New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-06-08
PROFESSION and PRACTICE.

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PROFESSION And PRACUGE
The platform of the Philadelphia Convention
recommends nearly everything that Gen. Grant
has left undone, and stamps with its especial
appreciation whatever his partisanNn Congress
hold in the greatest aversion 1t declares that
the National Government should protect It's
:. citizens everywhere" which is equivalent to
a rebuke of the pusillanimOus policy OF the
FaAdnrhiistratien in the West Indies; prohounces
for the ebolition of the Franling Privilege,
which the Administration majority in Congress
has Just voted not to abolish; heartily approves
of amnesty, to which the lOudest Grant men
in the Senate have steadily shown themselves
ayerse; rejOices in " the growth OF peace and
fraternal feeling throughout the land"
while in the same breath it gives formal
sanction to the Ku-klux law and the abOrtive
plans of reconstruction and devotes to the
subject of Civil Service Reform a section
which deserves to be quoted in full:
Any system Of the Civil Service under which the
subordinate positions of the Government considered
rewards for mere party zeal Is fatally demorazlng;
and We therefore, favor reform of tho system by laws
which shall abolish the evils Of patronage, and make
honesty efficiency, ana fidelity the essential quaifca-
tions for public position, without practically creating
life-tenure Of Office"
This is sensible; but how could the Phila-
delphia Convention find the face to say It'll
Who are the btterest enemies OF this very re-
form but the leaders of the Grant party In
the Senate and the House2 Who have de-
nounced it as "a humbug" but the very men
who organized this Convention and forced the
Presidents denomination Senator Carpenter
L l. &, uhali of in
Logan, the stray sheep over whose recovery
the Administration is now making so merry,
vows he will have none of it, Gen. Butler.
strangest of all the allies with whom Grant
purposes to fight this campaign, rejects
it as a pestilent heresy. The Custom
house withdrawing Committee, when
it reported the other day in favor of
the system Of assessments for political
purposes on the salaries of civil service en-
ploy6s, virtually protested that patronage is
not an evil, and that Office Ought to be the
reward of party zeal. "The enemies OF the
"Presdent,n said Gen. Butler recently i'll de-
bate, care the friends of Civil Service Re-
"form :" and Gen. Butler speaks as one having
authority, for he is the Presidents chief spokes-
man and advocate in the House of Repre-
sentatiyes. When Mr.. Willard introduced a
bill to give effect to the Recommendations of
the Civil Service Commissioners, Gen. Butler
declared that "those who supported the bill
"would need certificate that they were not
"going to Cincinnati,n and on his motion it
was recommitted-that is to say killed-by
Republican votes.
Gen. Butler knew very well that Civil Ser
vice Reform would have prevented the renOm-
nation of Grant at Philadelphia. He knew
that the Convention was packed by the most
fragrant abuse of patronage ever known In
the United States. He knew that for at least
two years offices had been distributed with a
single eye to the denomination; and that all
the scandals which disgrace Federal politics
in New-York, New-Orleans, Philadelphia, and
other Cities all the quarrels which distract
the Republican party here and elsewhere,
sprang from the same selfish prostitution of
the public service to private ends. lie had
good reason indeed to say that the friends of
Civil Service Reform were not the friends OF
the President. ..
But why need we quote the Presidents sup
porters when we have the record of the Presi-
dent himself BY circular issued last De-
cembcr he announced that Civil Service Reform
SHOULD 20 lUJO OpCIdIlOu vi loJ VI
in the present year. Thereafter there should
be no appointments or removals for mere
party reasons, and the evils Of patronage
should disappear altogether. On the 18th of
January it became convenient for mere party
reasons to remove Deputy-Collector Mcclellan
of Troy, n. Y, and so Mr.. Mcclellan received
letter in the old form, notifying to him that
his services were TO longer required but admit
ting that they had been entirely satisfactory. He
protested that his case came within the new
Civil Service rules, and was informed in reply,
by the Secretary of the Treasury, that "the
president had suspended the rules and regu-
cations of the Civil Service They will be
suspended again and again, we may be sure,
until after the election.
In view of all these facts, the recommends
ton of Civil Service Reform by Convention
organized through the most INSCRIPTIONS use
of party patronage, in the interest of
President who has carried the abuses of
patronage farther than any of his predeces-
sOrs, seems an absurdity too gross to be passed
over in silence. ..
TAXING THE POOR.