National Republican., 1878-01-10
Ciyil-Seryice Reform .

Civil-Service Reform.
Our present Administration claims special
virtue in the reform of the civil service.
From the Presidents letter of acceptance,
down through the oacular uttcrances of
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS and JOSEPH ME-
Dill, the only clamor has been - de-
bauched civil service" and HAYES as the
great physician. II has been fearfully like
the sham doctors who fill dark corners in
disreputable sheets with the filthy notice,
"manhood-how lost and how restored"
The constitutional taint inherited from
the excesses of the fervent youth of An
DREW JACKSON, and the milder dissipations
Of his successors, was to be eradicated by
the new remedy, without the Use of mcr-
cury;' the primeval perfection of the golden
age 10 be restored all by the waving of the
Presidential wand and some brief incanta-
tions by heads Of Departments. The lepers
were to be banished to the waste places, except
in the cases where the high priest declared
them clean. The country, taught to be-
lieve in an untruth, taught to believe in
general dishonesty and mal-administratiOn
by our public servants, waited the advent
of the new system. The country waited
intelligent rules by which official conduct
should be shaped, for cure as radical and
searching as the alleged disease, for the cm-
bodiment in actual life of the vague, gilt
tering, dclusiye promises of thorough re-
form. Executive order No. / broke the
take possible about its meaninB-the terms
were concise, clear, explicit.
Everybody took ii to be, rs IL was, de-
NAL of the rights of the citizen to any one
who held Office. 1t expressly forbade any
exercise Of choice among candidates for
public Office, any participation Of any kind
in the primary political meetings, any activ-
| ity Of any sort in selection of men to hold
offices. 1t did not say, as perhaps it Wa
meant 10 say, that manipulation of eau
cuses and conventions should be q cause o
removal But it struck far deeper, and rc
duced to idlcncss and indifference the mos
influential and active class of our people
the men whose experience was valuable
and whose interests were involved mos
deeply. The specialists were in rapturc
over this order. Wise men believed that il
was imprudent worse than useless, ant
more deadly at the brccch than at tn,
muzZle.
To-day, by the confession of its authors
its fathers and godiatheT, it is the dcadcs
thing in history. Political necessity ha
explanations it has pcrishcd of cOmmcntG,
tors. The text was plain enough, but til
CLOSES have destroyed every particle o
virility in it. 1t is eInasculated and epicenC
II was so absurd in practice that no ma
cares to own the bantling, and il noat
about to-day an acknowledged and fully
developed sham.
When Ohio failed to indOrse; when Mas
sachusctts trembled in the balance, Execu
+ tive Order No. was quietly showed out q
the way. The active services Of SIMMON
and all other machine politicians, was ur
gently invoked, and Massachusetts wa
saved by the scrried masses Of the "Oi
: Guard Now the rCcOil of the bursting
, so big q gun as executive order No. / la
done serious harm to the cause of gcnuiu
; civil-seryice reform, IOr II genuine practice
, reform of that service is thing to be d,
=. sired by every honest effort. Practical
/ this great measure rests on two things
/ careful selection of good men and und
3 turbed tenure of Office, except ior goo
e cause. These are cardinal and fundamental
a "On these two commandments hang all tn
Z law and the prophets The President an
Y the heads of departments arc bound b
r. them as well as all others. But these gre;
$ principles cannot be secured by proclami
= tions nor by promises; it is action only thu
s gives them vitality, and that action mus
r be continuous and steady.
e 1t is u matter of the most profound di
. appointment TO the expectant public til,
b neither Of these principles seem TO hay
Y controlled Executive action. The tcrse cri
1 icism of leading newspaper is cruelty tn
!. when it says that the Administration wan
: "all men to observe civil service but then
= selves In the making of appointment
the Executive may be misiniOrmcd, al
b thus err unwlttingly; but in removals i
s has no right to he misiniOrmcd, and OF
s clear violation Of the rule outweighs in sil
c nifcance in the popular mind any numb
: of columns of sounding words So far II
+ course of the Executive has greatly dimiI
y ished the popular confidence in his earnes