The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-08-11
COngressmen as Office Blpkers.
[Philndelnhia Press. |

linlluuelpnlH 1Tcsssl
The constant importantly and un'
interrupted annoyance to which MEM
bers Of Congress are subjected by our
present civil-service system is an as
pect of the case to which the public
has not given much considerations
Senator Dawes recently called atten.
tion to ii In letter to the Springfield
Ropu6heogt, to which we have several
times had occasion to refer, but In
looking back through the lies of The
Press we are reminded that he was by
no means the first in the field with
this very complaint. Judge Kelley,
then in his tenth year of service as
Representative from the Fourth Phil
adelphia, District, preemptorily de-
clined a denomination from his con-
stituents except on condition that he
should no longer be required or ex-
pected to perform the distasteful,
thankless and unending labors Of an
correspondence on this subject between
Judge Kelley and his constituents and
other citizens of Philadelphia may be
found in The Press of March IA,
1870.
In his letter on this occasion Judge
Kelley says that his constituents, and
to n considerable extent the people of
this city at large, have superadded to
his duties as u Representative the inn
possible one of finding places for all
unemployed people of both sexes
known to them, and promotion for all
ambitious or discontented employees
of the Government. He complains
that this has become 50 common as to
be insufferable. Every morning he is
bosieged by the bearers of letters from
good-hearted people to the extent of
fifty or more, each of whom has been
assured that he will get them work
and wages without delay. This, he
says, has been carried on to such an
extent that it precludes the possibility
of social Intercourse, correspondence
or study in his home. The disappoint-
ment aud often destitution resulting
to those who for days and weeks have
been seeking II position under Govern
ment prompted to the step originally
by a mistaken confidence in his
ability to obtain for them, is painful
to observe, and he will no longer be a
party to such practices He proposes
that the nominating Convention shall
approve a proper civil-service bill and
Instruct the candidate to make its
principles his rule of action, OR that
the Convention shall adopt n resolu
ton deprecating any interference by
Representatives in the selection of
subordinate Government employees.
He insists that he shall be left free, if
elected, to devote his time to the
study of important questions then at
issue and the support OF the great
interests at stake.
Since that time Judge Kelley has
served eleven successive years in the
House of Representatives. How far
the energetic protest he then made
has enabled him in this interval to
avoid the prosecutions of office-seekers
or the solicitations of their friends we
do not know. AS the record shows
that he has been able to give time and
attention to the other matters he had
at heart and give the country the ben
eft of his labors, we infer that he has
measurably escaped what Senator
Dawes terms "the most eXacting of
all the labors of the average Congress
man. The subject of civil-service
reform has been much talked of and
much written about of late, and the
next Congress will undoubtedly be
called upon to legislate upon it. Those
members who have no other claim
upon their constituents than their in
dustly and persistency as office bro
kers will doubtless be found opposing
d reform that strikes at the source of
their power. But Judge Kelly dem
onstrated eleven years ago what Sena-
tor Dawes bat repeats and emphasizes
to-day, that for those who concern
themselves with the real work of leg
islation this enforced office brokerage
is an unalleviated nuisance. Fortu-
nately, it is in their power to abate
this nuisance effectually by uniting to
secure the passage OF practical meas
ure of civil-service reform. If the
very men who so sostrongly condemn the
present system will exert themselves
with corresponding energy to improve
it, its reform will soon be an accom-,