Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1873-04-05
civic SERVICE REFORM.

The New York Evening Post of the Is
instant reIterateS the assertion, on tbs
authority Of George William Curtis. tina
the latter resigned his position as heat
of the Civil Service Board because III
regards several important appointment:
recently male as IL virtual abandonment
of the civil service reform. The Post
one of whose editors is a near neiShbo,
and personal friend of Curtis, says he
gives Curtis reason in his own precise
words. 1t proceeds that he resigned
not because of recent illness, bat because
he thought that il making certain Fed
eral appointments here and elsewhere
Grant has thrown civil service reform
overheard, and that his (Curtis) use
fulness as u member of that Commission
il ut an end. The Post adds that Cur
tbs friends, while they must all regret
the necessity of his resignation, Just 50
far as they feel an interest in the civil
service reform, will justify him in re-
firing from a position in which, if he re-
manned, he would be held responsible
for acts which are nothing more or less
than n disregard OF public pledges and u
mockery of public faith. To us it seems
q very serious misfortune that the Presi-
dent should have yielded to the impor-
tunities of political clique. and have SO
submitted himself to their influence that
the best promises Of the Administration
should have been SO speedily and easily
broken. An immense stride had been
taken in the reform of the civil service,
and General Grant had only to be trds
to his repeated pledges on this subjec:
to have scared to himself power and
a name with the people which has be-
longed to no President this century.
Whether he will attempt to rec ify this
mistake, or whether it is possible to rec
tify il or not, We do not know but We
do know that he has thrown away all or
nearly all that has been gained in the
reform of the civil service. This is
misfortune to the country which may
take years to remedy. It is well known
to Curtis personal friends that his con-
scientious earnestness in the case inn
PEELED him to serious sacrifices of time,
health and money. At the Presidents
instance he gave up his entire lecture
season a year ago. abandoning from
1909 to $4,000 in engagements in or
der to perfect the civil service reform
plan. His recent nearly fatal illness
was the result of over-tasking efforts to
pursue the work without neglecting his
pressing professional duties. When
convinced that the President was no.
equally sincere, his abandonment of the
frauGulent pretenses was q natural re-
suit, for Curtis is incapable of insincerity
or guile in behalf Of anybody or any
thing.
We copy the foregoing in full in
order that our text may not be mis-
for we herewith present
a brief sermon on the so-calied civil !
serv ce reform and its oriSinators
and purposes and i'll so doing de-
sire to be understood as icdnlging in |
o sense of exultation over what seems
to be the early abandonment of an
movement of political
dilettanteism, marsha'ed by that
bully of the genteel proprieties. Mr.. |
George William Curtis. 1t is sell
dom that the Lord Dundrearys of
society assert themselves and this
case of political and official asphyxia.
this disgustful retiremen. of Mr..
Curtis, is just what we might have
He rasaly brought his
delicate sensibilities into contact
with the rude jostlings of the vulgar
politicians of the period only to
be shocked into well man
nered chagrin and stareby resigna-
lion. Good radiance to him and the
,ickly squad of club men, Yankee
,ockneys, prurient prudes and " ;as-
hetic snobs of the newspaper and
periodical press /; OF each and all Of {
which latter day upgrowths OF alt
house of super excellent gen
tility. himself is a specimen and an !
sxemplar. With his outgoing We {
hope that the whole soul and spirit ..
which gave brief and weakly exist
ence to the miserable, unmanly
fction of civil service reform will de- !
part forever from our system of pol t
tics. It never was anything better
han an effort at setting mp a class of
college men and first !.
family fungi as clerks and under
lings in office, and was conceived in
Miss Nancyism and born in snob
berry.
The tone of the foregoing extract
,onfe;ne fha impertinenf idea that