The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-09-07
PENDLETON's SPEECH.
Continued from Page o.

Continued from Page 81
office-hOlders who, having thus bought
and paid for their offices, Intend to keep
them by fair means or foul. 1t is the
source of decentralization to every man
who handles ito him who exacts and
collects it, to him who is forced to pay
it, to him who receives it as the wages
of political prostitution.
Gentlemen, that money came out of
the public treasury, and is as much
filched from it as if it had never passed
through the hands of the employees. The
Democrats pay One-half of it, for they
pay their proportion to supply the treas
ury. There is something pathetic in
this telegram to the Cincinnati Gazette,
from its we'll informed correspondent,
which l read, notwithstanding its
length.
"The Hubbell Campaign Fund Com
mittee has put into operation a new
scheme for extracting voluntary con-
tr1butiOns from the pockets of Govern
ment employees. Agents of the Commit
tee have been detailed to visit each of
the several Departments and personally
solicit the required amount. This
forces an answer at once from every in
dividual, and has brought many to
terms who have hitherto quietly ig-
culars. The most.unfOrtunate of all are
those who were appointed but week
ago in the Interior Department. They
had not been given chance even to
draw half months pay before being
collared by the Committees agent and
asked to subscribe two per cent. of their
annual pay, although their appoint
ments were made for only six months.
Some refused in desperation; others ex-
planned that they would have to go hCne
in October to vote, and this would take
every cent they could earn up to that
time. The majority, however, quietly
submitted, and subscribed their volun-
tary offerings. No arguments are used
by the agents, no appeals made, nor is
surprise manifested at refusal. The
paper is simply presented for signature
to each one in turn, but so powerful is
the force Of this silent but active pres
ence, that most have been brought to
terms.
"The Star says the collectors of the
Republican Congressional Committee
were working the Army and Navy De-
partments to-day. They had all who had
not responded to the request for 'VOlun-
tary contributions down on their books
and the delinquents were seen. Moth
ing less than two per cent. of their sal
ary is received"
Are you willing this should continue?
NUMBER OF USELESS EMPLOYEES.
This amazing fact was developed in
the Treasury Department at Washing
ton, thirty-fOurshundred employees and
only sixteen hundred are authorized and
| paid by law-eighteen hundred are put
| on and put off at the sole pleasure of the
Secretary, and are paid out of funds and
balances not appropriated for that pur-
pose. You see whence comes that in
Vulnerable horde employed in the work
of setting up Presidential Conventions
and carrying elections for the party in
power at the public expense. You pay
| the eXpense-are you willing this state
of things should continue?
1t has been stated and never denied
that in the Bureau of Engraving and
| Printing it was found that, out of nine
hundred and fifty-eight persons, five
| hundred and thirty-nine had been ap
pointed to please political ''bOsses," anC
could be, and were, dismissed without
retarding the work of the Bureau.
| You pay the expense. Are you willing
this should continue, and the system
on which it rests should have your ap
| prOval?
| A Secretary went to the Committee OF
Appropriations at the last session anC
said: There are nineteen ladies in my
Department, and l can find nothing fOI
them to do. If you will give me one
| competent clerk. and make no appTO-
priatiOn, can dispense with them all
| but if you make the appropriation
shall be constrained to keep them on the
rolls"
You pay the expense. Are you willing
this should continue?
JEFFERsoN'S TEST.
The offices are trusts for the people
| They ought nOt-nOt one of them ought
to exist except for the benefit of the
people. Every supeTnumeTary ought tC
be Topped off. Every incompetent
! should be dismissed. Every employ.
I ment of two where one can fairly per
| form the service Is robbery of the peO-
pie. Every salary which can bear a
forced reduction of two or ten per cent
by political assessment" is excessive,
and ought to be reduced. Every office
| should be filled by the man most com.
petent, most faithful, most honest, most
| trustworthy. Is he honest? Is he capa-
BILE? Is he faithful to the Constitution
were the tests set up by Mr.. jefferson in
| 1901. This, said he, is the essence OF
| good administratiOn-the basis of a
sound Civil Service. That great founder
of our party faith, In the long ago, when
| our population was less than six mil.
lions, when our Office holders were less
than three thousand, declared that an
| effective, economical Civil Service was
essential to that honesty and purity OF
| administration on which alone free
popular government could endure.
Jefferson was right. The experience
of eighty years has more than proved it,
| Offices are trusts for the people. The
men best fitted to perform the duties
ought to fill them. The business of fifty
millions of people should be conducted
on business principles, and all the more
honestly, all the more faithfully, be-
cause it is the business of the people.
Honesty, capacity, fidelity are essential
tests of fitness-and the most honest, the
most faithful man is the most fit.
Surely no man will cOntroVert this,
Surely no man will say that an unfit
manor even less fit man-should
be selected, while other and better men
are being offered for the position.
The question by what method fitness
for appOintiVe Office can be best ascer-
tanned has Vexed every Administration
and every successful party for fifty
years. Manifestly the President and his
Cabinet cannot know personally every
applicant and judge his fitness they
must confide in some one else. They
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