New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-21
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
GAIL HAMILToNs PAPERS.
XXI.
"swEErNEss AND LIGHT"


propria persona, eager to contribute her quota Oh
reform tittIetattle and original fatuity and hollow
reyerberatiOn, and bent on showing that the hearty
scorn attributed to a rough and ready politician ior
Z" them literary fellersD whether not expressed,
may be at least fairly earned.
Mr. Jno. F.. Weir, called in the headlines Pro'es-
sor Ucir, and dating bis letter from Yale College
sends toTHE TRIBUNE of August II. brilliant
contribution TO reform literature He has an en-
tirely new nostrum for healing the diseases OF the
body polite but like all the rest of them he first pro-
ceeds TO throw his patient into the requisite fits.
He proflers a complete solution of the difficult
problem of Civil Service Reform the condition OF
which must remain National disgrace so long as
this service is open TO mere scTamblers for spoils,
without respect to qualification"
Let no one for a moment labor under the mistake
that Mr. Weir says what he means. Civil Ser
vice Reformer generally has to be propped up before
ne can secure perpendlcuarty enough to be knocked
down. "Clvil Service Reform" is the problem
whose condition he says must remain National dis
grace but the Civil Service is the problem he means
Our reformers never seem to hit it Oft happily with
their relative pronouns "Wisbin' it ware not so,
which then this fearful valley would be changed
into fiowerin' guardian Mr.. Chuffey" the learned
Professor brings mp almost as hard against his
Witches as Mrs. Camp.
1t is true that Professor Weirs statement is
equally unfOunded and sanderOus, whether he says
what no means or what he does not mean' But
what wish to call attention to is the fact that
college Professor and political rushes into
the political field dealing out condemnation, and
profering new methods, without even tax
ing the trouble to state with exactness
the problem he wishes to solve. From machine
politicians. from common legislators to whom
Professor Wen proposes to furnish manners and
ha int
Civil Service, from "minors, paupers,
men, and idiots" slOvenly writing may be
pected but the man who comes before Us to repre-
sent culture who takes pains publicly to fold about
himself the draperies of Yale, and who bears in his
hand q costly scheme for putting the whole Civil
Service in charge of academiclans reared at the
States expense should not fall into confusion of
terms pardonable only to the illiterate
With the same lack of culture with the same
scientific indifference to facts and neglect of research
with readiness to become merely the echo of an
echo, which should be peculiar to the untaught,
without presenting a single proof or dlsputing
single dsproof, Professor Weir recites glibly the
old tales of national disgrace" and the general
rottenness of our Civil system" And even while he
is rolling that rottenness a sweet mOrsel under
his cultured and classic tongue come the tidings
that the committee which has for nearly year been
looking into the Treasury accounts finds nothing
wrong. Rumors of vast discrepancies. Of immense
robberes of faseentries,-u close, accurate and
trained inspection give place to the statement that
the entire money transactions of the Government,
through peace and war. have been carried ON with
absolute exactness, that there indications of
anything wrong in the transactions of the Depart
ment and that all criticism is confined TO matters
of method, which matters of opinion and no evil
denoe of corruption or Ineffciency.
Vat iuet l1fhalv and blithp1V If facta and
figures had no existence, Professor Weir hirts the
mantle of Yale over his academic shoulder and
bounds upon the stage to speak his little piece with
unfaltering huency about Civil Service that
has not merely fallen into discredt but which IAN
other superuous Wbieh for Sairey Camp has become
the subject of National shame
Professor Weir has evidently studied Martin
Chuzzlewit too asSiduously for his SOULS health.
His ideas of American d" Institutions" bear the
mistakable ear-marks of Dickens He our
common legislator in the disguise of Elijah PO-
gram "with his feet elevated upon his desk and his
hat tipped defantly forward his scheming brow"
What may have been the attitude of the com
mon legislator in New-Haven have no means Of
knowing. but have been present at hundreds of
sessions of our National and State leg1slaturesand
have known of twice as many college Professors
hanged for murder of legislators sitting with their
feet on their desks and their hats Un their heads
This common legislator" of Professor Weir's
I" NAV well regard with disfayor the arstOcracy of
manners and education" which Professor Weir has
surely borrowed from Colonel Diver. Editor of The
6e1c- York ROVdg Journal
"Oh there is an aristOcracy here. then" said Mar
tin. OF what Is it composed 7"
"Of intelligence, Sir" replied the Colonel" of
intelligence and virtue" and of this aristOcracy Mr.
Jno f. Weir seems eager to sit for the Professor
MulIit i'm full length portraiture.
- May ask you what he is Professor Of p asked
Martin "Of education, Sir" said Jefferson Birch.
"A sort of schoolmaster, possibly" Martin ven
tured to observe
He is a man of fine moral elements Sir. He felt
il necessary at the last election for President to
pudiate and denounce his father. He has since
written some powerful pamphlets. He is one of the
most remarkable men in our country, Sir"
Why does the " common legislator" view Profes-
sor WeiTs aristocracy with an ardent hatred p
Why did Martin Chuzzewit refuse to coincide"
with Mr. POgrams eulogium upon Mr.. ChollOp Was
il because Chollop cheated and bulled3 On no.
1t was the settled opposition to institutions
which pervades the British mind.0 The common
legislator antagODzes Professor Weir and the aris
tooracy winch he projects into space from the studi
Gus clOsters of YALE not because their notions
crude and their spirit narrow and their words at
random and their facts of home manufacture Oh !
no. It Is because they stand IN such marked con-
trast with the laundering arrogance of the ignorant
and the undisciplined" legislator. 1t is because
Mr. Weir's arstOcracy " is the aristOcracy that
defes all attacks and is unassailabe." The ignoT-
ant Legislators at Washington may mar their desks
with their hOb-naled shoes and set their hats
a-Quiver with the scOwl of the sehemng brOWs be-
meath them soheming against Professor Weir But
that courageous gentleman at the head Of his man
nerly aud educated corps hurs defiance at their at
taoks and is unassaable Only if he is really unas-
sailable could he not spare the Defiance There is