CHAPTER XVII

THE SPIRIT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE 323

The doctrine of an "implied contract" between the State and each civil servant, to the effect that the State may make no change in the manner of administering its great trading departments without compensating every civil servant however remotely or indirectly affected. The hours of work may not be increased without compensating every one affected. Administrative "mistakes" may not be corrected without compensating the past beneficiaries of such mistakes. Violation of the order that promotion must not be mechanical, or by seniority alone, may not be corrected without compensating those civil servants who would have been benefitted by the continued violation of the aforesaid order. The State may not demand increased efficiency of its servants without compensating every one affected. Persons filling positions for which there is no further need, must be compensated. Each civil servant has a "vested right" to the maintenance of such rate of promotion as obtains when he enters the service, irrespective of the volume of business or of any diminution in the number of higher posts consequent upon administrative reforms. The telegraph clerks demand that their chances of promotion be made as good as those of the postal clerks proper, but they refuse to avail themselves of the opportunity to pass over to the postal side proper of the service, on the ground that the postal duties proper are more irksome than the telegraph duties. Members of Parliament support recalcitrant telegraph clerks whom the Government is attempting to force to learn to perform postal duties, in order that it may reap advantage from having combined the postal service and the telegraphs in 1870. Special allowances may not be discontinued; and vacations may not be shortened, without safeguarding all "vested interests." Further illustrations of the hopelessly unbusinesslike spirit of the rank and file of the public servants.