6
The Business Value of the Merit System
Excerpts from a Bulletin prepared
and published by the National
Civil. Service Reform League of
New York.
and fire protection, operation of trans
portation, production and transmission
of power, issuance of licenses, investi
gation and collection of tax assessments,
welfare and relief work, building of
roads and public works, care of the
aged, the destitute and the sick, as well
as hundreds of other common services.
Each of us as a citizen and taxpayer
has a stake in these services. Each of us
is concerned not only with getting a
dollar’s worth of service for a tax dol
lar paid, but, for the preservation of
democracy itself, in seeing that all these
services are as effectively rendered as
skill, non-partisanship and AigA morale
can assure.
An Industrialist Speaks
"If we are to be regulated in each and
every detail of our lives we must have
an effective merit system or we shall
be destroyed.” So said one of our leading
industrialists in 1940. What did he
mean? What is the merit system and
what is its value in America today?
Economically and socially, under
democracy, we are dependent on two
forces: business and government. Bus
iness produces jobs, income, necessities
and luxuries. Government regulates
Government Employs More Men and
business, renders vast services, and
maintains our defenses. Human beings Women Than Any National Industry
operate government. Partisan and stu Government
pid application of regulatory laws, or
(Federal, State, Local)___ 3,500,000
of relief and defense expenditures, Textile Industries_________ 1,814,000
weaken confidence— cripple the nation. Agriculture
Democracy as a way of life, is dear
{Food Products, Forests)__1,583,000
to Americans. Its weakness lies in the
Iron and Steel------------------1,166,000
partisanship and ineptitude of much of Transportation
its government personnel—regardless of
(Air, Land, W ater)_____ 779,000
which party is in power.
Political Practice
The merit system is England’s and
America’s democratic, open competitive
When Hymie Shorenstein was ap
method of selecting and advancing pointed keeper of the Records of Kings
well qualified government employes. County, New York, at $6,500 per year,
America doesn’t use it enough!
it was because he was a good friend of
More and Mare Jobs!
the ward heelers. But he was unable to
keep
or supervice the keeping of the
The number of public employees in
this country exceeds 3,500,000. The records because he could neither read
cost of public salaries exceeds five bil nor write English. Accurate records are
lions annually. The competence or lack essential to any business. What price
of competence of government workers confusion and delay? Shorenstein cost
affects the daily lives of every citizen. the taxpayer $6,500 a year— equivalent
It is these workers who interpret and to the tax on 162,500 movie admissions.
apply cur laws regulating business,
Business Practice
wages, hours, and working conditions,
Successful commercial and industrial
unemployment and old age insurance, concerns in the Unitel States today pick
communication facilities, inspection of their workers only after a careful an
food, supply of drinking water, police alysis of their ability and experience.