Chicago, Satan's Sanctum

by L. O. Curon

The law was put into operation by a board of commissioners not one of whom had ever been an active party man. No body of men ever met for the performance of a public duty, who were less tainted with partisanship than were these gentlemen. They studied the law carefully, and acquainted themselves with its text and its spirit. Their selection was satisfactory to the public, and was a guarantee of honest endeavor to place the affairs of the city under the control of the law’s terms, in all the departments to which those terms applied, and which could be brought within the classified service. They formulated adequate rules, after consultation with able men familiar with the workings of the federal civil service law. Open to criticism as some of these rules were as being more theoretical than practical, nevertheless they were built upon the basis of selection by merit alone, regardless of politics, and were adapted solely to that end. For two years it adhered to the law, enforcing against the party to which the majority of the commissioners belonged a rule which required that no person holding an office which fell within the classified service could take an examination for that position without resigning the position. The law continued to work during 1895 and 1896 as smoothly as new machinery can. In the Spring of 1897 a new city administration came into power of a different political complexion from that under which the law was placed in force. It was then found, to the amazement of the public, which, however, in the hurly-burly of life soon subsided, that these commissioners were incompetent. One placed his resignation in the hands of the Mayor and was almost immediately appointed to the office of comptroller by that officer. The efficiency of his service in his new office, and the quality of his character, have already been referred to in these pages.

Suddenly the same Mayor addressed the late associates of the Comptroller as follows, viz.: “You will please take notice that I have elected to, and I do hereby remove you from the position of Civil Service Commissioner in and for the City of Chicago for the following causes. First: You are and have been in your performance of the duties of said office incompetent. Secondly: In the performance of said duties you have been guilty of neglect of duty.” A new commission was appointed, which proceeded to reverse the rule above referred to, whereupon nearly all the employes of the city were discharged. No examinations having been held for these positions there was no eligible list from which to select their successors. Consequently, in such a case, appointments were made under a section of the statute to fill the vacancies for sixty days, during which time examinations were held to obtain an eligible list. These appointments were, of course, all made from the Mayor’s party. He could not do otherwise in view of the public utterances he had made during his campaign, when he said if he retained any employes appointed under a prior administration of a different political belief, “it will only be for menagerie purposes.”

When the examinations were held and a list certified, it was found that in every instance the sixty day men passed at its head. Such a uniformity of results was in itself evidence of a disregard of the law. From the highest position for which examinations were held, down through all grades, to the lowest, such as barn men, the sixty day man was always marked up to the head of the list.

During the years 1897 and 1898, no less than seven different persons were selected as civil service commissioners, until a board was found willing to act upon the Mayor’s interpretation of the statute. One instance of the abuse of the law will suffice to show the methods resorted to, for the purpose of selecting a party man to fill a vacancy in office. An examination was held of applicants for the position of “foreman of street lamps repairs.” The man who passed at the head was a sixty day man. At thirteen years of age he became a sheet metal worker’s apprentice, and with the exception of a short period when he was engaged in keeping a saloon and made a failure of it, he continued to follow that occupation. He is a heeler for one of the most notorious of the aldermanic gang. It will be observed in contrasting the questions asked him, and those asked his superior, an applicant for the office of Superintendent of Street Lamp Repairs, that a lower degree of educational qualifications is required of the Superintendent, that of his subordinate, the foreman of the gang of repairers. These questions were propounded to the foreman, viz.:

“If the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle is 35 feet and the base 21 feet, what is the altitude?

At 30 cents a square yard what is the cost of lining with metal a cubical room 13 feet long?

If it takes eight men five and one half days to make 100 lamps, how long will it take six men to make 350 lamps?

A building is 302 feet high; the walk and court measure 90 feet; what is the length of a straight line running from the top of the building to the opposite curb?

At 25 cents a square yard what is the cost of a sheet of iron sufficient for the construction of a cylinder pipe closed at both ends 28 feet long, the diameter of whose base is 28 inches?

What is the capacity in gallons of a sphere 15 inches in diameter?