New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-23
"REFORu ALL ALONG THE LINE.D

"REFORM ALL ALONG THE LINE"
1t is the opinion of Mr.. Hendricks that the
Democrats should make the Presidential fight
of 1Ss4 on the broad issue Of "refOrm all
along the line" He thinks the people are
yearning for unlimited reform, and believes
the Democracy would make great hit by prom
Using to give them all they want About the
yearning we are not certain, but if it exists and
the kind of reform desired is Democratic there
can be no doubt Of the DemOcracy's ability to
give the people all they want and have a sur
plus left over. If there is anything the Dem
ocratic party has been and still Is strong on it
is reform. MI. Hendricks does not confine
himself to any one kind of reform, but favors
a wholesale demand for it "al along the line"
1t will not be a difficult task to enumerate some
of the reforms which Democratic ascendancy
could be depended upon to secure.
First, there is the Civil Service. That would
be reformed 10y turning ont all Republicans
and putting in Democrats Until this trans
formation could be brought about Mr. Hen
bricks has a novel scheme which he would like
to see tried as n sort of makeshift. He and
all the rest of his party are bitterly opposed to
the assessment of Office holders for the benefit
Of the Republican campaign treasury, and in
order to make that assessment impossible he
recommends the reduction of all salaries of
Government employees to so low a figure that
they will he unable to make any contributions,
either voluntary or otherwise. This plan is
likely to arouse great enthusiasm in the ranks
of the employees. They would naturally prefer
to have several hundred dollars a year taken
off their salaries than TO contribute ten or
twenty dollars apiece to a campaign fund
which is used to make their tenure secure. Mr.
Hendricks is far seeing and sagacious states
man. If he has any more views of this kind
we trust he will advance them without delay.
A Civil Service constructed on starvation basis
would undoubtedly satisfy the Democrats
until all Republicans had been driven out and
their places filed with Democratic bummers
and "heelers" The salaries would then be
restored to the former figures without delay.
After the Civil Service had been re-
formed or rather while chat great work
was in progress, the Democracy would be
devoting itself to regeneration of issues
in the States. The repeated Democratic
denunclations of sumptuary legislation would be
put into effect BY sumptuary legislation every
Democratic platform builder means all efforts
to interfere with the liquor interests IN anyway.
Who ever heard of any kind of n temperance
measure receiving support from the Democrats
as party We do not deny that there are
temperance men among the Democrats. There
are many of them in Indiana, and they will
show their devotion to their convictions this
year by voting against the alliance between
their party and the rumselers. There are
many in Iowa, and they voted with the Repub-
licans in the recent adoption of the prohi-
bitiOn amendments yet the Iowa Democratic
Convention, held since the amendment was
adopted, denounced that amendment in its
platform. Admitting all that can be said Oh
the other side, it cannot be denied that the
Democrats, as party, are in favor of unlimited
whiskey, for the same reason that they have
always been in favor of nearly everything bad
i'll our politics, because they want votes. A
Democratic reform in this direction, therefore,
would be a revolution in favor of free rum.
In the South we all know what Democratic
reform would be. 1t would give the b ullG0zers
and ballOt-hOA suffers the same immunity
which would be given to the rumselcrs in the
North and West. If the Democratic party is
unanimous in anything it Is in the belief that
the South ought to lie allowed to manage its
own affairs to suit itself If the South decides
that no negro has a right to vote and have his
vote counted unless he casts Democratic bal
lot under the precedcnts established 10y the
Democrats in Congress that decision will be
regarded as reform. Nobody can question this
1t is almost impossible to find any Democratic
of any of the crimes perpetrated
against the ballot in the South for the past ten
years. A few editors. bolder than their fellows,
have perhaps said IA few cautious words against
the unwisdom of the worst of the crimes, but
the Democratic party as a whole has not only
extenuated but openly defended them. Dem
oclatic reform In tho South, therefore, would |
mean Bourbon domination with the negro dis
frarchised.
1t would be easy to point out the peculiarities
OF reform in other directions. What ii would |
be on the tariff and in the management of our
financial affairs, we can Judge by examining
the record of the party. In short reform all
along the line - means little less than revolu- |
ton with all the worst elements of our popu- !