Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-08-14

esteemed eloquent orations-the famous
Kentucky politician ffor he was in no
high sense statesman) declared that
the only light by which his feet could
be guided was the light thrown by the
lamp of experience. Does that light
lead the feet of the republic to the
the plantations of Virginia and the
Carolinas for men competent to govern
1T! Does it guide US to the wrinkled
"Mother of States and statesmen for
successors to the power of Abraham
Lincoln, when history tells us that the
statesmen" of whom she so loudly
vaunted brought their own state from
atfluence to beggary? Under the evil
eye OF Southern craftsmanship pros
perity shriveled up and fed from the
South; and Virginia, no longer seeking
to win back from New York the proud
title OF Empire State, settled down into
the ignominy of breeding slaves for the
Gulf States, and the deeper ignominy
Of defending the ignominy.
"CAN THE LEOPARD CHANGE ITS
sPoTs!'
The negative of this question would
seem to be supported by the greater
weight of human testimony. But, in
the world of politics, a class Of empires
has arisen, whose motto is the declara-
ton of Mollere's doctor, ''Nous avons
change tout celia" In their creed the
hope of the country lies in the rescue
of the national Government from the
hands of the patriots who saved it, and
in placing it in the keeping of the
traitors who tried to destroy it. They
praise men like the Gulf-State orator
who denied that the South had been
guilty of treason, but on the contrary,
that the South went out of the Union
to save the Constitution, ''hugging it
to its BOSOM as it went out, weeping
'.True patriots they; for be it understood.
They fought their country for their country's
goOd!'
These empires claim that the once
untamable Southern tiger" has totally
changed its nature; that it is now as
gentle and innocent as paschal lamb;
that there are to-day no vital issues In
political life on which Southern states
men, cannot be trusted with as much
safety to the national honor as the Re-
publican party could be trusted with
them
! Let us call up in review one or two
only out of scores of important issues
still undecided, and in doing so inquire
whether the right decision is likely to
be reached by the Democrats rather
than the Republican party.
THE CIVIL SERVICE UNDER REPUB-
LICAN ADMINISTRATION
| There is one issue--inyisible, mys-
terious, and tangible-which no eye
here hath seen, nor hath it entered in
to the mind Of any man to tell whence
it.came, nor whittier it has gone-the
name of it civil-service reform. 1t is
like political corruption" and ''total
depravity" in two essential traits-it is
much talked about, and there is not
much of it. Civil service-reform, when
it is not cant shibboleth, at best is a
mere patent-medicine remedy for a
disease that only constitutional treat
ment" can cure. The remedy for dis
honesty in politics-lics in the election
of honest men only to every elective
Office. The remedy for Incompetent
government lies in the election of able
men only. 1t rests with the people to
apply these remedies-for men both
honest and able abound in every State,
and will readily respond to the people
who desire them as representatives.
Competitive examinations, according to
the formulas hitherto devised, would
be mere tests Of memory-not of ex-
ecutive capacity; and, under its opera
ton, every government department
would be an organized regiment of spies
and informers. Establish an infexible
system of promotions in line, and every
inferior officer would become the natur-
al enemy of his immediate superior.
Piety does not consist of correct
knowledge of the Longer or Shorter
Catechism; nor is the capacity to ad-
minister affairs to be determined by
competitive examinations. A lady may
be duly qualified to be an excellent
copyist, and still not bowed down with
the weight of her erudition concerning
the isothermal line. Yet an applicant
lost her chance for employment under
the civil-service rules by failure to
define this scientific term. All such
empiric methods are mere ropes of sand
in the hands of expert politicians.
Again, the commercial business of
this nation is not conducted so honest
ly as the business of the Government.
Reading the diatribes of ''reformers,"
one would think, if unfamiliar with
the facts, that large majority of the
Federal ofice-holders are dishonest
There were estimated to be about
eighty thousand persons employed in
civil Offices in the service of the United
States. Yet, outside of Johnson's Ad-
ministratin, Z when officers were APP
pointed to inaugurate Southern pol-I
icy,") not eighty dishonest men were
ever discovered. Mr.. Spinner was
Treasurer of the United States for ff
teenyears, and thousands upon thou
sands of millions of dollars went
through his office. He had
a regiment Of subordinates. How
much was lost and stolen? Less
than one ten-thousandth of one
per cent, and even this percentage was
I IL IL CO