The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-12-10
MisreHanenus
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM.


to be one of the most urgent needs of
the government. In many quarters it is
declared to be the paramount issue of
all, and unless we can secure it, as we
are constantly told, We are doomed
people. Ii we push those who insist
upon this reform to tell us what they
mean, they reply, honesty, fidelity, eff
cheney, and economy of administration.
That is administrative reform. That is
vitality Indispensable, we are told.
Without that we are lost. The proceed
ings against the Whisky Ring in Missouri
and the Canal Ring in New York are
said to be movements for such reform.
The thieves are pursued, prosecuted,
| punished, and forced to refund. Now,
this is we'll, but it is not reform. In
| New York, ind eed, an amendment to the
| Constitution was adopted last year
which makes the chief abuse in canal
management hitherto impossible in fu-
ture. But so long rs the State owns
the canals there will be vast and con-
stantly new opportunities and inceDt-
ives to abuse. In Missouri, however,
where Secretary Bristow is so relentless
ly doing good work, there is nothing
whatever to prevent the necessity of a
repetition of his good work every year.
The object of administrative reform
il off AeIf 81
But that is impossible without honest
and efficient officers. Denunciations
and exposures and punishment of ras-
Gals will not reform the service. Well
meaning appointing officers can not re-
form it, because they can not possibly
personally know anything of the great
majority of persons whom they appoint,
and must depend upon the representa-
tions of those whose motives they must
generally suspect to be selfish. No ap-
pointing officer supposes, as rule, that
the representations made to him are
chiefly in the interest of the public SER
vice. He knows that the motives are
personal, political, or pecuniary. He
knows, Secretary Bristow knows, that
when he has broken up one ring of
thieves, the system which made it, and
which is unchanged, will make another.
In New York, IL the amended Constitu-
tion did not now forbid the devices by
which the Lords and Beldens and Deni-
sons carried out their work, new Lords,
and Beldensand Denisons would succeed
those with whom we have all been made
familiar. While the root remains alive,
the tree will continue to sprout after it's
kind.
Now the tap-root of administrative
abuses remains. A system of appoint
ments to Office which disregards char
aeter, capacity, intelligence, and fitness;
which makes of the service lottery in
which drawing even the smallest prizes
depends upon influence, effrontery, and
partisan zeal and efficiency; which rests
the tenure of Office upon the same
agencies, and not upon devoted, eapa-
bic, and honest service, and therefore
stimulates officers to make hay while the
sun shines-is a system which fosters
every kind of abuse, and under which
actual reform Is impossible. There is
plenty olamor about putting honest and
fit men i'm Office And how are they to
be put in' We have heard very high
officers of the government say that no
body can be so much interested as they
are to have good men in Office. That is
very true, but it is still truer that over
the appointment of the most important
officers in their own departments they
have very little influence, or none what
ever. The system is very much stronger
than they. We are continually exhorted
to vote for this or that candidate be
cause, If elected, he will appoint only
honest and good men. But he can not
help himself. He will appoint such hon.
est and good men as the system permits,
and no others. His fellow partisans will
insist that their party affords Just as
honest and good iuen as the other, and
if their ''elaims are disregarded," that
the party will 60 to destruction, and the
appointing officer himself will be heard
of no more. Governor Tilden, we are
told, Is an administrative reformer.
But if his party had elected the Senate
of the State, does any body suppose
that he would have renoIninated any
of the Republican officers whose terms
are expiring, however honest, faithful,
and efficient they may have been! No
man is more loyal to ''the system" than
the Governor, as, indeed, would natu-
rally be expected o. a pupil of the
Albany Regency, whose doctrine of the
civil service Mr. Marcy, one of its lead
ers, declared in the Senate, as justifi-
cation of the vast administrative de-
.banchery and Generalization which
were begun by the most despotic, most
arrogant, and most vindictiye of Ameri-
can Presidents Jackson
Administrative reform is practicable up
ON one condition OILY, and that is a
change of system By that we do not
mean the adoption of any particular
scheme, but the substitution of another
system for one that IL proved to be SO
inefficient and demoraIizing. The re-
form does not depend, as so many per
sons imagine, merely upon eiecting or
appointing honest and faithful partisans
to high Office. Mr. Chandler is, by the
admission of his political opponents, an
honest man, nor does any one question
that he will be a faithful officer. But
is administrative reform to be expected
from Mr. Chandler? Governor Tilden
is an honest and faithful officer. IL he
were elected President of the United
States, does any body doubt that there
would be the same turning out of his
party opponents and turning in of his
party friends all over the county that
followed the election of General Harri-
son and Mr.. Iincolnl This would be
equally true of any Republican partisan.
No sensible man doubts it, and the con
clusion is i resistihle that administrative
reform is practically impossible under u
partisan Presidept. and consequently
that if that be the paramount issue, y
pra.tHaDf ,..roS h, ala.faH una0 that