Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-03-18
Civil Service Reform.

cse'c. Grants candidacy helps to its
consideration. Every man must ia.
yor purity in the civil service. No
man permits himself to say that the
office holder is licensed pluuderer.
But what is right and wrong in such
case is differently understood by diff.
ferent men. One who goes into Of
ice without previous education sees
there opportunities for plund ering
the public. Before they offered them
selves to him he did not know OF
their existence. He supposes the
outside world is as ignorant as he is,
and this is nearly true. He cannot
resist the temptation to such easy
plumber. He steals and does not see
who is robbed and none that are
robbed will trouble themselves to
lay hands upon him. Others carry
on little robberies for politeness' sake.
They bestow petty gifts of public
property to men who give them the
wink. There are votes in such gifts.
But it was not our intention to tell
how public plumber is carried on. We
should say something of the dispo.
sition of appointment offices. DR..
Bellows and other men like MIN
think that no respect should be paid
to a mans politics in selecting for
appointments. This seems to be
Geo. w. Curtis's great mistake. Twas
understood that Hayes adopted it.
Strange that men who fought desper.
ately through hard campaigns for the
principles of a good cause shonld at
once be willing to give its manage
ment into the hands of contrary or in j.
different men For DIR. Bellows to
have such willingness is not strange.
Democracy or Republicanism is all
the same to him. He could serve
one as willingly as the other. To be
thus willing is fit only for political
hermaphrodites. Yet there is an.
other side to the question. Grants ad-
was lady on the other
side. The Republican party has
given most of its elective offices to
men who are disgracefully on the
other side. They are. men who, be.
ing placed in office by the votes OF
Republicans, regard the appointment
offices as their personal property, and
distribute them exclusively to their
personal friends. The most jealous
workers, to whom they owe their
election, are not even consulted.
When the civil service is thus msnip
uiated it needs reform. 1t has been
the custom at Washington for ap.
pointments in a given Congressional
District to be left exclusively to the
Member Of Congress from that Dis.
trict, If he is Republican. The
people at hons might make applica.
ton, say for a postmaster at Slab.
town, and every man in the district
sign it, and mail it direct to the
Postmaster General, who is supposed
to make the appointment, 1t is the
z. M. Generals affair, and he should
attend TO it, but he does not do it.
He himself does not see the petitions
and his subordinates do not act on
them. They simply tie them up and
send them to the Member of Con.
gress. If it so happens that that M.
Q. remembers that this applicant
wanted some other man nominated
for Congress, (although he be the
hardest working Republican in the
town, and voted straight at the cleo.
tion) and chooses to do so he can de.
feat tho will of the people and the
party, by simply writing on the pa.
pers, Don't appoint this Jones; APP.
point Smith" This is a kind of
civil service" we desplse. There is
no law giving Member of Congress
the appointing power TO any office.
He is not elected to make appoint
ments. But the civil service system
in use gives these matters wholly in.
to his hands. 1t he happens to be q
man whose personal associates, fol-
lowers ynd workers are loafers he Sc.
lects these as his appointees. They
are not appointed because they are
Republicans, but because they are
his personal friends.
In this particular is where the
greatest reform is needed. The Pres
ident aud the heads of departments
should be under no obligation to APP.
point man because recommended
by the NJ. c. of the applicants dis.
trict. The President aui heads of
departments should put themselves
10 communication with good mep,
the proper men, to consult, in every
locality from which an applicant is
selected. The voice of two such
men should be greater than
that of an NJ. C.-especially if
the Nj. G. is of that class
OF politicians who will have
nothing to do with a Republican who
is not his his personal friend.
We have presented this with ref.
srence only to appointments at
Washington. But it is applicable in
State and county offices as well.
The officer, whatever his position,
who turns the patronage of his office
away from its proper places, away
from those who have done the most
for the party and therefore the most