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.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS STANDS FOR EXTRAVAGANCE 360

Authoritative character of the evidence tendered by the
several Secretaries of the Treasury. Testimony, in 1902, of
Lord Welby, who had been in the Treasury from 1856 to 1894.
Testimony of Sir George H. Murray, Permanent Secretary to the
Post Office and sometime Private Secretary to the late Prime
Minister, Mr. Gladstone. Testimony of Sir Ralph H. Knox, in
the War Office since 1882. Testimony of Sir Edward Hamilton,
Assistant Secretary to the Treasury since 1894. Testimony of
Mr. R. Chalmers, a Principal Clerk in the Treasury; and of
Sir John Eldon Gorst. Mr. Gladstone's tribute to Joseph Hume,
the first and last Member of the House of Commons competent
to criticize effectively the details of expenditure of the
State. Evidence presented before the Select Committee on Civil
Services Expenditure, 1873.

CHAPTER XIX
CONCLUSION 378

INDEX 393

THE BRITISH STATE TELEGRAPHS