New-York tribune., 1877-06-25
POLITICS AND OFFICE F-HOLDTTG.

1t is 2 very short and simple order which
President Hayes has issued 10 the employees
of the Government. They are instructed that
they are "not permitted to take part in the
" management of political organizations, eau
{" cuses. conventions, or election campaigns"
OF course thoy have as good right as any
other class Of ctize4s TO vote, and to intlu-
ence the votes of their neighbOrs But they
are no longer TO work the machine, and the
expenses of a campaign are 10 longer to be
assessed as q percentage on their salaries. 1t
is too soon to judge how this new rule Will
work. We are not Of the sanguine reformers
who believe that the millennium is already here
because the President has made some excellent
regulations. We do not expect to see the
abuses of lifetime extingmshed with so lit
tie trouble. Regulations are sometimes sas-
pended; zeal wakes and waDes by turns; the
devil now and then gets the better even of
the saints, and we reach the goal only after
many partial failures and diScOuragemcntS.
Probably the order of President Hayes will
be very often evaded and for some time to
come the influence of the Custom house and
the Post-Ofiice viii be exerted indirectly in
caucuses and conventions, and there will be
fectively, although perhaps not openly, the
policy of the Administration in the State
councils of the Republican party. The aver
age Oilce-holder who goes to bed tonight
with all the tastes and characteristics of his
class is not likely to get up Tomorrow morn
ing a radically changed man.
Nevertheless if the President shows in the
enforcement of his order the iirnness and COM
mon sense which we have learned to expect OF
him, an immediate benefit can hardly fail to
result TO the public service. Officers will at
once perceive that they are required to devote
TO their official duties very different sort OF
care and energy from that which they have
hitherto deemed sufficient. A collector of the
mort will then understand that be must not
employ his time in placing the names of ward
strikers on fictitious pay-rOlls and assigning
them to imaginary duties; that it is not right
TO use revenue cutter for the purpose OF
breaking up a quorum in the Legislature; and
that lie is not expected to procure void and
irregular orders from usurping judge in
order to win dishOnOrable advantage for the
party with which he is connected. Postmas-
ters will learn chat their functions are confined
10 the management of the mails, and that the
fact of their being active friends of Admins
tration Senators will not be regarded as an
excuse for defacatiOn. All through the list of
the civil service new standard of efficiency
will be established; and so we shall proceed
in due time TO manage the business of the
nation upon business principles.
This will be the first effect of the new policy /;
and if the President stands boldly up to his
own declarations we ought TO notice the i'm
provement very soon. The change in the char
acter of political conventions and nominees
will come later, and it viii bo gradual. But
il will surely come when the duties of the
office-hoder have been properly settled, and
the tenure of office has been fixed upon the
principles which Gen. Grant once so tersely
expressed in promulgating his celebrated code
of rules, and so regularly violated when he
caused the rules to be suspended. President
Hayes has been taught by the failure Of his