The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-18

VCOp1C BIg
years owned him-arch-politician as he was
for their master.
This system of assessing officials for election
expenses. though it IL only this year that 1t is
generally attracting public attention, has been
going on for long time. What suffering Ii has
imposed on the unfortunates whose salaries are
small and opportunities for stealing limited, IL
is difficult to estimate; and what O stimulus 1t
has given to stealing amongst those who have
ready access to the public funds or
whose powers make them worth bribing
IT would be just as difficult to
estimate. But we know that it has converted
the public service into sink of corruption, the
abominations of which have never been fully
exposed. If they could be fully exposed in
way that would bring the whole people to exa-
mine and understand them, we believe there
would be an outburst of indignation that would
sweep them away, and their authors with
them In single month. The newspapers are
generally believed to exaggerate most of the
abuses they deDounce, but we say delibe-
ratelv that no denunciaton of the condi-
tion of the civil service of the United States
which has ever appeared in print has come
up, as picture of selishness, greed, fraud, cor
ruption, falsehood, and cruelty to the accounts
which are given privately by those who have
seen the real workings of the machine. The reason
why ''the men inside politics" are amazed at
honest mems Indignation over 1t is that they are
literally hardened to it-as criminals are har-
dened TO crime; and the reason why the general
public is SO little shocked by what even they
zee of it is, that they have so long been assured
by party leaders that this system is necessary
part of party governments, and that there has
to be a class of ofiice-hoders to be rotated"
and decapitated and levied upon In a demo-
cracy Gust as, according to seme, there have to
be prostitutes for the protection of female vir-
tue), that they have at last got to accept it q
great political truth.
OF course, the system of assessment is a ne
cessary consequence of the rule that ito the
victcrs belong the epoils." If Government Off
GERS are the servants of the party and not of the
country, and If the party is at liberty to use
kAax1 Co. ha,. N1fA
its own, making them pay bonuses every year
for the privilege of keeping their places Is egit
mate enough. We cannot put stop to 1t
unless we take away, bby laoo, from the victors
for cause, or appointing anybody who has not
undergone prescribed test of fitness. We
cannot trust the matter to any President or to
any head OF department: Both are liable to be
overborne by the politicians. An act of Con-
gress was passed in 1858 providing for the ex-
animation of persons appointed in the depart
ments, and more delightful example of show
not to do it, was probably never seen than its
working. The character of the examination is
left to the head of the department or bureau; If
he desires tie admission of the appli-
cant, it is a perfect farce; if he does
not, it is very severe; if he disapproves of
examinations altogether, it consists in chat
and smoke. But in point of fact, the act has
only been enforced fitfully, and at long inter-
walls. The appointments are made, just as of
old, on the requisition of members of Congress.
Mr.. Tiumbull says some of the latter have regu-
lar accounts in ''ofices" opened with them if
the candidate fails to pass the examination, he
still remains clerk, though not appointed to
any particular bureau, draws his pay, and does
odd jobs, mostly political 1t is Mr.. Cox's
making the system reality which has drawn
forth the shouts of rejoicing over his retirement
from the political hacks all over the country.
One of the practical effects of this system has
just been displayed in a curious way in this
State. The smallness of the Republican vote as
compared with former years, even in good Re-
bn1 h,,t hast
in degree to the hostility of the Fentonites,
who, disgusted by the appointment of Tom
Murphy, who is Conklingite, to the custom
house, and other slights and disasters under
gone by their chief, stayed away from the polls.
Now, why are the Republicans of this State
divided into Fentonites and Conklingites Why
is the prrty torn to pieces by the contests Of
cbieftains? Why is every convention and CON-
nittee reservoir of Conklingite and Fenton-
te hates? The fact is that the two factions
are not divided by any question of principle or
| policy any more than any two women who quar-
! rel on the staircase of o tenement-house. There
| is no point of politics, home or foreign, on
which they or their followers have any per-
| ceptible difference of opinion. The only reason
ties is tnat Fenton hates Conkling and Conkling
| hates Fenton. But how is it, the innocent
looker-on will naturally ask, that ridiculous
| personal feud like this can divide great party,
| composed of male adults, in the latter part of
the nineteenth century, and in great CONNER
cial State, into two hostile camps, and cause
them deliberately to imperil the ''cause of the
| Union" and the ''cause of humanity" about
which they prate so much as the dearest and
most important ef earthly interests? Their
reply Is, or should be-
my dear Simpleton, at the bottom of the
! whole matter is offices Lorg seclusion In your
| library, or else q seafaring life, has doubtless
! prevented your giving your attention 10 the
manner in which God Almighty when he made
repWblicanism his appointed order of govern
| ment, ordained that the machinery of admin
istration should be worked. Know, then, that
! if Fenton could get no Offices for anybody in
! post Office or custom house, he would, when he
took the feld against Conklng take it alone.
| Grown men would laBgh when he asked them
10 stand by his side and be his friends in this
| great struggle. In like manner, Conkling,
thong b far abler and honester man than Fenton,
| would likewise find that when he raised his
| banner be would have to stand under its folds
! by himself. People would be too busy to work
for him against any Of his foes. So he and
! Fenton would go off to Washington, aud. hay
! ing nobody to see about places, would devote
| themselves to what is called the study of the
| public business-as If politics needed study
Gull and stupid work, too. But each having
some hundreds of offices to bestoW on his
politics so plain tina. the administration feels
| bound to court him, their conflicts make one of
| the most exciting little games ever
witnessed. Thousands rally round them
! Custom house and Post Office become fortified
| poets, which are carried now by one and now by
| another, and finally the whole politics of the
| State get drawn into the fray. To be New
| York politician, you have not to understand
the Constitution the history of legislation, the
! finances, political economy, and statistics but
TO love or hate COnkling or Fenton, and to know
which of them owns Smith, what Brown said
| after seeing Fenton last week, and how things
are looking in Schoharie county since Conkling