New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-09-07
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
GAIL HAMILToN'S PAPERS.
Wv
ORGANIC DEFECTS.


and the arrogant assumptions Of the Reform
itself II starts on a false basis and aims
~ n ruisehievous goal 1t is true that the
Eeformers do not believe in their own Reform.
Ebey do not believe in and they do not aim
10 secure tenure of Office during good behavior,
nor the divorce of patronage from politics But
this last at least is the thing in which they are
right Their wrong is in pretending that they be-
lirve il when they do not Their wrong is in using
ii simply as pretext to turn obnoxious men out OF
office while preaching it as great political prln-
ciple.
As political principle 1t is false There is moth
lngmore intensely I'M Republican and un-American
than the notion that class of men should be reared
in this country and sequestered from their fellow
citizens by being forced to take no part nor lot IN
notifies. Every American citizen ought to take IN"
terest share responsibility in politics. Civil Ser
vice officers as closely connected with Gov
eminent ought to take dOuble and
doubly intelligent interest in politics. There is
great deal of political work that is mere machine
indispensable. but mechanical and perfectly
legitimate. So much is said about dirty political
work" by Reformers that we might easily judge
all political work to be dirty great part
Il might say the greater part-of political
work is Just as dirty as the ecclesiastical work OF
establishing mission churches and Sunday-schoolS,
and supplying pulpits, and holding councils, and
going around with subscription papers for foreign
missions and minister's tax-and no more so. The
kind of political work which is necessary to carry
on party Is of exactly the same kind, and of ex-
acty as high nature as that which is necessary to
carry on a church only the one is called church
eyapgeHzation and the other wire-pulling, and the
manager is called in the one case an active Chris
tian and in the other " a machine politician" In
both cases the work is necessary and legitimate, and
in both it NAV be- and sometimes is, dragged down
to mere trickery
For this work Federal officers by their very office,
are peculiarly fitted Men in business are apt to be
too busy and too much involved in business COM
plications to do this work, Federal officers have
the knowledge and aptitude that comes from fami-
lar practical connection with Government and the
leisure which comes from sharply Defined
business hours and business duties. And If
be is able and willing, it is both proper
and convenient that the Federal officer should
do the routine work which must be done by
somebody. The only thing-and the one thing
which the eruption Of reform politics should teach
this generation-is to do this work openly,
avowedly, honorably, to stop the noisy and nOsome
cant about "the politician" and "the statesman"
and recognize politics for what it is the largest
work with which the human mind can occupy IT
self and noble enough to lend dignity even to its
humblest oficesl
1 do not deny nor conceal the liabilities to evil.
Undoubtedly officers may misuse their knowledge
and abuse their power, but this abuse has been
grossly and childishly exaggerated. There is moth
ing mysterious OF formidable about postmaster or
Custom House officer any more than there is about
a green grocer. He can be put down i'll moment
whenever the people will to put him down. The
Civil Service Commissioners exceedingly fear and
quake before him. but when he Oyersteps the proper
boundary it is only because the people
are lazy and let him. A Federal officer
cannot have more power over politics than
the community allows him. If they are supine
OF absorbed and permit him to override them, they
must suffer till they rise up and throw HIM on.
There is no concerted action, no combination OF
official powers, no suggestion of any system OF
tyranny. At the very worst 1t is only question OF
the personal ability of a shOrt-lved official whose
existence itself is practically in the baotbox. 1t is
too desperately childish for full-grown American
men TO cry out to Government to keep all Civil
Service out of politics because here and there
community have not spirit enough to keep their
necks from ITS yoke.
Not only should the Civil Service be allied
with politics, it should be allied with par
tisanship. The feeble fashionable Outcry against
party leaders and party measures is idle, igno-
rant. senseless. Party is to politics what
church is to religion. Party formulates
and mobilizes principle. The RefOrmers from
their point of sight may be very right in belitting
party; for party to them seems to mean office. do
not remember ever to have seen RefOrmer attrib-
butte to opposition any other motive whatever for
opposition than inability to gain OF control office.
Office seems to be to the RefOrmer the substance of
all things hoped for the evidence of all things not
seem The sordd secret of his own life ia revealed
in the solemn mOnotony, without variableness or
shadow of turning. with which he imputes al CEN
sure and disapprOval Of himself to disappointed
personal ambition. But the strength and sinew OF
the Republican party the men and the women all
over the rocks of New-England and the praries of
the West with whom party means principle, who
are Republicans because it means something to be
Republican; who are Republicans because there are
certain principles which they desire to see incOr-
pOrated into the National life and because the Re-
publican party is banded and bonded to secure the
incorporation of those principles. II party means
only feeble preference of man by one name to
man by another name, if it means only desperate
clutch at a salary under any name whatever, then
the Reformer Is right in discardinR craftsmanship;
butif / am a party man because my party embOdies
principles and natures measures which believe
necessary to the honor and the development and
the prosperity Of the country, then want these
principles and these measures intrusted to men who
believe in them and not to men who do not believe
in them; and the more profoundly and the more in
diligently men believe in them the more likely are
they to carry them into successful operation. Is
party only name to cOnjure by,
mere excuse for tOrchlights and Transparent
ces, a mere pretence for subscriptions and
speeches, or is party the organized conviction and
resolution of q self-goYerning peoplef
Butt says Mr.. Eaton, Z" will any one pretend
that a bookkeeDer cannot properly keep bis books
unless he shares the politics of the Presidentp
Will Mr.. Eaton pretend that he cannot keep his
books mat "a uronorlv IL he sbares tina pOlitics