Litchfield enquirer., 1881-06-09

must De QeVlSeQ Whlcn VIII destroy influence. President Garfield seems to suppose that a fixed term will do it. do not think fixed term will destroy it do not think life tenure will destroy it, because fixed term and life tenure do not prevent patronage in appointment. They are both barr icades in the rear, while the whole front of the fort, where the attack is given, lies still open. There is but one way in which personal in fuence in appointments and removals can be destroyed, and that is.
 1 FREE AND OPEN COMPETITION.
 Applause. The alternative, you will re- mark, is simple. It is competition or some form of patronage. Now our whole history, from the first clean sweep in this country which was made by Gov. McKane in Penn sylvania at the close of the last century, down l to the spells carnival under Jackson, and on to the present contest in the New York Les- islature upon clearing the streets of the city, all is the accumulated and conclusive proof | that if you give patronage an inch it will seize an ell if it is permitted to control appoint ments, there can no more be a little of it than there can be only a little water pouring into the ship when you have once bored hole in the side. The friends of pat ronage make great fun of competition. They are quite welcome The fun is greater than
 
 very much more rigid competition of their own. It does not ask, indeed: Who among honest applicants is shown by trial to be most fitted? but it asks with the utmost in terest: Well gentlemen. who will pay an assessment of or 5 per cent upon his salary most cheerfully? Who brought out the most voters last time? Who was the best bully at the primary? Who gave the most money to the club treasury? Who can take care of his deestrict'? Laughter. Who is the pet of the boss? Who is the most useful to the boss? Who has the strongest backing P" This is the competitive examination to which patronage subjects it's applicants Loud and repeated applause.] And the successful competitor is at once appointed. Those who delight in this kind of chmpetltion sheer that no examination will prove an applicants ft- ness for the position, Very well; will the recommendation of the 'boss'' prove it? | Will the letter of member of Congress or the certificate of 8 ward committee prove it 1? This is the present plan-which is the better ? To be able to spell correctly, to write legi- ble hand to know that Timbuctoo is not in Suffolk county[laughter], and to show as much familiarity with arithmetic as the duties of the clerkship require, certainly prove that man knows something. But the usual
 RECOMMENDATION OF A ''Boss"
 or of member of Congress or ward com. mittee does not prove that he knows anything but merely shows that his packer, who is wholly irresponsible, wishes to get him a place to be supported at the public expense
 Now, fair competition of intelligence and fair practical trial abolish personal in- fuence. The most powerful patronage can- not make its favorite clever when he is stupid, or quick when he is slow. It cannot make him more intelligent or more skillful than 8 competitor absolutely destitute of patronage In fair and open competition, the honest and intelligent man whs is guiltless of know ing single politician has perfectly equal chance with prime favorite of a "boss.' If this be aristocracy; let us have more of it. [Great applause. If. this is not American, America has yet to comprehend equal rights A system of patronage is essentially aristocrat- lc; system of competition is distinctly American. It is based upon fair play it is the conducting of the public business upon business principles 1 challenge any man in I this hall, or out of this hall, to show meth cd of selection for the minor civil service which would more utterly destroy personal intrigue and favoritism, more certainly se- cure an efficient and economical conduct of the public business more surely restore and justify the self-respect of the public agents, and more firmly plant that service in the res- pect and confidence of the country. It would not indeed abolish all knavery in the public service, but we do not argue that penal laws are useless because they
 DO NOT ABSOLUTELY PREVENT CRIME;
 we do not sheer at sanitary science because 1 people still die of disease we need not des- pair of political progress because one forward step does not bring us to the millennium. | Applause.
 The reform of the civil service therefore is emphatically the peoples reform. To doubt It's suucess is to doubt their patriotism and good sense. No public question now before the public uind of this country has made more rapid progress It is but fourteen years since Mir. Jenkes in Congress formally opened the debate, and we have just seen a gentleman called into the cabinet as post master-general by public opinion applause | quite as much as by the President, because his own experience in agreat office led him to adopt the reform meth ods which, in a greater off1ce he has evil dently not forgotten. Applause. While his efficient and thoroughly trained lieutenant a man to my perso:al knowledge absolutely ignorant of political leaders, of political chi canery and iatrigue-has been called by the sarie public opin ion-because the merchants of New York felt, for the first time, that the postofice was their office
 | NOT THE OFFICE OF POLI1TCIANS-
 to succeed Mir James in the place he has left. 1 Applause. So also in the New York cus- tom house, and 1 speak, as you know, of that which 1know-your know ledge of your own custom house surpasses mine-in the New l York custom house, tine great custom office 1 of the country in which two-thirds of the | foreign revenues of the country are collected, and which for century has been the head l quarters of political intrigue, under the civil system which has been in force for two years, within certain range of places, the colec- tion of customs has never been made so economically, or the service at that office | been so satisfactory. Applause I do not say, mark you, that the New York custom house has been taken wholly out of politics; but do say and speak of that which per sonaly know, certain range of places in that office has been as absolutely withdrawn | from the patronage of the bosses and tEe machine as if Mr. Jenkes himself had been the collector of the port. I do say that re- 1 form is no longer a theory, but fact, and that the desks of certain bureaus in the New York custom house to day attest the infinite superiority of system of appointment by fair competition of intelligence and practical ability over the competition of patronage, | intrigue, favoritism and scramble of the Jer- emiah Joneses, and the devil take the hind- most [Applause.] All that we ask of the President of the United States is that he shall take no steps backward. Applause. l | Let us hold what we have gained, and then press forward to fresh fields and pastures | new.
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