36 Eighth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, pp. 17, 18, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I; State vs. Henderson, 145 Iowa 657.

37 Eighth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 18, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I.

38 Eighth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, pp. 18, 19, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I.

39 Eighth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 20, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I; State vs. Hospers, 147 Iowa 712.

40 Eighth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 20, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I.

41 Ninth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 12, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1913, Vol. III.

42 Ninth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 12, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1913, Vol. III.

43 Ninth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 12, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1913, Vol. III.

44 See Code of 1851, Secs. 924-936.

45 Laws of Iowa, 1857, Ch. 157, Sec. 5.

46 Code of 1897, Sec. 2428.

47 Code of 1897, Sec. 5099.

48 Compare Laws of Iowa, 1894, Ch. 62, Sec. 15, with Code of 1897, Sec.

2446.

49 Seventh Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 33, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1909, Vol. III.

50 Seventh Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 34, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1909, Vol. III.

51 Brown vs. Duffus, 66 Iowa 193.

52 Laws of Iowa, 1858, Ch. 160.

53 Laws of Iowa, 1858, Ch. 160.

54 Laws of Iowa, 1858, Ch. 160.

55 Compare Laws of Iowa, 1858, Ch. 160, with Revision of 1860, Secs. 46-54; Code of 1873, Secs. 759-765; Code Commissioners Report, 1873, Title V, Ch. 7, p. 19; Code of 1897, Title VI, Ch. 9.

56 Register and Leader, Sunday, April 11, 1909; Eighth Biennial Report

of the Attorney General, p. 65, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I; Message of the Governor in the House Journal, 1909, pp. 1294, 1295.

57 Laws of Iowa, 1909, Ch. 77.

58 Compare Laws of Iowa, 1909, Ch. 77, with Senate File No. 418 of the 33rd General Assembly, and with Eighth Biennial Report of the Attorney General, p. 65, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1911, Vol. I.

59 See the table in Mr. Peterson's paper on the Selection of Public Officials in Iowa which appears in this series.

60 Laws of Iowa, 1858, Ch. 157, Sec. 71.

61 Report of the Code Commission to Accompany the Code as reported to the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, p. 26.

62 Code Supplement, 1907, Secs. 657, 679-e.

63 Laws of Iowa, 1902, Ch. 31; Laws of Iowa, 1907, Ch. 29; Laws of Iowa, 1911, Ch. 33.

64 Laws of Iowa, 1911, Ch. 54.

65 See the table in Mr. Peterson's paper on the Selection of Public Officials in Iowa which appears in this series.

66 Code of 1897, Sec. 657.

67 Code Supplement, 1907, Sec. 1056-a26; Laws of Iowa, 1909, Ch. 64, Sec. 8.

68 Kettleborough's Removal of Public Officers in the American Political Science Review, Vol. VIII, p. 623.

69 Code Supplement, 1907, Sec. 1056-a 36.

70 Wilcox's Government by All the People, p. 167.

71 Haynes's Recall in McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. III, p. 157.

72 Ray's An Introduction to Political Parties and Practical Politics, p. 368.

73 Haynes's Recall in McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. III, pp. 157–159.

74 The material for this section was taken from the following sources: Constitution of Oregon, Art. II, Sec. 18; Constitution of California, Art. XXIII; Constitution of Arizona, Art. VIII; Constitution of Colorado, Art. XXI; Constitution of Nevada, Art. II, Sec. 9; Constitution of Idaho, Art. VI, Sec. 6; Constitution of Washington, Art. I, Secs. 33, 34; Constitution of Michigan, Art. III, Sec. 8.

75 Code Supplement, 1907, Sec. 1056-a 36; Laws of Iowa, 1909, Ch. 65.

THE MERIT SYSTEM: ITS APPLICATION TO

STATE GOVERNMENT IN IOWA

BY

JACOB VAN DER ZEE

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

THIS paper aims primarily and generally to present the claims of the merit system to a place in American State government. Inasmuch as the movement has made its most widespread and recent gains in cities and counties, much might also be written about the progress of civil service reform in local government, but space forbids a consideration of that phase of the subject.

The selection of public officials and employees for the State service, besides its importance as affecting all the people of the Commonwealth, deserves special recognition nowadays in connection with proposals to reorganize the State administration. The supreme importance of making merit appointments to many of the high and nearly all the low positions in the civil service cannot be overestimated as a fundamental reform. Such a method of appointment lays claim to the hearty support of every American because it is genuinely American and thoroughly democratic.

The writer has undertaken to portray the spoils system which has always been such a conspicuous feature in American public life and has contrasted with it the main principles of the merit system. The spread of civil service reform and its status in American States, a sketch of the chief features of merit system legislation, a brief