Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-01
DECENTRALIZATION.

C~r1 Schurz on the Civil Service BilI-A
Sad State OF Affairs Among Pennsylvania
Politicians-AIl of Them with Skeletons
in Their Closets.
Carl Schurz, the head of the civil service
agitation, said Of the passage of the Pen
dleton bill: "One of the stock jokes of the
friends of the spoils system has long been
that the reformers expect to introduce the
millennium by substituting appointment
by com petitivs examination for appoint
ment by fsvoritism. The iokers will, now
that the Pendleton bill has passed the SEN
ate, and will probably pass the house, per-
haps comfort themselves by showing that
will still leave many evils in the civil SER
vice. The truth is. however, that none
have been more emphatic than the. reform
ers themselves in guarding against ex-
travagant expectations as the result of any
bill, however carefully drawn. All that can
possibly be expected from the working Of
any law is an Improvement on the condi-
tion of human society. The man who ex-
poets perfection from any piece Of legisla-
ton is usually lunatic, and the man who
alleges as q serious objection to law that
it will not produce perfection ought also to
be regarded as mentally unsound, and
some day will be. One Of the express OBJ
jects OF the United States constitution was
to establish justice. That it has not estab-
lished justice is, however, no argument
against its value. The object of the PEN
dleton bill is in like manner to make the
civil service perfect machine, but all that
is to be expected from it is improvement
in the machine. If it docs this in any
d.gree it will not only, silence those
who had been maintaining that in
the existing state of human nature the
United States civil service could not be
improved, but will prepare the public
mind for steady progress in the direction
OF improvement. It will, in short, make IL
easy to cnrs such defects az the actual
working of the law may reveal in the law
itself by showing the public how much law
can do to build up the now greatest need of
the republic, viz: An administrative organ
ization suited to it's enormous size, it's
rapid growth and its rapidly increasing
revenues.
Two incidents in the state of Pennsyl-
vania since the late election show how low
morals had dropped there in the Republican
party under the ring domination. In the
northern part of tie state, at the flourish
ing town of Bradford, Pa, which
is now the center of the oil
regions, an election officer was making
votes for Beaver by giving out election
certificates in blank to be filed in with the
names of any person imported from any
where, who would vote for Beaver. Police
men went to this mans house On the morn
ing of election before day and procured
sets of such papers and his statement was
that anybody could have them, and the
names might be filed in al li5it1m proyi-
ded Beaver was TO be voted for. The po-
lcemen Immediately arrested on the spot
this champion of regularity and stalwart-
ism. and he is about to be tried. There is
great fear that he will give the names of
TIE persons who told him what he might
do, in which it is said some of the most
eminent politicians in the state would go
to the penitentiary.
The other case is in southern or south
western Pennsylvania, at Uniontogn,
where two politicians in the ring circle, |
met near Christmas day, in private |
room, and one shot the other dead, since |
which time it is remarked that the mur-