New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-07-02

ON JHE RAM sum ~ !. ~
After weeks waiting in Post-oilices and
lamentation at the seats Of customs let us
stand up the mOumers in q row, and find out,
! if we can, what If is all about, and whether on
the whole the whte-capS Of the demnltion
bow-w0wS are dead ahead of the Administra-
ton, the Republican party and the ship o.
| State The postmaster and the tide waiter,
| the taX-cOlector and assessor, the pension
| agent and mail agent and Government clerk
have all lifted up their voices i'll chorus since
| the FORMULATION of the order divOrcing Gov
eminent service from partisan committee work,
IN condemnation OF the policy as death
blow to the party in power, If carried into ei-
| feet There's no denying that the clamor Is all
against it, The friends of the proposed re-
form seem To be sOft-SpOken and timid, and
| Judging from the absence of enthusiasm, not
numerous. Its opponents are vigorous, hearty
and loud in their dcnunciatiOns. The tide
seems all one way. 1t is not by any means the
first time that very small minority has made
itself very impressive and passed itself of for
IA majority 10y mere noise and din, and the al
fcctatiOn of great eanestness. Let 1t he re-
mcmbered at the very outset that all this
music is from the brasS-band end of the pro-
ceSsion; from the persons who have for many
years made politics a profession and buSl-
ness the aggro sslye. self-assertlng men who
have assumed 10 run the party, and upon that
assumption have appropriated the credit Tor
victories and the principal portion OF the spols.
There are some other folks, not on the FROM
seats, not leading the applause i'll conventions;
not managing caucuscs; not blowing on large
Instruments. nor carrying torches aud trans
parencicS, nor yet holding Office But they
vote. They make no noise nor buster about
the Executive order, simply because they have
not been affected by IT in pocket, position o.
influence, and they feel no cause to get eX-
cited about it, even though they heartily APP
prove 1t.
When the rural Republican read il his FRI
BUNE last week the Presidents order separating
Government from party so definitely as to pre-
clude danger of the accounts getting mixed
and partys getting the service for which Gov
| crnment pays, he doubtless said III his heart
| that it was a wise and honest thing to do.
| His natural sense of justice and honesty ap-
prove it. Possibly little later when the vii
| LACE postmaster, who obtained his Office on ac-
count of party service, and by the same token
homes to mold it, lifted up his hands and said ::
| "WhOI run your campaign, organize your can
"vass circulate your subscription papers, RAISE
"'your campaign funds, go as delegate to con-
"ventions at his own expense and do all
| "the rest of the political work, when l am
"gone-when | am gone F'-poSslbly the
same Republican was little staggered
at first at this presentment Of the case. And
when this trial became general, and the "lead-
| cling men all over the country took 1t up with
one accord, as if Post-Of1ice and Custom House
and all the public service had Joined in the
refrain. "Who will care for mother now z" It
was not strange that the country was, or seemed
to be. profoundly impressed with the gravity
of the situation. But from thinking forward
toward the catastrophe which appeared to i'm
pend, the average Republican voter has turned
to thinking backward little, and to remem-
bering the beginnings of the party. He rea-
SONS TO himself that there was time within
twenty years when the Republican Party had
neither the head of committee, nor single
| individual voter in it who held Federal
office. He remembers that the Tremendous en-
terprise of organizing from nothing this great
| and pOwerful body of voters was carried on
| without the and of a Federal Oiiice-hOdcr, OF
the assessment of a single penny upon Gov
eminent payroll. He remembers how gene
ration no purer nor unSelish than THIS gave
to the work of building up the party then
time, their money, their enthusiastic service
that they founded it, and made 1t strong IN the
face of the most violent opposition OF th'
office holding class, upon whose partisan activity
il is now CLAIMED tlat it depends for success
and for life that the party's most prosperous
and most useful period was when it filled tie
fewest Offices, and that il traces the beginning
of weakness and the cause of it 10 the full
ness of as power and the increasing influenc
of the office holding class.
The average voter had only to remember 9
little TO be convinced that all this uproar is o
the silversmiths of EDhesus, whose craft is II
danger. There is 10 need now of "towI
$ clerk to come forward and "appease the PEG
"pleu A moments reflection tells them tina
a party which grew up out OF such beginning
unaided by and in spite of ofice-holders, ism
going to die, or fail, or 90 to ruin for want
brains or money, or influence, or disintereste'
service because oilice-holders are not per
mitted to nurse and keep it alive at Gov
eminent expense. The cause OF good govern
ment and honest administration is just as sacred
as that which gave the party birth, and there
are men of just as much ability, energy ant