and the lack of sufficient trained force to master at once all the details of the enormous undertaking.

"It is the purpose of the present inquiry to eliminate lost motion and get direct results. Most of the bureaus already have employed efficiency experts who have attempted to install modern methods. Many new suggestions have been made which are rapidly being carried into effect. In installing new efficiency methods it has been essential to maintain certain characteristics of the military establishment necessary to sustain military discipline."

vide rooming and boarding accommodations for the new appointees. At the latest report the room registration office had on its lists more than 5,000 rooms which had been inspected and found available for Government employees. The recent housing act appropriated $10,000,000 for the construction of dormitories and for relieving the acute congestion at the capital in other ways.

That German Efficiency

(Civil Service Age)

T was formerly the practice of certain self advertised reformers who

TEPS will at once be taken to relieve the congested living conditions in Washington, which have been an obstacle in the way of recruiting the civil service to meet war needs. The Civil Service Commission is advised by the Department of Labor that the erection of temporary hotels and restaurants, to be conducted under Government supervision for the use of Federal employees in Washington, will begin about July 1.

It is expected that the first units will be ready for occupancy early in September. Accommodations will at first be provided for approximately 5,000 persons. Additional accommodations will be provided as they are needed. Each room w be arranged for the occupancy of but one person. In the meantime the room registration office, which is conducted by the District of Columbia council of defense under the auspices of the Council of National Defense, is said to be able to pro

linquencies, to laud German efficiency to the skies; that these Germans did this and did that in such a way and that their way was the best. It became rather tiresome.

Now they have turned coats and are attempting to tell us that German efficiency is all bunk; that it really isn't efficient at all. Can you beat it?

These wiseacres were either wrong at first or are wrong now. The probabilities are that they were wrong both times.

Don't fool yourself. Those Huns are only too efficient in the practice of getting what they want. Let us not be self deceived. Theirs is the efficiency of bending every effort to the one end through absolute control of central authority. We certainly don't want and won't have that type of efficiency, but to beat them at their own game we must ourselves be highly efficient, but it must be the efficiency of the individual unit. We must train ourselves to obtain the maximum results from the minimum effort, and eliminate all false motions; when we can do this, and develop true teamwork we can excel that boasted German efficiency which discounts the individual.

useful discussion on a few of the more fundamental problems. Undoubtedly Mr. Tead will have his answer. Undoubtedly Mr. Foulke will have his. And as "this is no private war" anyone else who has interesting views on the question is entitled to get in. By the way, there are two questions: 1, Is it expedient to permit unionization of civil servants? 2, Is it just to forbid such organizations? It ought to be borne in mind that ideal jus

tice sometimes must be denied in favor of what is feasible in the imperfect conditions under which reforms must be worked out.

MT

R. GEORGE B. BUCK'S clear and concise analysis of the proposed new retirement plan for the City of New York, published in this number, throws a bright and steady light on a subject that is admittedly complicated and obscure. Probably no more tragic blunders have been made in municipal legislation than those committed in nearly every civil pension bill that has been passed the country over. The new New York plan has the prime requisite of all lasting retirement schemes it is based on mathematics and not moonshine. We could wish it were strictly contributory instead of "fifty-fifty"; the arguments for a straight contributory plan, even from the point of view of the employees' interests, are almost unanswerable. It is to be hoped that a sound system will be substituted for the present "hodgepodge" of fourteen separate systems whose only resemblance to each other lies in their equal folly.

ought to be attracted to the service These men are of the type that of the Government at any and all times, and now that they have entered it they ought to be kept in, if possible. Obviously it is not possible under present conditions. The opportunities for promotion, at least for rapid promotion, are small. Seniority remains the principal test. The greatest height to which a "government clerk" may normally aspire could be scaled by an able man in private business in a few years at s

It seems to us that never before has there been so much reason to reform the Federal service and make it an attractive career for the ambitious and able man. It will never be possible to open up a vista of really handsome salaries, of course; but if the better-naid positions now in the exempt class were open to competition and to promotion from the ranks below, it is certain that many men would choose the honorable career of public service because of its dignity and the satisfaction and permanency of it.

Let us not pass this opportunity to hold permanently the able men who have undertaken to serve the government in an emergency. Let us induce them to remain, and let us attract others of their stamp.

With a thorough merit system, with mere seniority replaced by intelligent selective promotion, we can realize a standard of state service heretofore only dreamed of.

Rhyme nor Reason

D

EAR SIR: Although we think you ought to be dismissed as head of one of the bureaus of this department, we have decided to terminate your suspension and to reinstate you.

The reasons for discharging you are ample, though perhaps not quite so ample as we thought when we suspended you. We must admit that your department has been operated most satisfactorily. This is due to the fact that you have distributed the work among your subordinates. Therefore it is not due to you.

However, in view of the satisfactory results, we shall let your delinquency pass for the nonce. But henceforth you had better get your subordinates to turn over most of their work to you, because it looks bad to see a $5,000 man doing nothing but think. It looks too much like a corporation.

We are making this letter public, because we want your subordinates to understand thoroughly that they

need not worry about any orders they get from you henceforth. Now go ahead and make good, if you can-or dare.

That is the spirit and substance of the recent report of the New York City Board of Health, reinstating Dr. Lucius P. Brown, Director of the Bureau of Foods and Drugs. Dr. Brown was suspended last May, following a series of sensational charges published by James E. MacBride, President of the Civil Service Commission (whose own resignation we chronicled last month). Mr. MacBride's campaign against the Health Department was made at the instigation of Mayor Hylan, for the avowed purpose of giving Mr. MacBride an opportunity to advertise himself. He succeeded, but in a manner exactly the contrary of that which he planned.

The sensational "graft" charges of MacBride had been tempered to mere allegations of "neglect of duty, inefficiency and incompetency" by the time Dr. Brown came before the Health Board for a public hearing. It was alleged that he had delegated to his assistants work that he ought to have performed himself. It was gravely charged that he had attended public health conferences and professional conventions instead of sticking to his desk. It was vigorously maintained that he had used the stenographers of his bureau for the dictation of private letters.

Dr. Brown obtained his high office as the result of a competitive examination conducted by the previous city administration. It appears on the face of all the facts

that this was the prime if not the sole reason for the attack against him by those who have not yet realized that the mayoralty campaign of 1917 is over.

The announcement of the Health Board, reinstating Dr. Brown, stated that while his conduct had been such as, "if practised under our administration, would result in immediate dismissal," nevertheless "our sense of justice will not permit us to inflict undue punishment upon him for the neglect of his disciplinary superiors to exercise, in their turn, such oversight of the department as to prevent such faulty bureau administration." Moreover, "undoubtedly he acted conscientiously, and with the purest of motives," and the only conclusion that the Board can draw is that "his superiors certainly failed to observe his methods, or else their conception of the office differed radically from ours." In any case, "it may be admitted that Mr. Brown's methods of administration were satisfactory to them."

To summarize, Dr. Brown is admittedly a man of ability and “pure motives," and he acted in accordance with the policy of his administrative superiors in such a way as to produce wholly satisfactory results.

The line between tragedy and farce is hard to draw.

the bill for "non-political" appointments "without examination" or "with such examination as the Director may prescribe," Mr. Taft says:

The result of such a system has always been in the past that the selections have been upon recommendation of Congressmen and for their political purposes. The direction that they shall not be selected because of their political affiliations is inserted for public consumption and not as a real restraint.

It is a tub thrown to the whale of public opinion. It is a rule of action directory and not mandatory, and there is no method of enforcing it. One would think that the Democratic members of the Senate and the House had had in the last five years enough political pap in the shape of patronage to induce them to give us a good census. Such a census must be taken by experts selected in the only way by which political influence can be eliminated and real merit made the