Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-07-29

OF years, were genefallN lett III lnelr pldces
as long as they showed the necessary degree
of ability and efficiency in the discharge of
their duties. In this way the service re-
tanned very valuable stock of official ex-
perience which could not but tell in its
general efficiency, while at the same time
public servants were imbued with a feeling
that the best way to secure themselves in
place was to perform their duties according
to the best standard. Thirdly, in appoint
ing new men care was taken to select such
as would presumably be capable 10 perform
the tasks assigned to them. In some de-
partments, and in a number of the larger
government institutions in the country,
systems of examinations were introduced,
which deferred at once the entirely incap
able from urging themselves or being
urged for official positions, while they
furnished also a good measure of the capa-
city of the applicants. This system OF
examination may not In all cases furnish
an absolutely reliable test, but it has PROV
ed to be an infinitely better test than mere
recommendation from political favor. 1t
has not been extended as far as it should
be, but a good beginning has been made,
capable of large extension and develop
ment. Fourthly. the practice of making
promotions from lower to higher places
Tor good official services rendered, not
only in the departments, but also in
some branches of the service outside
Of them, has been carried out to
much greater extent than is generally
known; thus furnishing another stimulus
to the zeal of the public servants. | re-
peat that mistakes in appointments have
undoubtedly occurred, some of a more or
less conspicuous kind, and that the princi-
pies of thorough reform have not been
as universally applied as they should have
been. Great cries have been raised about
instances which those principles appear to
have been disregarded; but under the old
regular spOils system such instances were
the rule, compliance with which would
not have been criticized at all and the very
cries that are now raised with regard to
them in our case prove that at present
| they are the exception. The very kind of
criticism applied to the administration
shows that things have grown better In
spite of the impertections of the methods
| followed, the result has been that the pub
lie business is recognized to be conducted
| now in a more business-like manner than
before, and that the efficiency of the serv-
ice has been lifted up to a much higher
standard
In this way the republican party, stead
| lily progressing in an enlightened percep-
ton of the principles of sound finance has
| become the reliable sound money party of
the country, to which, as parties now are,
| the solution of new financial problems can
alone be safely trusted. And how magnifi-
Gently are the effects of the results already
achieved appear in the revival of our pros
perity!
1t may be said that our financial policy
has not wholly originated that prosper
| ity. True, but it has most powerfully aid
| ed it by giving us that confidence which is
impossible without stable money values and
| a sound currency system. And what
prudent man would risk these great results
| by turning over our financial policy to the
hands of party which, as l have shown,
is the refuge of all destructive elements
| threatening new uncertainty and conflls-
| ion?
Indeed, not only in the traditions and
good sense of the republican party do you
| find the best security there is at present
| for the sancity of our national faith as well
as a successful management Of the tinan-
cial policy; you find equal security in the
known opinions and principles of its can
didate, James A. Garfield. His convic-
tons on these subjects have not found their
first and best proclamation in the platform
of his party or in his letter of acceptance
| His
RECORD OF NEARLY TWENTY YEARS
of congressional service is not blank on
the great questions of the times, like that
of his opponent. There is not phase of
the question of our national obligations
there is not point of the financial policy,
| from the first dav that the subject was con-
! sidered in congress since he became a mem
| Der of that body to the present hour, that
| he has not discussed with an ability and
strength, a lucidity of argument, ampli-
tude of knowledge and frmness of con-
victions, placing him in the first ranks of
the defenders of sound principles.
And now | appeal to the conservative
citizens of the republic, to you who desire
the public faith sacredly maintained, where
will you go? Can you, in view of present
circumstances, conscientiously go to the
democratic party? You will indeed find
there not Il few men who thinks as you do;
but with them you will find closely allied
in party interest all these elements to
whom our national obligations are the
football of momentary advantage. You
will find on that side every state that has
repudiated or spoke of repudiating its pub
lie debt; you will find there all those
who decried the public creditor as
the public enemy, and whom no loyal
tradition and impulse attaches to public
honor. You will find there party, inside
of which the public faith has still to fight
battle with It's enemies, without any GER
tainty of its issue. Is that your place? Or
will you go to the republican side, where
the loyal maintenance of our public faith
has become fundamental principle, uni
versally adhered to with answering fidel-
| ity, in spite of the gusts of adverse public
sentiment in former days? And you who
4 IL
gained in the abolition of the curse of an
| irredeemable paper money and the re-es-
adjustment of specie payments, where will
you 60? VIII you go to the democratic party,
where again you will find some who think
as you do, and yet with them, as a powerful
| and perhaps the most numerous cOmpO-
nent part of the organization, welding
commanding influence in a great many of
| the states subject to its control, the great
mass of the infationists and tiat-money
men who were gathered under the demo-
cratic banner by Il seemingly Irresistible
power of attraction, and furnished many of
the acknowledged leaders of that organiza-
ton, and who even now, when the pros
perity of the country has been so long
magnifcently aided by a sound tiancial
policy, would be ready to subvert it all and
throw the country back into the
WILD CONFUSION OF THE FIAT MONEY MAD
NESS?
VIII you, business men, farmers, manu-
facturers merchants of the country, find
the safety of your interest there? Will
you help a party to power, the battle of a
sound system and an irredeemable paper
currency is still pending, and will you trust
the earnings of the poor as well as the
fortunes of the wealthy to uncertainties of
its use? Or will you go to the republican