The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-12
Aba ndOsmont OF Civil Service Re-
form-Its Probable Significance.

ment are as ominous as the results of the
endeavor were unsatisfactory. Upon no ques-
ton which has engaged the attention of the
people since the close of the war have our
public men exhibited so much insiucerity az
on this pletence of reform in the civil SER
vice. 1t has been the hobby of both parties
as occasion served, but the purpose OF neither.
Mr.. Jenckes tried in vain to have his
scheme adopted by Congress, but he failed.
as everybody knew he must fail, and
when he retired from public life his meas
ure was no further advanced than when he
first introduced it into the House. The effect
of the agitation. however, was to quicken the
outcry OF the opposition against the corrup-
tons of the public service, and for the moment
1t seemed as if the democracy was to become
the loudest champion of the Jcnckes idea.
! Not to be outdone i'm this direction, in which
both parties were determined that nothing
bring about new era of purity by reinquish-
ing his power of appointment to boards
and competitive examinations. Congress
passed no mandatory laws upon the subject.
but gave General Grant authority to act in
the matter according to his own sweet will.
! After board Of civil serv ice commissioners
had spent weeks and months in considering
the rules for the new order of appointments
to public Office the code which was adopted
was put into operation by mere Executive
decree The schoolmaster performed the
functions OF the politician and candidates for
places in the departments and the custom
houses began to be chosen on account Of their
proficiency in the three Rs rather than be-
cause Of the value of their party services.
From the beginning the system was failure,
and it was not long until Mr.. George William
Curtis, one of the most earnest and sincere of
the Commissioners, resigned in disgust, be-
cause he saw the insincerity with which the
new rules were administered. They were still
! adhered to, however, by the President, with
some show of earnestness, till the meeting of
Congress last December, when he announced
in his annual Message his purpose to abandon
the scheme altogether unless Congress adopted
some practical legislation upon the subject.
This Congress failed to do, and it is now an
nounced that the President, constituting the
want of action according to his suggestion
as disapproval of the system, has directed
the abandonment of the whole scheme of civil
service reform. 1t is a sorry conclusion to
specious pretence, and will be received by the
country with as little favor as any single act
of the present administration. The people
were never very earnest believers in civil ser
vice reform by the competitive system, but
they know that there is as much reason for it
now there ever was, and, recognizing the
fact that the President has as much power for
its enforcement as he ever had, they will be
apt to look for Interior motives as the cause
for its abandonment.
What are these motives? We fear the
answer may be found in the present condition
of politics and the ambitious purposes of
General Grant In spite Of the lessons Of the
elections, including the recent result in New
Hampshire and Of the rebuke of the admins
tration policy by Congress. the third term
visions have not yet wholly faded from the
Presidential mind. Indeed, these events ap-
parently have only intensified His Excellencys
aspirations. That which the people will not
voluntarily bear to the Executive Mansion is
to be gained by the force OF patronage and
power. Already the leading men among the
faithful have tasted the sweets OF Executive
favor Dir. Orth goes TO Austria and Mr..
Maynard to Turkey, these gentlemen being
among the most prominent and earnest of the
Presidents personal supporters. Their ap-
pointment to these mi. sions taken in itself
would have been matter of small significance
had it not been for the subsequent indication
OF the third term policy. Of these signs the
abandonment of the civil service system is
one of the most potent. Unless this action is
a display OF mere puerlity on the part Of His
Exceilency-a quality we would be very slow
to attribute to hint can portend nothing
short of clean sweep OF the ofice-holders not
fully in accord with the administration.
Anything short of this would not justify
the President in a matter where he has always
been his own master The civil service sys-
tenn adopted by the government just before
the last Presidential election was purely an
administration policy. Its adoption served
special purpose then, and it is quite likely
that its abandonment is to be made to serve
a similar purpose now. With the entire
army of office-holders as his personal retainers
it would be comparatively easy for the Presi-
dent to pack the National Convention and
overturn the will of the people. Whether
such is his purpose cannot be long
concealed. In the time of jackson and
Van Buren, such a sudden change of
policy so deliberately planned would
have been accepted as having only one pur-
pose, and TIE opposition to it would have
been instantaneous and universal. If General
Grant, in freeing himself from the trammels
which he was so ready TO impose upon his
own action, seeks thereby to strengthen his
Presidential chances in 1876, he is likely to
find resistance as general as like attempt