Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-09-21
THE ISSUES OF THE CAN.
uASS.


natl. Aug 81
THE DECENTRALIZATION CAUSED BY TIE
WAR.
There are people who console them
selves with the idea that the corrup-
ton we now deplore is simply to he
accounted for as one of the natural
consequences of our great civil war.
Undoubtedly the war, with its con-
fusion and seductive opportunities,
offered to the rogues rich field of
plumber, and thus stimulated all the
thieving instinct there was in the
country to extraordinary enterprise.
But as TO the civil service, the war
gave only a strong impulse to the
vicious tendencies existing in it. Had
not the Spoils system already demora-
lied the service the war would have
developed far less corruption more
over, there was plenty Of corruption
before our civil conflict, and neither
party was exempt from it, least OF all
that to which the spoils system owed
its origin and development. | dis
like very much to hurt the feelings of
our Democratic friend, since they
treat me with such distinguished con-
sideration, but my respect for histori-
cal truth compels me to say that it
was a Democratic president, who, for
the golden rule that ability, honesty,
and fidelity should be the only deci-
sive qualifications for public employ
ment, first substituted the whims of
arbitrary favoritism first used the
places of trust and responsibility as
means of partisan reward, and the
power of removal as weapon of
punishment first made the civil SER
vice partisan engine, and thus left
to us that terrible Pandora's box of
evil from which so much demoraliza-
ton, disaster, and disgrace have come
upon us. 1t was a Democratic baby,
that spoils system, and it must be
admitted that the Democratic party
has very faithfully nursed it. 1t grew
under that maternal care, with all its
peculiar virtues, until the last Demo
cratic administration, just before the
civil war, became more arbitrary and
despotic in the use of appointments
and removals as means of partisan
reward and punishment, and also
more corrupt than any that had pre-
coded it,
GENUINE REFORM NECESSARY.
What, then, is to be done 1t it
is true-and | am profoundly con-
vinced of that truth that under the
spoils system it is simply impossible
to keep up a reasonably efficient and
honest civil service, and that the
service will grow the more corrupt
the longer the spoils system exists,
then nothing can be clearer than that
we must have change which is
genuine thorough reform, including
the abolition of that system. What
is civil service reform? Let me tell
Won first what civil service reform
does not consist in: 1t does not
consist in the removal of all the
officers belonging to one party, and
the filling of the offices with members
of the other party, according to the
old methods of ''clean sweep" and
"new deal.
What patriotic man is there who
will not recognize that the evils from
which the body polite suffers abso-
lutely require so thorough measure
or change, and who will not eagerly
embrace every opportunity to secure
it? Now, let us see what prospects
the two parties which ask for our
votes open to us with regard to this
most important subject. The plat
forms rs we'll az the candidates of
each promise what they call "reform."
| will confess at once that | have lost
my faith in the professions and prom
Uses made in party platforms. They
have of late become, on either side,
one of the cheapest articles of manu-
facture in this country, aud that in
dustrv continues to flourish even
without a protective tariff and in
spite of the general depression of
business. But civil service reform is
not produced in that way. 1t we
desire to ascertain by the success OF
which party that reform is most likely
to be promoted, we must look to the
character and principles of the can
didates as well as 10 the component
elements and general tendencies OF
the parties behind them. | am firmly
convinced that one part of the neces-
sary change,-the driving from the
public service of the corrupt officials
who now pollute it, will. be amply
secured by the election of either of
the two candidates for the Presidency.
Gov. TiIden has won his reputation
as q reformer mainly by the prosecu-
ton of the Canal Ring in the State Of
New York. l viii not follow Others
in questioning his motives, but readily
admit that prosecution to have been
an enterprise requiring considerable