Government Employees Quotes
“Assessing” did not mean evaluating. It described a process where each civil servamt was “assessed” an amount of money—based on his salary—that was to be paid to the Political Party that appointed him. The specific corrupt process of “assessing” he described well in {629355}. Roosevelt had worked at the local, state and Federal levels of government. All had tolerated a great deal of this form of corruption. At the time this article was written, the Federal reforms had begun to take effect. Some states and local governments followed, but the average level of corruption being most at the local level, next at the state level, and least at the Federal level, as TR observed then was essentially the same into the 21st century. Government corruption was generally less, but relatively it was worst at the local level and least at the Federal level. At the end of the 20th century for example, every Kentucky County Commissioner except 1 was convicted and jailed for taking bribes and kickbacks from highway and road construction contractors. Corruption at the Federal Level was less.
Whitman himself had worked as a clerk in 3 different Federal Departments.
Once he assumed the Presidency however, he flip flopped on this issue and approved prosecution of the Drake case and other whitle blowers. At the beginning of his second term, Edward Snowden, tried to get his superiors to do something about the massive surveillance of the American Public that the intelligence agencies were carrying out in secret. When Snowden was ignored, he went public through two newspapers. Obama castigated him for revealing that the government officials had lied and were operating a secret spying and eavesdropping system monitoring virtually every American. The Obama Administration chased him around the world trying to get him extradited for criminal trial in the United States.
We shall have a system where When Roosevelt became Police Commissioner, virtually every appointment, promotion, and disciplinary action was controlled politically. Nothing could be more shocking to the police and the politicians than Roosevelt’s statement. But he implemented that policy and the result developed into the finest urban police department in the country. The political influence however returned a few decades later.
