The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-01-29

The Cincinnati Commercial says:

The Cincinnati Commercial says:
HAYES began, thinking he could do
good, by announcing purpose TO REFORM
the civil service, himself refusing Ia adj
vance to be eandidats for . second term
1t is his opinion, and We share 1t largeiy't
that much of the good he has done mas
arisen from his inattsntiop to the succes- |
sion. With Gen, Garfsld 1t Id different. |
He il not committed 10 Opposition TO o |
second term. IL may very easily happen
that it will be his duty to succeed himself,
He does not profess ciyil-ssrvics reform
bat he will we feel free to assume, do some
quiet work in that direction. /"
The good work Mr.. Hayes has done IN
this matter isiafnitssimais Certainly re-
fusing in advance to be . candidate for a.
second term. "had no psrceptible influence
one way or another: nor do we. believe the
refusal had anything 10 do whatever with
his alleged desire for reform. He knew
that his nomination at Cincinnati was an
accident, and that nothing he could do in
four years administration would be likely to
bring about q repetition Of the accident.
But his enc term pledge gave him achancs
to redeem his reform plsdges.and possibly
when nominated he really intended to 90
so. This Intention, if it existed. was ex-
tinguishsd by circumstances under whieh
he obtained the presidency. He was
not elected. A Republican conspiracy gave
him what belonged to another. and safety
as well as gratitudei demanded that he
should reward the conspirators. When
this had been done: when every man OF
them, with one or two Insignificant excep
items. from the great lawyers who pleaded
his case before the electoral commission
down to the two negroes in New Orleans
who made that commission possible, had
been placed at the public erib-ths very
boys in the street laughed at MIR. Hayes
civil service reform, And when this
ignobIe payment Of disgracsful debt was
supplemented by administration influence
in favor of man whom the adminissra-
ton had removed from Office for contempt
of civil service rulss-Mr. Hayes reform
sank below the level of popular ridicule.
IF he does not leave the civil services worse
than he found it, he will at least leave
reform under q heavier cloud than ever
before.
As for Mr. Garfield, the fact that he is
not committed to opposition to second
term" practically makes him a candidate
for second term. That is, it will De IN
derstood from the start that he will not re-
fuse denomination If offered him, nor do
anything tosprevent Its being offered, He
Is an exceedingly adroit and ambitious
politician, and these who fancy that the
politician is to be sunk in the president
are sadly mistaken. He will try to do his
duty to the country. and to himself at the
same time, but If he sacrifices himself for
for;thescountry he will astonish his most
intimate friends. Now while nobody can
theories more beautifully about tcivil-
service reform than Mr.. Garfield, nobody
knows better than he that the leaders of
the party-the men who are to make or
mar his presidential fortunes-sre bitterly
opposed to. it. Will he draw down this
hostility on his own head by endeavoring
to purify and Elevate the civil service
Will he, for instance, insist upon appoint
ing to the New York custom house the
can find, whether fSenator Conkling likes
it or not. viii he nominate for the feder
al officers in sIllinois. Ohio, Pennsylvania
and Maine the most honest and capable Re
bublicans he can find, whether Logan
Sherman, Cameron and Blaine like them
or not? There is almost as little prospect
of such as of the bronze female on the
dome Of the capital coming down to open
the Inauguration: ball in round dance
with the Japanese.ambassador. Gen. Gar
fsld mayi''do some quiet work in that
direction" tbut it will be SO excessively
quiet that the closest observation will
scarcely detect it. The crack of the Conk-
ling whip-in the Cooper institute speech
is still in his rs.sand he will not have
it across his back if he eau help it. In
short, the friends of reform cannot expect
any more from the president who has not
declined second term. than they have
received from his predecessor who did.
What Garfield gains by not having any
conspirators to pay, he loses by the
necessity of preparing the way for a
denomination. And. we may remark. the
Commercial is the only Republican paper
that credits him with an intention to do
even quiet work" in the reform direction.
All the organs seom to agree that he will
be content to ''run the machine as he
finds it,"