Litchfield enquirer., 1881-06-09

brought, he said, grimly: '.Now, gentlemen, this is case of influence. We will Settle it by the weight of influence" He directed all the documents for one candidate to be put in one scale, and all those for the other in the other scale and when one kicked the beam he said: ''There, that settles it. Mir. Secretary, appoint the man with the weightiest recon msndations!" Now there is seldom Tn any country the saving wit of Lincoln. All the vast pressure. all the accumulation of inf1u- ence from the outside, fails without the word of the powerful politician. "I sign every body's petition, sad very eminent public man in this country to me, "then l tell the appointing officer privately whom wish him to appoint" Under the operation of this system, the public service is no longer ser vice of the people of the United States it is private service of body of politicians and their dependents in every state. All avenues to public employment of this nature are closed to 90 per cent. of the people of the United States. They are open only to few favorites and henchmen .,f influential politicians. The European menarchical power totally disre garded thesnation. and held that the public servlce was the property of the king, who dealt it out at his pleasure to his favorites The American spells theory equally despoils tuC PC0ptCs duu puts O 1CW pOitlCtoiio UT UOSb- es in the place of the king. promising him to farm out the service to their followers. And, when it is proposed, as by the grace of God and will of the people it is proposed, to oyer throw this privileged class, to break down the aristocratic gates and to open the public ser- vice of the country to all the people upon equal terms the whole oligarchy of patronage breaks into the chorus that the proposition is a conspiracy of sore heads to found an aristecra- cy of office holders upon the ruins of liberty aud Jeremiah Jones.
 1 will cite to you the most familiar facts to see for moment the consequences of this system. It stimulates an enormous and need less multiplication of places and salaries; opens opportunities for combinations and con- spiracies and plundering the treasury under the plea of benefit to the party, while, in the actual transaction of public business, it
 RESULTS IN THE LEAST POSSIBLE WORK. at the highest possible expense The same spirit which stimulated Artemus Ward to send his wife's relations to the war, persuades members of Congress with profuse generosity to pay their political debts with other peoples money. Since they must reward their follow CTS with places, if the places are too few, they make more. This was frankly confessed by Gen. Butler of Massachusetts few years ago, when he appeared, believe for that oc- casien only, as a reformed candidate for the governorship of the commonwealth. With a swarm of hungry office-seekers surrounding the executive" said Gen. Butler, Git is impos- sibc to abolish needless offices, to stop leaks in the treasury from which hungry politicians are fed, but the administration will be, on the other hand, obliged to create new offices and make new places to satisfy those who claim they have right to be rewarded for their pol itical favors'
 Report after report, committee after con- mittee. have shown in detailed statistics the which makes minor public places the reward of personal service is unavoidably a system of corruption and inef1ciency. A committee of experts examined bureau in Washington, and it reports that the force en- ployed is often three times as large as necessa- ", because these were appointed by personal or political favor. The last committee of in- quiry into the New York Custom House re- commended that fifth of the force should be dismissed. The committee ofinternal revenue in 1877 in the House of Representatives in Washington attributes
 INDUSTRIOUS AND ALARMING LOSSES
 
 than integrity and capacity. In 1867 the chairman of the committee on ways and means declared that the main reason of the loss of seventy per cent. of the whiskey tax was that men were appointed, not because they were fit, but because politicians wanted them iii places In January, 1867, the gen. ersl committee of Congress reported that, un- der the system of appointment by approved competency, instead of political influence, the same amount of services could be obatined at about two-thirds the present cost, and the ser vice rendered would be of greater value
 Well, now, what is the argument by which this practice is sustained? It is very brief.
 It is simply that ours is 8 government of parties, and that the the system of spells is indispensa- ble to party organizations. The reply is equally simple It is peremptory denial. The assertion is untrue. The spells system is not the necessary basis of party organization, 1t Is merely an abuse of administration which long antedates parties, which fourishes under parties, but which can also be thoroughly rem- eded under them. While we insist that this wretched abuse is indispensable to our political life, England has long ago ex- pelled it from hers. Six months before our general election last November, there was general election in England, which shook that Island quite as much as our presidential elec- tlon shook this country. After one of the most tremendous contests in the history of English or American politics, the Tory ad- ministration in England fell, but, during that contest. there was no panic of apprehension ID the civil service not single office holder was assessed to sustain the administration, nor ap- pointed or removed to strengthen it. Every of1ce-holder kept his money, his place and his Self-respect. On the other hand, no worker of the opposition party, no friend of Mir. Glad stone, expected to receive minor office as a reward for helping to overthrow the adminis- tration of Lord Beaconsficld. The gover- nor of India was changed, the viceroy of Ire- land was changed, the ambassador to Constan- tinople was changed, because those are great political offices which represented, and the holders of which enforced. the policy which the English people had approved at the election But not postmaster in England, not custom house officer or messenger or porter, net a watchman or scrubber or washerwoman in the country lost his place or her place in conse. quence of the defeat of the administration and the overthrow of its party. Loud applause The English people have decided that, if they keep politics out of the custom house and the postoff1ce, and the inter nal revenue department, the public business will be more economically and efficiently tmnsacted, and great source of political cor ruption will be drled up. They have decided that man shall be appointed to that service because
 HE PROVES THAT HE IS FITTED FOR IT. not because politician wishes to pay his per- snal debts by ,quarterlng henchman upon the public. When Lord Beacons6eld was in the very height of his power, when his admin lsratlon was apparently sustained by the uni vgsal public opinion of England, he was believed to have made an appointment to a minor place by mere personal favor, and SO profound was the feeling against him that hls administration was for the first tune defeated in PTlament, vote of censure was carried against him in House where he had major ity of of nearly 100 votes, and only by care ful explanation and in his craftiest manner. showing that he had not done what was alleg ed, was the late prime minister of England saved from the necessity of resignation (Ap- plause.
 Thus, while, in this country, we are still