New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-09-07
The ADMINISTRATION AND THE CUSTOM
yyDyCE

HOLSE
The latest news is that Mr.. Cornell is not to
he turned out, after all He is to be tolerated,
we are now told, until Congress meets; then
he, Arthur ANA Sharpe are TO be packed ont
together. The changes are postponed, Ii Is
explained mainly because the AdmnlstTa-
ton cannot now find suitable men to
appoint. We sincerely hope this last
is merely the addition Of ridiculous Wash
ington gossip to an affair which is already
ridiculous enough anyway. 4 chief business
of Government is TO find suitable men for
its work The Administration which con-
demns officers but leaves them in power because
it cannot find better, condemns itself For
Mr.. Sherman to say that he permits the orders
of the President to be deiied by the Naval
Officer of this port, and that he leaves other
unfit customs officers in place, only because he
cannot find fit men to appoint in their stead,
is to plead the baby act. We take leave to
think that Mr.. sherman has made no such
excuse If anybody in power at Washington
has, he should lose no time in resigning that
authority, to the first duties of which he admits
himself unequal.
But there is such a cloud of contradictory
rumors on this whole business OF the New
York Custom House. that it is as well not TO
be in haste to believe absurGities Some lead
ing facts, however, are clear, and on these
we wish to offer few observations.
The President has been drawn by some Of
his Jealous but impractical advisers into Il
position where it is equally difficult to 60 back,
10 go forward or to stand STILL He came into
Office with determination to nd the Civil
Service of certain crying abuses and III par
ticular to teach Federal place-holders that it
was their duty to attend to the business Of the
Government and not to tkurp the manage
ment Of conventions, taking pay from the
public Treasury for services rendered to indi-
vdual politicians. Armed with ample au-
thority to suspend, remove and appoint, it
does not seem that the President need
have found this task very difficult. In
some cases, he had only to say to
an oveT-Oflicous collector or postmaster,
Hands off," and the thing was done In
other cases, where the corruption and inef-
ficiency were indisputable new appointment
should have been made Immediately. BY the
exercise of little plain common sense the re-
form might have been fairly established i'll less
than month. But uncommon sense is the com
modify that seems to be most abundant at Wash
ingtOn Instead of going to work, the Admin
istratiOn began To issue pTOclamatiOns. cast
iron code of rules was made, to exclude from
political activity with equal rigor the meddling
and matchmaking Custom House managers, the
carpet-bag marShals and collectors, and the
harmless country postmaster who did a real
service TO his neighbOrs by aiding them III the
work of the campaign. Then, having aroused
the luminosity of all the officehOlders, and pro-
voked the whole country 10y a sweeping order
which, in its unlimited scope, every practical
man saw to be unwiSe and uncalled for, the
Administration rested-and left the order to
execute itself.
As a consequence Of this strange cOmbina-
ton of headlOng haste in words and weak de
lay in action, the President has got himself
into trouble. Here i'll New-YOrk had fOuIished
for many years one of the greatest scandals OF
the old Civil Service. Some of us were dis
posed to hope at first that Collector Arthur
who is a good-natured and popular man, might
be trusted to establish in the Custom House
the same sort of reform which Mr.. James has
established in the Post Office. But when the
report of the Jay Commission came to light,
everybody saw that abuses still prevailed IN
the Custom House which no political exlgen-
cies could ever have excused, and that the
Collector who had either tolerated or failed to
discover them would have TO 20. Yet, as Mr.
Arthur does not come within the limits of the
cast-Iron rules he is not mOlested and various
outside commissions are employed TO consider
how his work can be done for him. The Gus
tom House in Boston was in almost as bad
odor as the Custom House III New-YOrk. 1t
was run by Gen. Buffers man Simmons,
strictly in the interest of the most disreDu-
table faction of New England Republicans, and
probably there was not trick in the whole
repertory of politicians which Mr. Simmons