Massachusetts followed in 1884, and within a few
years many of the States had adopted some sort of civil service
reform, and the large cities were experimenting with the merit
system. It was not, however, until the rapid expansion of the
functions of government and the consequent transformation in the
nature of public duties that civil service reform made notable
headway. When the Government assumed the duties of health
officer, forester, statistician, and numerous other highly
specialized functions, the presence of the scientific expert
became imperative; and vast undertakings, like the building of
the Panama Canal and the enormous irrigation projects of the
West, could not be entrusted to the spoilsman and his minions.
The war has accustomed us to the commandeering of utilities, of
science, and of skill upon a colossal scale. From this height of
public devotion it is improbable that we shall decline, after the
national peril has passed, into the depths of administrative
incompetency which our Republic, and all its parts, occupied for
so many years. The need for an efficient and highly complex State
has been driven home to the consciousness of the average citizen.
And this foretokens the permanent enlistment of talent in the
public service to the end that democracy may provide that
effective nationalism imposed by the new era of world
competition.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
There is no collected material of the literature of exposure.
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