The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-09-06

nnlteSlmal- AT Albany he had hacker
in his party; at Washington he mus
stand virtually alone, so far as hi
party is concerned. With all his goot
intentions he would be as powerless t.
resist the famished cohorts of plumber
from east and west and south and nortf
as the sturdiest hunter of the plain.
would be to withstand single and alone
a rushing herd of wild buffaloes.
What, on the other hand, are the
chances of the reform from the republi-
can party? Despite many sins and
shortcomings, it has already done much
and is certain to do more. The plat
form and candidate are at last commit
ted fully and unreservedly TO the right
side of the question. While the demo-
cratic national convention gave to its
nominee no civil service plank to stand
upon, the republican party gave its
nominee, on this question, the soundest
plank of the honored platforms
plank hewn out by the honored leader
of the reform in our own state and
fitted in by leader of the same sort
from the state of Massachusetts. Bet
ter than this, the republican candidate
has not only accepted it, but has agreed
to more than the boldest of us dared
ask. In the light of his experience as
secretary of state, he has virtually
pledged himself to labor for the extern
sion of the system into the consular and
diplomatic service. If he be elected we
shall have the right to insist-and
fully believe we may rely-upon the ex-
tension of the system to these most i'm
portant branches of the public service,
so that though our national servants
of wire-pulling than at present, they
will know more of those things abso-
lutely essential to any proper represen-
tation of American interests in the
countries to which they are accredited
IN short, that new and grand career
will be opened to the brightest and best
young men in the country, which has
long been virtually closed to them and
largely used for pensioning off decaying
politicians. This position of the repub.
lican platform, thus distinct and de-
cided, and this alone, determines my
vote.
formerly support the reform, answer
that very few of us supported it or even
understood it few years ago. If it be
said that he has used the old methods,
l answer so have all the old leaders
who have been prominent in national
affairs. Whatever men have said of
him, they have never charged him with
want of shrewdness or quickness in as
certaining the current of public opin-
ion or with bourbon inability to forget
outworn methods. His letter of accep-
lance shows that he recognizes the new
element, which if it be not regarded
will leave the state in hopeless minor
ity in some of the more important
states. He has learned by this time
that there are in the state Of New York
alone some $4,000 school districts, and
that in almost every one of them there
is small number, and in some large
number of men to whom this question
has become apparent, who have against
the spoils system something OF that Bit
ter hatred which in the old days was
felt against slavery and which used to
be called fanaticism. He knows how
that old feeling developed and he can
easily see how this new feeling will de-
velop. But it may be said that the
democratic party has also learned
something. Doubtless it has learned
something on questions already de-
cided, but not on this all important
question of reform in the civil service.
The trouble with the democratic party
for the last forty years has been that it
has never seen any great question until
the country, thanks to the republican
party, had got past it. The only
source from which the democratic party
has learned anything during all these
years has been republican victo-
ries. On slavery, the war, recon-
struction, finance, the currency, edu-
cation in the south-on every great
question the republican party has had
to educate the democratic party by re-
publican victory. And SO it must be
now in the civil service question.
Doubtless after the republican party has |
fully developed it and carried it to tri-
umph the democrat party will accept it;
but never until then. To teach the
democratic party that civil service re-
form means anything, a national vic
tory of the republican party on its pres
ent platform Is an absolute necessity.
Again, some of our independent
friends say, "Let the democratic party
in, and if it be not true to these reforms
we will turn it out"
To all this comes the old answer:
hear lion in the lobby roar;
Pray. Mr.. Speaker shall shut the door,
Or, shall we ope the door and let him in,
And then all try to get him out again?
To sum up, then, 1 regard this as the
crisis of civil service reform, which
next TO the abolition of human slavery,
will, if successful, be referred to in the
next century as the greatest achieve
ment of our country in this. We are
at the parting of the ways. To place
the country in the hands of the demo-
cratic party is certainly to check and
probably to destroy the reform for
many years; to bring in the republican
party is to secure its regular and SUBJ
stantal development; therefore, though
my vote, like yours, was cast at Chica-
go, from first to last, for MIR. Edmunds,
1 propose to vote at the coming cleo
ton for Mr.. Blaine. l remain, very
truly yours,
ANDREW d. WHITE.
Nantucket, Mass, Aug. 3, 1884.