The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-01-16
The Democracy and Civil.Seryice
Reform

Democratic conventions haveoften vir-
tuously " resolved in favor of the bet
ter regulation of the civil-service of the
nation, and their organs talk loudly of
reform and of opposition to monopoly.
The party, neither individually nor col
lectively, has ever been credited with
having burning zeal for reform, and
some curiosity has been felt to see how it
would deport itself in the presence of an
opportunity to put its professions into
practice. The belief has been very con.
fdently expressed that, in the event of
the election of democratic president, no
conventional protestations of devotion to
civil.service reform would stand in the
way of a clean sweep in every one of the
hundred thousand or more federal offices.
The history of the party, the utterances
of its individual and leading members,
were assurances of insincerity which the
first test was confidently relied upon
amply to justify. The party has recently
undergone two conspicuous tests, and it has
not disappointed expectations. The first
was in the course pursued by the newly
elected officers of the New York state
government; the second, in the choice of a
candidate for United States senator in
Ohio. The New York legislature of 1883
passed, by the aid of the republican minor
ity, an act for the reform of the state civil.
service. The law was not made operative
until two or three days after the induction
into Office of the newly elected officials.
This provision was designed as saving
clause and insisted upon by the democracy
in order that, in the event of the success
of the party in the next state election, a
margin of time might be saved within
which the victorious officials might dis.
tribute the spoils to their party friends
and helpers. The democracy elected in
November all its state department officers
except the secretary of state. Mr.. Cha
pin, the controller, was the speaker of
the last assembly and one of the reform
democrats who helped the republicans to
pass the civil-service act. He alone,
among his newly elected brother officials,
has observed the spirit as well as the let
ter of the law to regulate and improve
the civil-service of the state. His demo.
cratic brethren improved the shining
hours of the day or two of grace before
the act became binding upon them to clear
out from their departments the clerks and
minor officials, without regard to expert
ence or efficiency, and to appoint new
men, their friends and henchmen, to the
vacant places. No one is surprised or
disappointed. The game was apparent at
its inception-to gain what prestige might
accrue to the party from the passage of
this law by a legislature in which the
majority was democratic, but to leave a
gap through which the democratic officials,
if elected, could skulk away from its OBJ.
servance. The independent vote in New
York is stated at about eighty thousand.
The independents are nothing if not civil
service reformers, and this party has
shown itself to be the arbiter of the polit.
ical destiny of the state. The course OF
the democracy in thus multiplying the
civil-service act cannot be propitiating
and must dispel any lingering feelings OF
confidence in the pretentions of the
party, locally, and at the same time prac'
tically expose the hollowness, insincerity
and rapacity of the democracy at large
The reputation of Mr.. Pendleton by
the Ohio democracy is more marked ex
hibition of the utter hollowness of the
party professions of reform and of hos.