULATIONS AND THE VALUE OF THE SEMIANNUAL EFFICIENCY RECORDS IN THAT BRANCH OF THE SERVICE.

These reports are unanimous that the effect of these records is excellent. The same excellent effect of the semiannual efficiency records and the action consequent thereon, are clearly evident in increasing the efficiency of the clerical force in the commandant's office. [F. M. Bunce, commandant. Letter of November 20, 1897, inclosing reports of other officers.]

I have to report that the effect of this record and the action of the Department thereon upon the recommendations from this office approved by you has been excellent. By its action in every way has the efficiency of the clerical force of the supplies and accounts department been increased. Tardiness, before very common, is now infrequent; absence without previous permission seldom occurs. Clerks absent through illness are now most careful to furnish certificates from their attending physician. The quantity of work performed has been greatly increased, not only by this better attendance, but by greater application and steadiness during office hours. The quality of the work has been improved somewhat. A great change for the better in the bearing and deportment of the clerks of this office was noticed almost immediately after the present regulations went into effect. It is the opinion of this office that the present method of keeping a complete record of a clerk's attendance, work, and deportment, followed by the efficiency reports and recommendations for promotion and reduction, is admirably designed to protect both the Government and the clerks. No clerk of character and ambition can possibly