The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-05

| Though last, not least, Grants election
| will afford the best chance that has ever been
offered Of a reform in the civil service. II is
| only lately that the necessity Of this has
become fully apparent to the public. While
| population was small, society simple, and the
| work of government comparatively light, the
evils of the existing system were not very
striking Since the war they have assumed
| proportions which 1t is no exaggeration to call
awful for they positively threaten the exist
| epce of the Government. From Presidents
taken from the ranks of the regular politi-
clans, bred under the influence Of party
usages and traditions, it was useless to expect
any assistance in the work of
reform. Even to Mr.. Lincoln, honest
and well-meaning as he. was, the present
plan of appointing public servants wore ths
| appearance Of portion of the natural order of
the universe, and there was something pa
thetic as well as painful in watching him
devotiDg the first three precious months OF his
first term Of ofice-when the enemy was lite
rally at the gates, and the Government appa-
rently in the throes OF dissolution-to the dis
tribution OF "the spoils" in such manner as to
'satisfy the claims of localities" and reward
the various hack politicians of all degrees who
had taken part in the canvass.
Now, Grant is not a regular politician. He
will be the first President the country has
had for many long day on whom old party
doctrines, as to "spois" and "claims," will
have no influence. He has been bred in
very different and very much better school
a school in which honor and merit are still
words that mean something, and that stand
for forces in human affairs. He has shown,
too, in his administration of the army, that he
knows good man when he sees him, and
that as soon as he sees him he clasps him TO
him with hooks of steel. He is by education
and temperament the foe of jobbsrs, intri-
guers, and blatterers, and will undoubtedly
apply to the civil service, in so far as he can,
the rules of selection and promotion by aid
of which he has given such splendid illus
tration to American military annals. We
may therefore look for, at his hands, in the
first plsce-if he gets fair amount of support
from the Senate-the formation of cabinet in
which knowledge and ability will count for a
great deal, and the "claims of localities" and
party usages for very little. We should not
be surprised, for instance, and should be very
much pleased-though we know nothing
whatever about the probabilities-to see him
put Mr.. Sumner in the State Department and
Mr.. Wells in the Treasury. In the next
place, the attempts to reform the whole civil
service in which Mr.. Jenckes and Mr. Patter-
son are engaged, and which will be renewed
when Congress meets, will undoubtedly re-
ceive from him an amount of hearty support
such as no regular politician would give them.
He, like all military and naval officers, will,
when brought into actual contact with the
diplomatic, revenue and postal service, be
sickened by the spectacle of disorder and cor
ruption which they offer, and will do what he
can to make them what the army and navy
area credit to the country instead of a shame
and scandal.