J. Bracken Lee and the Public Service in Utah

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IN THE EARLIEST study of turnover of state personnell Professor Martin L. Faust of the University of Missouri summarized the arguments against the spoils system. The spoils system entails heavy turnover in personnel which periodically results in the scrapping of all or nearly all accumulated experience. It places inexperienced and incompetent persons in responsible administrative positions. Since it is predicated upon rewards and favors, it introduces favoritism and partiality in the conduct of the public business and limits the access to the public service of young people of capacity and promise. The spoils system renders impossible continuity in administrative policy and destroys morale within the service. It leads to oligarchy and autocracy by helping bosses get control of the party machinery. Moreover, the prevalence of the spoils system in state government makes difficult effective federal-state co-operation and at the same time encourages the growth of bureaucracy at both levels. Therefore Dr. Faust advocated the merit system for Missouri. These arguments turn in considerable part on the assumption that heavy turnover occurs in non-merit positions. This assumption is borne out by Dr. Faust's statistics for Missouri for the years studied. It is commonly made for other states, but without supporting data. Hitherto no studies have been made of the experience of the eleven western states save for a recent investigation in Washington,a which unfortunately proved to be