National Republican., 1883-01-17
IroRRID HATToN.
son-in-Lnw Reid Pays Ills Respects to the
Assistant Postmaster General.
Ne,p York Trnbnne.

NetD YORK Tribune.
The President ought to appoint himself n
civil service reform commission OF one to sit
upon tho case of his own first assistant post
master general, Mr.. Hatton. A thorough in
vestigation of that remarkable functionary's
operations would, we are convinced, suggest
to the President the necessity for sudden and
radical reform in the Postoilice department.
As Mr.. Hatton is conducting himself to-day
he is rapidly building up public scandal for
the administration which holds him in office.
He Is apparently o man without any sense
whatever of the dignity which should belong
60 him as an officer of the government. only
a few days ago he was exposed rs making
soandalous effort to force postmnsters to act
rs agents for his newspaper, and he coOlly re-
torted that he knew of no law forbidding
such conduct. If he is unable to see that the
higher law of public deccncy forbids such base
use of power, the President ought to call his
attention to the fact, especially as the news
paper in question Is universally 10 ognized as
the organ of the administration.
As the President may have been so much
absorbed in public duties for the past few
months that he was unable to keep II close
watch upon his own organ and its editor his
first assistant postmaster general, we venthre
to cnumerate u few of the indiscrctions which
.that newspaper has been guilty of, and which
have attracted the attention of the country.
In the first place, this administration organ
was, and still Is, the unblushing defender of
the star.route thieves and the bitter assailunt
of every effort TO bring those thieves TO jus
tice. In the second place, this admins
tration organ ridiculed the Pendlcton civil
service reform bill whilo it was pend.
ing in congress, and after IL had passed
the senate declared that the commits
sioners would lcvy 5000 upon each man
examined in order to increase their own sala-
ries. 1.-THE business will be DONE" said this
| organ, without u word passed between givcr
| and talier. Commissioners will sell appoint
ments to teachers of civil service schools
! Any man able to he commissioner will not
| lack the ingenuity TO devise hundred plans
to effect this and nobody will be the wiser"
In this interesting deliverance the adminis-
tration organ assumes that the President will
! pick out for commissioners to help him carry
out the Pcndeton bill three men 50 corrupt
and venal that their only object in accepting
| office will be to make as much out of it as pos
siblc We submit to the President that he
| cannot afford to have his own organ take SO
! low n view Of his own patriotism.
| Passing now from the utterances of the
organ to the acts of its editor 1t becomes at
once apparent that there is perfect harmony
between them. We do not charge that Mr..
Hatton is conducting his office on the same
plan in which he declared that the civil SER
! vice commissioners would conduct theirs, but
we must say he acts very much as we should
expect a man to act who talks as he does. We
| have alluded already to the manner in which
| he endeavorcd to increase his revenues as an
| editor and publisher by bringing to bear upon
the postmastcrs of the country the full weight
of his authority as first assistant postmaster
| general. That certainly shows thrifty
mind or what he would probably call the
ingenuity" of "man able" to hold
| his position. His conduct with reference
to the commission of the postmaster
ut Lowvihe, in this state, is familiar to every
body, and was long ago admitted by all TO
| be indefensible. Yesterday two fresh per-
formances came to light, which weTe of so cX-
tTaOrdinary u character that public protests
are loud and emphatic. He has appointed as
postmaster at New London man who has
been proved in court to have falsihed his ac-
count $4,000 in order to swindle n widow. lie
has appointed a local politician postmaster at
! Camden in place of the present incumbent,
who is a wounded soldier,whosc only otlenso is
that he refused TO pay the Hubbell assessment
on his salary. The citizens of Camden have
| protested i'll mass meeting against this act as
an unwarranted disregard of their wishes and
q violation of civil service reform principles.
We respectfully submit these facts to the
| President for consideration. His emphatic
words in favor of civil service reform in his
message were so directly autagonistic to the
teaching of hi sorgan and the acts of its editor
and his first assistant postmaster general that
we can only account for his inaction in re-
| gard TO them by the fact that he has been toe
much occupied to notice them. \ careful in
vcstigation cannot fail to show him that Mr.
| HattOn's excessive ingenuity" is doing Ills
| administration serious harm.