Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-02-17
How the Reform Goes On.

How the REFORM toes Un.
Senator Hill lately made speech
in the L. S. Senate, which contained
some very direct sword-thrusts at
the much Wanted policy of civil
service reform. In this, as on other
leading doctrines, it will be seen that
the Republican party makes a wide
distinction between precept and ex-
ample. 1t is but another Of the
shams by which the people are
hoodwinked and deceived. Here
is what the Senator says of the pro-
posed reform, as carried out by the
gentleman who was dismissed from
the New York Custom House in the
interest of that much laudcd meas
ure:
The Senator from Ohio took &C.
cason to remind US that the late
President of the United States was
the victim of corrupt civil service
in this country. That everybody
SAWS is so, and therefore it is not
necessary for me to discuss it. Bot,
sir, the President was scarcely laid
away in his final resting place, the
people of the United States every
where were still weeping for Lis de-
par;ure, when in the midst of their
very sol Federal judge was soiling
his ermine by inditing letter to
the successor of that very corrupt
civil service, appealing to him to
make appointments for the express
purpose of aiding coalition to con-
troll State election, and the choice
language of that judge was that the
President should make the appoint
ment "to cement our coalition. "
For what purpose was the coalition ?
Simply to secure Republican officers
in the State. The Senator read that
much, hut he stopped there. He
did not tell the Senate, rs he might
have done. that that very President
to whom the letter was addressed,
with the weeds of mourning all
around him, with the sobs of the
country still cchoing from every
nook and corner of the land, sat
down and made the very appointment
that that judge designated for tie
purpose of cementing our coali-
tion," ard that President, as soon as
he made that appointment for the
express purpose of "cementing our
coalition" turned right around be-
fore the ink on the commission was
dry and used the very same pen,
dipped in the very same ink, to
write a learned disqnisition or homi-
~ upon civil service reform to be
inserted in his message to Congress.
That is the way we treat civil SER
vice reform in this country.
Do you blame the President for |
that ? Has he not right from his |
own experience to assume that every |
body in the country who talks about
civil service reform is simply playing
with the people? Why, sir, are
there not scores of men now listen
ing to me who sat in their seats in
this very Chamber and heard read
from that very desk official commuu-
ications from former President
and his Secretary of the Treasury,
insisting upon the removal of this
very President from the custom
house in New York, upon the ground
that he had made it the headquar-
ters of a political party, and that his
removal was absolutely necessary to
secure an honest administration of
affairs in that public office? Did
you not all hear that read from the
desk? Was it not publicly given to
the country? And yet that very
man who was removed from the
custom-house in New York, upon
the ground that the honest admins
trabon of the civil service required
his removal, that very man the next
year was nominated by that very
party for the second Office in the
gift of the people, and the very man
who asked for his removal supported
his election, took the stump for him.
And that is civil service reform!
And all the crowd of civil service
reformers at the North. with homi-
lies upon civil service reform, and
who have been at it for years, voted
for that man for Vice President.
What do You think of that?
Well, is anybody surprised that
when that President made bis nom-
nation to the Senate for the purpose
Of cementing our coalition" in
Virginia his party friends should all
have supported that nomination
when every one of them holds an
office here due to that very coa!i
ton? Do not half this Senate alb
hold Office in this body
which they never could have OBJ t
famed except for that coalition?
Do we not all know that five Years
100 immense clamor was raised in t
his country about certain frauds 7