New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-06-29
OEFICESEEKING.

To the Editor Of The tribune
SIR: If it be in your opinion disreputable to
seek for once-as Judge Il to be from the many critical
remarks about ofceseeking" that have read in
paper-will you please point out wherein tho dseredf
les and whether in the application OF your principles,
S o % 20 s iI place IN Con gress and
not for the Post ohcei The great number OF ap
bat thew are ont OF employment and second that they
DESTROYS Of It, should not the latter fact DO
dssuAde from efforts TO attain III c.
Nep.Y York. June %, 1899.
RepIy.-I. We make no distinctions of grade
with regard to oflice-seeking. Whether it DO
President, Governor Congressman, Assembly
man. Postmaster tide-waiter, or something
else, we hold that the Office should seek the
man. not the man the oflice,-and we hold it
rs discreditable to be begging, boring, and
button -holing, for big Office as for little
one.
III. Office seeking does not prove the seekers
"out of employment We know many who
have all the work they can do, and long have
had; yet they are after office because they
fancy ofiice-holding pays better, or is an easier
way TO make q living, than productive indus
try. We regard this as q sad mistake-that, if
fifty young men who could should get places as
letter carriers or tide-waiters tomorrow, while
fifty more such hired out to work on farms, or
TO chop cOrd-woOd. and, carefully saving what
they earned, bought farms so soon as they
safely could, or located quarter of
public lands. these would, in the average, be
in far better circumstances twenty years hence
than tho ofice-holding fifty. The office hold
ers would receive more money at the outset;
but they would be required to pay political
assessments, their living would cost far more,
and their expenses every way would be much
heavier The ofice-holders would receive as
much ut first as ever; whereas, the farmers, if
they kept their eyes open and their teeth
firmly set against the seductions OF the wills
ky-jug, would earn more and more each year,
till they were severally fifty, If not till still
older. In short, we believe Office seeking n
most unthrifty pursuit, and hence do our best
to dissuade men from following it,
III. That Offices seekers are DESTROYS of secur-
ing Office, is tolerably self-eyident; but that
does not prove that they would like to do
honest work for living. 1t rather indicates
that they would like to live with as little work
as will answer.
". The "discredt" Of ofce-seeking is COM
pick and manifold viz: /. The office seeker
almost always seeks to have some one else de-
DrlVeu Oh u pluCc Ill Indb ITO may pup
plant him therein. This would hardly be rep
utablc in industry or business; then why should
1t in regard TO object 2. The ofice-seeker
aims to get more pay for less service than do
those employed in productive industry; and
this is an ignoble aspiration 3. He bores peo-
pie on whom he has no claim, importuning
them to write letters and sign recommends
tons, when he knows right well that they
would prefer to be excused. 4. He eyinces pre-
sumption and selfshness in thus annoying those
who are perplexed between their dislike to
hurt his feelings and their repugnance to beg
ging Office of one they hate to importune for
those they care little or nothing about.
V. Whether post be honorable or otherwise,
greatly depends on the impulse under which 1t
is sought. If an Office be sought purely with
view to doing more good therein than would
otherwise be done-in other words, If the i'm
pulse be generous and unselfsh-then office
may be hOnoraby desired; yet even then, We
could Justify no other than passive aspiration.
VI. What the great body Of Office seekers