The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-02
Wednesday January 2, 1884.
NUMEROUS SUBJECTS
Com nlented Upon by q Well-Known
Correspondent
Civil Service Reform as Gath" Sees
It--RefiectiOn on PendIeton--NOt
From New N 0Fh- willard
Immigration.

CINCINNATI, Jan. 2.-"Gath' telegrahI's as
follows to The Enquirer:
Civil service reform is, and should be, a
Republican measure. There is nothing an
tecedent in the history of the Democratic
party leading up to it. The modern
Democracy began with Gen. Jackson's
triumph over the old Republican organi-
zation of Clay, Adams, Writ and Crawford,
and the first point to be settled was
whether the old gangrened family clerks
around Washington should sit forever,
notwithstanding they had opposed Gen. Jack
son for four years. Jackson soon found that
if he expected bis supporters to stand by MIN,
or new ideas to be advanced in the country,
the old ofiice-holding staff must go,
for it could not be relied upon. Civil
service rules strictly adhered to at the
breaking out of the civil war, would have put
a traitor at the side of every other man in the
public service. The civil service condition
left over to the time of Abraham Lincoln,
would have paralyzed our government The
supreme bench, the courts, the departments,
congress, every purleu and place were filled
with men who hoped to see the United States
flag torn in half and Washington be-
come a southern capital The expression
civil service is an exotic, mis-
homer confusing to the average .intelh-
leCt-no person in the civil service scheme
has had the genius TO displace Before they
reform the government out of. all the human
nature in it they want to reform their name
We have no such thing as civil service in
the United States, because we have no IN
civil service big enough to contrast with it.
In England, where a huge standing army
and an enormous navy are kept
up, they call the mere clerical
staff around the bureaus and
pill-shops their civil service The British
army has about 10000 men in the regular
service, besides 5000 in India; and in the
navy of England are over $4,000 persons,
making a huge total great enough to call the
clerks, 10y contrast, the civil service. But in
this country we have an army that the civil
service could thrash in any pitched battle,
being four or five to one This government
is all clerks. The British government is all
soldiers.
In politics, as in business, men are recOI-
nized not by their assumptions but by what
is natural, cordial and simple in their daily
relations 1t can not be said that Mr.. Pendle-
ton has had any magnetic influence upon the
- United States. His work in the senate has
been that of rather timid amateur, desiring
to avoid things of enmity and dispute and
take up something at the waySide and bring
it in, as Mary brought her little lamb TO
school, to make the children laugh and play,
yet nobody knows exactly why. There exists
at all times, and especially in weak times,
after great physical conflicts, men of the sec
ond class, always hunting for something new
to make great matter of it.
As little bit of politics, will repeat a
conversation l had on the street with well
informed Republican Said 1: "What view
do You take about the next presidency
There will be determined opposition, said
he, "from the state of New York to any New
Yorker being nominated. That is the from the
contest has assumed here. 1t is not desired
to antagonize the administration, but the
Republican voters of the state will not &C
oept its continuance as any suggestion of
their own, nor DO they mean ever to confirm
it at the polls"
The developments about Mr.. Everett, of
Cleveland losing S40000 in the Willard
stocks read queer. Wizards owning Of the
Northern Pacific stock is small, and he had
not the outside backing to keep him in Office
Billings has held on to his stock through the
lfcIIOU Vi ut pISSSIOu- ne HIS seen the STOCK
decline and his losses roll up, but he has held
on, 50 that now he is the largest individual
stakeholder, and has been made sort of
managing directors. 1t is probable that he
will be Mr. Wizards successor, as he was his
predecessor. Mr. Billings was president up
to 1882, when he gave place to Mr.. Willard.
His election would tend to restore confidence
in the company, were it not that it is the
general belief that the bottom has not been
reached
No less than s., 24S, 223 was expended in
various forms of charity by the city of New
York in 1882. In 1881 the amount expended
was even greater, but for the two years pre-
ceeding 1881 the expenditures were only up
ward of 81, 100000 A comparison of these
figures with the expenditures for public and
private charities of Brooklyn or Kings
county for the same year is suggestive. New
Yorks population in 1880 was ,206, SIT. The
population of Kings county at the same time
was 500, $40 New York expended in 1880 for
public and private charities S4, $40, 70l, and
Kings county expended in the same year
only S23f, III.
The immigration by way of Castle Garden
has not been SO large last year as it was in
1882 by over 10000 persons. The total ar
rivals reported III 1882 were As, $50, and the
arrivals this year were 3S7 ,63S