Moses’ merit system would have restricted high office to three colleges

Evidence

The downgrading of seniority in Moses’ system would mean that these city employees would lose a large advantage—in many cases their only advantage—over bright young outsiders trying for their jobs. The elimination of unnecessary jobs would mean that some of them would be out of work entirely. Moses’ insistence on demotion for men who failed to score high enough on new examinations to qualify for the jobs they presently held would have the most far-reaching effects of all. Men who had run their ward boss’s errands for years in return for advancement up the civil service ladder now came to realize that under Moses’ system the rewards for which they had waited so long might be snatched from them; in fact, for many of them, “might” was only a euphemism; they knew all too well what their qualifications were and how they would make out on honestly run examinations. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 336 (#expands, via linked claim)

There should be no social bar to promotion from the lowest to the highest place—but let us not fool ourselves. When we have made every possible provision for the encouragement of early promise, when we have prepared every child as far as possible for its suitable vocation, the subordinate employees of the government…who are fit to rise above the ranks will be few and far between. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 240 (#builds-on, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Even self-educated talent was deemed too rare to deserve promotion — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 240; Moses’ ‘open competition’ meant restricting high office to the educated elite — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 233; Moses’ merit system threatened the careers of decades of loyal patronage workers — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 336

Related

• Moses’ ‘open competition’ meant restricting high office to the educated elite (similarity 0.92)
• Even self-educated talent was deemed too rare to deserve promotion (similarity 0.91)
• Moses’ merit system threatened the careers of decades of loyal patronage workers (similarity 0.89)
• Moses deemed heredity and early education fixed limits on promotion worthiness. (similarity 0.87)
• Moses made scores of loyalists millionaires through Triborough patronage (similarity 0.84)
• Moses’ doctoral thesis advocated elite-only government service (similarity 0.79)
• Moses admired a civil service with a rigidly closed upper class (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Moses’ merit system threatened the careers of decades of loyal patronage workers #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 336