Teddy Roosevelt: The Father of the Modern Merit System
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The prompt for this round of the FEDforum is: Who is someone you view as a champion for federal employees, and why? This week, hear from the Senior Executives Association (SEA).
Theodore Roosevelt is known for his influence as a conservationist, a governor, and of course, as the 26th president. But to the Senior Executives Association (SEA), one of President Roosevelt’s most influential roles was his service as U.S. Civil Service Commissioner from 1889 to 1895. During this time, Roosevelt advanced a federal hiring system rooted in fairness, public service, and equal protection. As President, Roosevelt continued this legacy by broadening the scope of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 to entrench merit-based principles across most of the civil service. Through his life and work, President Teddy Roosevelt laid the groundwork for much of the modern merit system.
While serving as Civil Service Commissioner, Roosevelt led efforts to investigate fraud, political abuse, and corruption among government officials.
In a February 1895 Atlantic Magazine article, Roosevelt discussed the importance of Congressional action to withdraw government employees from the spoils system permanently, rather than relying on Presidents or cabinet officials to maintain merit.
“[T]he labor force in the navy yards was put on a merit basis, and removed from the domain of politics, under Secretary Tracy. This was done merely by order of the Secretary of the Navy, which order could have been reversed by his successor, Secretary Herbert. Instead of reversing it, however, Secretary Herbert has zealously lived up to its requirements, and has withstood all pressure for the weakening of the system in the interests of the local party machines and bosses. It is unsafe to trust to always having Secretaries of the Navy like Messrs. Tracy and Herbert,” Roosevelt explained.
Roosevelt went on to explain exactly why the merit system is so critical, writing, “The government cannot endure permanently if administered on a spoils basis. If this form of corruption is permitted and encouraged, other forms of corruption will inevitably follow in its train. When a department at Washington, or at a state capitol, or in the city hall in some big town is thronged with place-hunters and office-mongers who seek and dispense patronage from considerations of personal and party greed, the tone of public life is necessarily so lowered that the bribe-taker and the bribe-giver, the blackmailer and the corruptionist, find their places ready prepared for them.”
These arguments still reverberate through our civil service reform debates today. For example, when former President Trump attempted to unilaterally move thousands of federal employees from the civil service into a new Schedule F excepted service without merit protections, SEA rebuked the return the spoils system and noted the negative impact it would have on public welfare.
Like Roosevelt in 1895, SEA in 2020 called upon Congress to ensure merit protections rather than leaving the power to classify employees to the President.
As President, Theodore Roosevelt continued his push for merit principles. During his terms, 90,000 merit based government jobs were added to the civil service. For the first time in U.S. history, merit-based civil service positions outnumbered political appointments in the executive branch.
At all levels of government, Roosevelt took the concept of a merit systems from theory to reality – improving the administration of government and laying the groundwork for our modern system. Today, we continue advocating for civil service reforms that defend merit principles to ensure the equal and apolitical delivery of government services.
As Roosevelt wrote over 100 years ago, “Civil service reform is of marked business benefit to the country; it can stand on its merits as a business proposition. But it is much more than a business proposition. Its prime importance lies in the fact that it is the most powerful implement with which to work for the moral regeneration of our public life. No other force so strongly tends to increase the political weight of decent citizens, and to minimize the political activity of the bad.”
The column from Senior Executives Association (SEA) is part of the FEDforum, an initiative to unite voices across the federal community. The FEDforum is a space for federal employee groups to share their organizations’ initiatives and activities with the FEDmanager audience.
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