Roosevelt was
sometimes charged, with being a selfish seeker after personal
advancement. There is not much on which to base this argument in
Mr. Roosevelt's acceptance of this office. For the man who is
looking out merely for his own ambitions, for his own success in
politics, is careful of the position he takes, careful to keep out
of offices where there are many chances to make enemies. The Civil
Service Commission was, of all places at that time, the last where
a selfish politician would like to be. Nobody could do his duties
there and avoid making enemies. It was a thankless job, consisting
of trying to protect the public interests against a swarm of
office-seekers and their friends in Congress.
It is ridiculous now to remember what a fight had to be waged to
set up the merit system of the Civil Service in this country. The
old system, by which a good public servant was turned out to make
room for a hungry office-seeker of the successful political party,
was firmly established. Men and women were not appointed to office
because they knew anything about the work they were to do, but
because they were cousins of a Congressman's wife, or political
heelers who had helped to get the Congressman elected. Nobody
thought of the offices as places where, for the good of the whole
country, it was necessary to have the best men. Instead, the
offices were looked on as delicious slices of pie to be grabbed
and devoured by the greediest and strongest person in sight.
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