New-York tribune., 1878-04-27
GAIL HAMILTON-D.B. B. EATON.
MR.. EATONs PATH OF GLORY IN THE FEB
RUARY ATLANTIC.
CUR E)aUND BURKE.

what species of Civil Service oppIeSeloh 10 'he
country groanngl Is it the Treasury Department
that has thrust the silver dollar into our reluctant
hands Does the widespread depression of business
come from our not having legsated the forty clerks
of the Navy Department into Office by onpctitive
examnationi Or is it because, as Mr.. Eaton says,
"Dcmagogues sounded the buge charge upon 1t
the new reform and secretly rallied their forces to
crush it (which was certainly very poor strategy
and indicates an cxceedny crude state OF military
opinion on the part of the demagogucs' indeed
question If the demagogues did anything ol the
sort Ii looks far more like the Reform CollilS-
sioners tactics There is certainly NOT demaeoRuo
of nv personal acquaintance who would not REQ"
better than to sound bugle charge upon Noe Whom
he was planning TO attack with secrecy! lheIe Is
much sorrow in the world, but the amount OF II
which has been ascribed TO the defects In our Clyl
Service is very minute. Mr. Eaton must be far more
specific before public opinion can be much less
crude.
Tho crude state of public opinion and its I'M
reasonable hope Whose unreasonable hope? The
crude states unreasonable hope? public opinions
unreasonable hope9 or the Of-pubic-
opinions hopeY This is point of import
ance, because the hope is declared to be
THAT all the stronghods of the spoilsmen
NAV be captured and all. their ingenious
ways of influence may be stopped at once" and
we should really like to know who Is so innocent
and cOniding as to cherish 1t! l am sure
that unless Mr. D0rman t. Eaton discovers him to
us the search will be fruitess. But all this, says
Mr. Eaton makes "the duty of the hour none the
less though the work of reform far different"
Different from whatl More different than what
Mr. Eaton leaves his comparison standing on one
foot, with the most embarrassing indifference, and
goes on TO say that the evils to be removed pre-
vail in the Civil Service of the States and the mu-
inequalities as well as in Federal offices. They are
at our doors everywhcre!" Here, it viii be OBJ
served, that his appetite for corruption grows by
what it feeds on. He is so in love with reform that
he lays about him Oh all sides for material. Heis
o very Wantley Dragon of purhcation.
"Houses and churches
Are to him geese and turkeys"
"Whiskey-ring peculation and custom-hOuse cor
rupton he gobbleS up as handsomely as Mr.. Hayes
reported the politicians to have gObbled up the
Liberals in Cincinnati il 1872, when he thought
that If Mr.. Smith wanted TO be Paymaster he GER
tainly ought to be. 1t is no Alexander with whom
we are dealing now, tamely sitting down and weep
ING for more worlds to conquer. Mr.. Eaton goes and
conOuers them! The Federal Service which he was
commissioned to reform not being broad enough for
his grasp he stretches himself out the States
and the municipalities, crying on every curbstone:
The heart is dcceitfu above all things and desper-
ately wicked. Let us organize debate"
Here need not say that as an Orthodox Congre-
gationaliSt l cordially agree with him. Here he
comes plump upon the great fact which the theOlO-
gians call total depravity and quarrel over. and
which all men recognize and all wise men guard
against with eternal vigilance. The evils which
prevail in the Civil Service of the Nation are exactly
the evils which prevail in the civil service OF the
States and of the municipalities, in the butchers
shops and the bakers shops, in the woOd-yards and
the mlk-pails in the pulpits and In the newspaper
ofces-as Mr.. Eaton says, at our doors everywhere.
IT, by " civil SERVICE" Mr.. Eaton meaus all service
whatever that man renders to man, then Mr. Eaton
is greatly right in maintaining that TO raise the
Civil Service of the United States high it may
be raised is the great labor and duty OF genera
ton Indeed to raise that service so high, and keep
it there, is one of the permanent problems Of orr
politics" But Mr.. Eaton ought to understand that
TO do this is not TO become Civil Service RefOmer,
but missionary at large. No civil service board
and no competitive examination will ever make the
butcher give full weight OF keep water out of the
mk-can. 1t is only the grace of God in the human
heart and the weight of the law outside invoked by
the angry customer. And that grace is just deep
in the heart of the Treasury clerk as of the plum
bers apprentice, and the weight of that law is just
honest postmaster as of the midnight burglar. If
Mr. Eaton has any plan by which SIN can be extir-
mated from the souls of auditors and controllers,
the sooner he presents il the better All the remedy
he proposes in The February AHdRtic is that much
discussion is needed to combine the high sentiment
of the country upOn methods that are reasonable,
practicable and constitutional" He does not state
what those methods are but the crying need of this
country is "discneOn." aud much discussion"
which is certainly most practical presentation of
Mr.. EatOn's .1ea of "tTue stattsnanship.' After
distrbutnc his evils" impartially at eyerybodys
front doorstep, Mr.. Eaton introduces again with
fervid elOqueuce his original and ingenious scheme
of redemption. The people need to organize de-
bate and act FOR their removal" How they ought
TO &" act he does not epecfy. but nobody can deny
that people ought 10 act" "They ought not to
fold their hands and wait for the President alone,
or the President aud Congress, to deliver them"
This innocent and pastoral people is so apt to sit
with folded hands among its nOcks and herds wait
ing patiently for the Great Father at Washington to
deliver It from its OppTessOTs that Mr. Eatons warn
ing is well-tmed. If now, under his stimulus, the
people do not unfold their hands and set their arms
akimbo OF do something equally significant by way
of response to Mr. EatOn's appeal to them to act,
their Civil Service sufcrings will not be the fault
ef the late Civil Service Commissioner. For al
though with his usual elasticity he stretches out
his reform first over a whole generation, then into
permanent problem, and then into an everlasting
antagonism, he, nevertheless, premises with his
wonted precision that 90 great deal may be done
speedily" leaving us to infer from his little what his
great deal means.
Now let us compare with Mr. Eaton's vast and
comprehensive plan of reforming our Civil Service
by discussion" and debate" and act" that plan
of Mr.. Burke's wherewlth Mr.. Eaton consoles him
self for the unquestionable zg-zag of his Own re-
form. This is not the fl. time that gentleman has
been brought in to prop up this Great Cause. In
deed Mr. Burke seems to have been the Bee in the
- sc oil our Reformers He buZZeS not only