Morning journal and courier., 1882-06-26
Monday Morning, June 26, 1882.

PROGRESS OF GREAT REFORM.
 Civil service reform grows interesting.
 Chairman Hubbell of the Congressional Re-
 publican committee challenged Mir. George William Curtis and his associates to test the
 legality of the circular sent out by Mr. Hub
 bell to government employees ''requesting'
 them to pay their share towards a campaign
 fund. MT. Hubbell said in this challenge:
 II am willing to meet you on this question
 anywhere or at any time, and to unite with
 you ln requesting the President to ask an
 opinion of the Attorney General If you
 desire any other form of action in any tri-
 bunal which can give an immediate consider
 ation of the point will join in testing the
 soundness of the circular, and I invite you
 to this mode of settlement, as both are more
 manly and more honorable than your attempt
 to confuse the action or alarm the minds of
 the employees alluded to. The law is mis-
 stated in your circular, and the alarm you
 seek to create is without justification in the
 law, your counsel, to whom you vaguely al- Jude, either misunderstanding or perverting it."
 The counsel to whom Mir. Curtis 'svaguely alluded" have been heard from. They are MT. Everett P. Wheeler and Mir. Frederick
 W. Whittridge. They have sent to Mir. Hub bell reply to his challenge in which they say that it would give the Civil Service Re form association and themselves much satis- faction to have an immediate opportunity of 'testing the soundness'' of BIr Hubbell's circular. They also say: "The Circuit court of the United States for the Southern dis trict of New York is now in session. We will make 8 test case of any one which you may ! select of the numerous payments which have | been, we are informed, made to you in | this district in response to your circular by | executive officers or employees of the United | States not appointed by the President by and | with the advice and consent of the Senate. | We will, if you concur in this suggestion and 1 select the case, request the attorney of the | United States to proceed at once by informa- | tion against the offender. We will request | him to state in this information the facts ex- | actly they exist, so that the counsel for the | defendant may demur to the information at | once." Messrs. Wheeler and Whittridge de- l cline to accept Mir. Hubbell's proposition to | request the President to take the opinion of l the Attorney General and give the following 1 explanation of their refusal ''We have re- l quested the distinguished head of the De- pertinent of Justice to give instructions to | the attorneys of the United States in the sev- eral districts, in accordance with sections 362 l and 771 of the Revised Statutes, to prosecute | all delinquents for offences against the | act of Congress i'm reference to po- l litical contributions Whatever the pri- vate opinion of a prosecuting officer may be, we understand that it is his official duty, upon the reasonable complaint of spectable citizens, to present that complaint in legal form in the court for it's decision. We have no right to ask his opinion. We have right to ask his official action"
 In conclusion Messrs. Wheeler and Whit ridge inform Mir. Hubbell that there is very general fear among employees of the govern ment that if they do not make the contribu- tions requested" they will be dismissed from the service of the United States and the counsel say they will gladly join Mir. Hubbell in letter to the President asking him to issue an executive order that no removal shall be made for refusal to pay the contri- button requested" Mir Hubbell will doubtless accept the plan for legal test of his circular, and he may also sign the pro- posed letter, though this is not at all certain.