St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-07-19
The New York Changes.
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY ABOUT THEN
From the New York Times.

/ FROM Jne new 1Ork 1Imes.I
The latest manifestation of what, by
a pervelsion of terms, is called the civil
service policy is, on the whole, the
most ridiculous. The administration
that has given us Comfy and LIE Due,
FitzsimmOns and William Henry Smith,
which put Dennis in the supervising
architects office. and sent Diechman as
minister TO the United States of Column
bia, cannot be said to have any very
clear conception of the meaning of civil
service reform. The Presidential can
didate who said that every public officer
should be secure in his tenure as long
as his personal character remained I'M
furnished and the performance OF his
duties satisfactory, finds it possible as
President to suspend Collector Arthur
without being able to produce single
charge against his character or his COM
potency. If that is but one illustration
the more of the folly of expecting either
consistency or cOnscientiOusness from
the present administration, it is also
one reason the less for anticipating the
triumph in the near future of any in
telligible system of civil service reform.
1t is totally impossible to have the
slightest respect for the motives, the
methods, OF the manliness of an admin
istration which, being fairly baff1ed in
its attempt to remove an officer against
whom it could allege no sufficient
grounds of removal, now seizes the OPP
portunity of suspending him for few
months in order to make up n better
case for his removal when the Senate
re-assembles. The Upper House may
have recently shown waning self-re-
spect; it has certainly enough left to
resent an insult like this. The people
may have lost the power of being either
scandalized or astonished by the per-
formances of the administration the
way fariDg man, though a fool, can
hardly fail to perceive the mingled i'm
becility and meanness of this latest
effort in the direction of "refoIm." We
believe in keeping the public service
tout of politics." but we regard as
among the very worst foes of such Il
movement an administration which con-
siders all allegiance political" except
the political service paid to and by its
own adherents, and which holds no in
struments too mean to be used for its
own selfish ends.
| From the New York Tribune.l
CStSiudN . ICNo-
luton at the custom house suggests,
may well be reserved for discussion at
less critical times. 1t cannot, indeed,
he disguised that the first impression it
produces is not wholly pleasant. If
these changes were to he made, the
public would have preferred to see them
made when there could have been no
suspicion of a wish either to dodge or
to defy the Senate. But if, as the adj
ministration declares, the interest of the
public service did actually demand
these suspensions, there can be no doubt
that the new appointments are just as
good as could he made. The new in
cumbents are first-class men, they will
he in hearty accord with the admins
tratiOn, and we cannot doubt that Il
marked improvement in the service
must follow. There are to be no whole
sale changes; and there is not sign of
an effort to build up an Evarts party,
or an administration party, or anybOdy's
party through the custom house ma
chinery. Neither is there any chance
to do il. Gen. Merritt would not take
the collectorship with such duty at
tached; and this administration has not
at any rate shown such capacity hither-
to in that direction as to give any body
reason for uneasiness.
From the New York World
The removal of Collector Arthur and
Naval officer Cornell will be generally
understood to be a matter of pure poll
tics. 1t is not in human nature that an
administration should keep in impor-
tant offices men who make use of those
offices in the interest of politician who
has declared, without specifications.
that he knows enough about the ad-
ministratiOn to doom it to ''infamy -
and as worldly politicians count wis
dom, there is nothing to he done except
to dismiss such office holders, even
when there is admitted to he no cause
OF official complaint against them. As
matter of practical politics, therefore,
the removal of Messrs. Arthur and Cor
nell is perfectly Ineligible; but if the
reader should ask what it has to do with
civil service reform, we can only regret
our inability to inform him.
From the Boston Advertiser
For several years past the power of
the federal government concentrated in
the New York custom house, has been
mlsused in manner nowhere else so
| dS Ill Tie IeSOIu-
tons of the last national republican
convention. The President has done
his best to carly the spirit of those res
olutlons into the administration of the
civil service, with only partial success.
DlsInterested and fair minded people.
whose lives are not wholly absorbed bv
political ambition, will give him credit
for making the effort, and will stand by
him.
From the Boston Herald
We have no criticism to offer in re-
gard to the displacement, except that
the act comes later than we could have
wished. On all accounts we are hearth
ly glad that Mr.. Hayes has found at
last his too deliberate courage. While
the collector and naval officer of New
York were holding their positions by
the grace of Senator Conkling, civil SER
vice reform could be little more than
the shadow of name.
[From the Springfield Republican
This is MI. Hayes's answer to the
taunt that he has abandoned civil SER
vice reform. The republican party has
abandoned it, but he means to maintain
it. He is determined that, so far as lies
i'll his power, the civil service of the
United States shall be taken out of the
machinery of political parties. The
question has already arisen from various
quarters, whether the Presidents order
Of year ago meant anything. A pos
tai agent is running politics up in YER
mont, and Collector Thomas of Ralti-
more, with so subordinates has been
manipulating primaries at Baltimore.
Mr.. Hayes believes in the instruction of
| great EXAMPLES and selects for dismissal