New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-06-23
REFORMv TESTED AGAIN..

Very soon. we are told with delight by Il
Democratic iournal. there will not be left a
s;ngle Renublican collector of internal revenue
in the country. Within ninety days the new
Commissioner has already managed to put OUT
sixty of the eighty -four collectors III the Uniteu
States. He has put in some men who are goou'
and some men who are passable, ana others
who are entirely worthless but in one respect
they are all alike. They are all Democrats
without experience or knowledge OF the ousi-
ness they have undertaken. And this is re-
FORM"
One could understand it, and perhaps even
sympathize with il, if there were real change
for the better in the character of the service.
But there is not. Many of the men who have
been put out of Office were gentlemen Oh
superior ability and worth and in addition had
long experience in the service, perfectly under.
stood its requirements, and had demonstrated
their efficiency in collecting the revenue at Il
very low rate OF cost. In place OF them the
country has new officials who have yet to learn
the business, and who will not be better ac-
ouainted after years of experience with all the
tricks and devices by which the payment OF
revenue is evaded than the men are whose
places they have taken. Assuming that they
ale equally honorable and Jealous, there is not
one chance in hundred thai they Will he found
equally efficient Had the new Administration
confined itself to the removal OF the lew
officials who we're thought to have abused their
trust or who had been found lacking IN force
or in thoroughness, that would have been a
real reform. Instead the very best men III the
service have been put out, and some who were
not the best vet remain.
The one excuse given for these changes is
that the officials who held Office under RepuDli-
can Administrations were most of them active
partisans. But has the service been Improved
in that respect Does it appear, III single IN
stance that an active partisan has been re-
moved aud "a man who is not an active partisan
has been appointed hat is not the fact.
The men who have been put into Office are
notorious as Jealous and many of them as I'M
scrupulous Democratic partisans. There has
been not the least effort to make a selection OF
men not active in party work. Indeed, there
has not been in the reorganization OF tins
branch of the service even the thin pretcnce OF
a desire to take the service out OF craftsmanship.
On the contrary. in nearly every case the new
officials have been selected because OF their
previous effectiveness, burning zeal, and proved
unscrupulOusnesS In the service OF Ihc Dciho-
cratic party. The choice of the Administration
has fallen upon them, and not upon other per-
sons. because it was believed that they would
use the service with more force and with less
scruplc than other people for the benefit OF the
President and his party. a single illustration
suf'ices.
Does any one imagine that Ebcn +. Pills
bury, of Maine, was put into the Internal
Revenue Office in Massachusetts for any other
purpose than to do the political work OF Cleye-
land and Manningl lie had been for years
chairman of the Democratic State Committee III
Maine and there had organized and carried out
the most Infamous fraud ever perpetrated in
Northern State, by which the will OF the people
was completely defeated and throughout his
whole career has manifested disregard Tor
decency in the pursuit of political ends such as
few men even among Democratic partisans have
shown. Does any man doubt that it was pre-
cisely for this reason that he was selected to
take charge of the service i'll the State OF Massa-
chuSeffS