It is entirely creditable to seek public office by proper
methods and with proper motives, and all applicants will be treated with
consideration; but I shall need, and the heads of Departments will need,
time for inquiry and deliberation. Persistent importunity will not,
therefore, be the best support of an application for office. Heads of
Departments, bureaus, and all other public officers having any duty
connected therewith will be expected to enforce the civil-service law
fully and without evasion. Beyond this obvious duty I hope to do
something more to advance the reform of the civil service. The ideal, or
even my own ideal, I shall probably not attain. Retrospect will be a
safer basis of judgment than promises. We shall not, however, I am sure,
be able to put our civil service upon a nonpartisan basis until we have
secured an incumbency that fair-minded men of the opposition will
approve for impartiality and integrity. As the number of such in the
civil list is increased removals from office will diminish.
While a Treasury surplus is not the greatest evil, it is a serious evil.
Our revenue should be ample to meet the ordinary annual demands upon our
Treasury, with a sufficient margin for those extraordinary but scarcely
less imperative demands which arise now and then. Expenditure should
always be made with economy and only upon public necessity.
Wastefulness, profligacy, or favoritism in public expenditures is
criminal.
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