New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-12-21
"Civil Service Reform.

"Civil Service Reform.
"That the present method of filing public
Offices often leads to incompetent and faithless
public servants; that it has subjected the
civil service to great abuses, and declined
public station in everything save its profits, art
| facts forcibly impressed upon the country b,
| the single experience Of the last twelve months
So startling shameful, and humiliating to oul
pride have been the exposures Of Ignorance
ard corruption. that the whole people hearC
with gladness President Grants manly utter
| ance in favor of a reform, and almost unani
mously Endorsed the subsequent action of Con
gress.'
| Those who did not happen to see thu
above paragraph in the paper in which it APP
peared as editorial. or who were not assured o.
the fact by us, would never suspect that it il
from the Philadelphia Press, the editor o
which was only few weeks before appointed
| Collector of the Port of Philadelphia for the
simple and sole reason that he was politician
| Of the right stripe, and that he had previously
been elected Secretary of the Senate, and held
the position several years for the same reason
1t is undoubtly true that Colonel FoRSEY ID
quite competent to ill creditably the Office Of
Collector as he proved he was to fill the posi-
tion of Secretary.
But we repeat that he owes his Office to his
politics, and the use of that very influence on
the part of his friends which is the source, (if
it have any source, or if the fact exist OF
that " startling, shameful, and humiliatiug ex
posture of ignorance and corruption =" which he
so vigorously and savagely desounces. He
was subject to no competitive" examination
no investi CATION was made into his antecedents,
and he ought to know from his own experience,
having been robbed of several thousand dollars
by one Of his assistants of high moral char
acter and all the ether requirements the most
rigid civil service reform could require, in
whom he aud the public had unlimited conf
dence, that no such examination will afford the
public any guarantee against fraud and dis
honesty TIE three clerks in the Treasury,
the two in the Post Office Department, Colonel
HoDeE, and indeed every man, almost without
exception, who has proved defaulter under
this and preceding Administrations, had, till
then, sustained high reputation for integrity
and business capacity, and would have credi-
tably passed the most rigid Investigation into
his antecedents or capacity and qualification
Ignorant" men have not been appointed to
responsible positions, or if they have, thsS have
proved more honest than the class to which we
refer. 1t is not Ignorance, but cultivated
rascality, that has brought whatever disgrace
upon the country that has resulted from the civil
service Of the country. But there has been no
such startling" shameful" ''humiliating,
/" exposures" during the last twelve months as
the Press so agonizingly describes. There have
been the three defalcatiOns in the Treasures
Office to which we have referred, one in the
Post Office here, one in the New York post Office,
every dollar of which has been made up to the
Government, and one in Georgia post Office
for a small amount, that of Col. HODGE, and
perhaps two or three others in all. But We
will admit that there have been twenty five in
the year and that they have stolen altogether
one million Of dollars.
There are seventy FIVE thousand Office holders
under the Government. Oae out of three
thousand only, therefore, has proved dishonest,
only one dollar stolen out of every six thousand
which passes through the hands of officials dur,
ing the year. This is much smaller proportion
of dishonest men than is found in private EN-
ployme and an infinitely smaller per cent.
of loss than in private business transactions.
And il is to the lasting credit Of the President
that every defaultsr has been promptly prose-
TOD nA tunisbad 10 h. nr l.
In no single instance has there been the
slightest attempt to screen a dishonest or TO
retain incompetent official With rare sx-
ceptions the President has selected competent
as well AS honest men. There has never been
period in our history when less Corruption
and ignorance" has been exposed. Our civil
service 10 this as in every other respect will
compare, We have the statement of Secretary
boutwell, for saying, with that of any other
country.
1t is hardly necessary, We imagine, for Us to
repeat the qualification We always make when
expressing our opposition to the civil service
reform. That opposition extends to the phase
Of it only which the enemies Of the Admins
tration are advocating as one of the main
planks in their new party" platform. The
kind of reform they demand is one which
places Coppsrheads and traitors on a perfect
equality with the loyal men of the nation, and
which abrogates ell political distinctions in
the selection Of Government officers. The great
champion of this reform is Mr.. SEIZURE, who is
also the leader of the new party movement.
Whatever may have been the motive of Mr..
Jsxcxs, the author of the humbug phrase of
civil service reform-left at home by his con-
stitusnts the year after the eDton-.here 10
no doubt that the new party men have adopted
1t ~ means of tickling the eupidity of the