Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-09-21

mating. Mr. Blaine has done no more in |
this connection than is done, and has to |
be done, by almost every man who seeks |
nomination to Congress. The avenues to |
public position are so hedged about with |
the class of professional politicians who |
levy blackmail upon all corners, that a |
man who should undertake to reach Con-
gress on civil service reform principles
would be defeated and flung back at the
very outset of his career. The man who,
having reached Congress, is ambitious to
remain there. finds at once that he can
only satisfy his ambition BY making free
use OF the g machine" The latter is in.
dispensable TO him, and SO he is compelled
to support it in return for its assistance.
In this way vicious circle is maintained,
and this vicious circle cannot be broken
unless the people will resolve to take poll
tics into their own hands, and thus enable
reformers to attain positions where they
can exercise influence for good
The strength of the present system con.
sists in the fact that Congress is virtually
independent of the people. 1t owes and
pays allegiance to the professional politi-
clans who stand between it and the con-
stituencies, and it is in vain for reformers
to protest, because the members of Con.
gress who are alone able to inaugurate re.
form are not responsible to public opinion.
The civil service is and has long been re.
garded by the professional politicians as
sort of bank upon which they can draw in
payment for work" done on behalf of
Congressman. The national interest and
claim upon this body of public servants
has been put out of sight and ignored alto.
gether. 1t has been converted into party
fund, and under the existing methods
there can be no doubt that this must be
the case whatever party is in power. Now
when Mr.. Blaine asserts that he is in favor
of civil service reform it is inevitable that
his sincerity should be doubted, because he
has at no time in his public career been
anything else than machine" politician.
In fact it is very certain that he under.
stands no other kind Of politics, and that
he would be quite lest if he was deprived
of machine methods, and told to 90
and make fight for office. In the present
instance, however, he appears to have
resented very bitterly the current express
sions of disbelief i'll his sincerity, and he
has specially fastened upon Carl Schurz
as his enemy in this matter.
The only justification for long "inter.
view" which Mr.. Blaine has telegraphed
over the country, and in which he attacks
Mr.. Schurz on the tn quoque principle, is
a recent article in the New York Erening
Post, speaking severely of the Maine poll
tician's civil service reform pretensions.
Mr.. Blaine takes the article for his text,
and attacks Mr.. Schurz vigorously, charg-
ing him with having been "machine 8"
politician himself when he was Secretary
of the Interior, and saying great many
harsh things about him. We have at pres
emit no means of determining where the
truth lies in this regard, but we can at
least perceive clearly that Mr.. Blaine can
not clear his own skirts by attacking Mr..
Schurz. In the first place he has no evi.
dence that MIR. Schurz wrote the article
OF which he complains. 1t may have been
written either by Mr.. White or Mr.. God.
KIN, and if it was written by either of
these gentlemen, Mr.. Blaine's elaborate
structure of accusations against Mr.. Schurz
collapses at once. This shows ths.t he has
proceeded upon false line. The truth is
that it does not signify who w-ote the
article. The only question of any i'm.
portance is, whether the statements of the
article are true. The EUening Post has
said that Mr.. Blaine cannot be relied upon
to support civil service reform, and it
fortifies its position by alleging that he has
subsisted in politics for many years by
employing machine methods exclusively.
That this is true must be admitted. Mr.,
Blaine cannot successfully or even seriously
attempt to deny it. 1t is in fact nc torious
And it is just presumption that man
who has grown gray in the use of the
machine cannot be trusted to renounce
the only appliances with which he is famil.
lar, or to combat abuses which he has
learned to regard as necessary, and the evil
effects of which he has ceased to lie able to
recognise. In short, Mr.. Blaine cannot
pose as Civil Service reformer at this late
day. As to his quarrel with Mr.. Schurz,
we know nothing OF the circumstances al.
legged by him, but we do know that the |
New York Erening Post is one of the ablest |
and most public-spirited journals in the
United States to-day, and that in what it |
has said of Mr.. Blaine's insipcerity it is
wholly justified by the facts of his record. |
When so old "machine politician |
comes forward and pretends to approve of |
methods which if applied would leave him |
and all his class stranded, high and dry,
the public must refuse to take him at his |
word. 1t is not credible that his repre-.
sensations should be sincere, in fact It is
not credible that he should put himself in
antsgonism with the whole tenor of his past
life. But it is quite conceivable that 60
shrewd politician should recognize the
approach of popular boom " in favor of |
Civil Servics reform, and that he should
therefore seek to put himself in position
to profit by it. And this, we have no
doubt, is precisely what Mr.. Blaine has
been doing. No man in the country be.
iieves less in Civil Service reform than he
but no man is reader to accept his beliefs
rsady-made from the people. and to change
them to suit the political exigencies of the
hour. There is no danger that Civil Ser.
vice reformers will be deceived by his
pretenses, bat it lie somewhat remarkable
that he should have thought it possible to
deceive them.
TWEEDLE DUN AND TwEEDLE.pEE.