The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-14
a DISCREDITABLE HABIT.
Recommendations for Once Easily Pro-
cured and Generally Worthless.

cured and Generally Worthless.
President Cleveland's severe criticism
on the facility with which the signatures
of prominent persons are secured to the
petitions for applicants for Office viii,
we hope, tend to remedy hab t that is
misleading and discredita5le. We say
habit. because signatures to petitions of
this character are given generally with
ont reflection and as if the giving of
them was only mater of form. rather
than from any dispO to tritle with
the appointive power 1t appears I'M
gracious to most citizens to refuse a
signature that involves only barren
recommendation, and so it has come to
pass that ''numerouSly signed petit
ton for Office is very easy thing to Sc
cure. requiring only the energy neces-
sary for its circulation, and is generally
regarded as amounting to nothing when
it is obtained. This way of looking at
such recommendations may furnish
some excuse for those who carelesSly
sign such documents, but it does not
prevent the misleading conse Guences of
their acts. All officials from the Presi-
dent down, who are charged with the
power of appointment, are neces-
sarily compelled to place some reli-
ance on the written recommendations
of applicants and they have right to
presume that the signers thereto testify
to the truth and of their personal
knowledge. And yet in many, we
might say most, instances the reverse is
really the truth; the signers do not teS-
tify to the truth, nor are the statements
in the petition in accordance with their
personal knowledge. There is no inten-
ton probably to falsify or mislead, but
there is a carelessness as to results or
moral cOwardice which will not permit
a refusal of a signature, although the
applicant is known to be unworthy,
either of which deserves to be stigma
TIED as political dishonesty. If the re-
port is true that President Cleveland
has appointed a South Carolina Repub-
Gcan to be Consul-General at Melbourne
and that the petition of the applicant
contained the names of Democratic
Senators and other distinguished party
colleagues of the President, che fact will
be forcble illustration of the incongru-
Gus recommendations too often en-
braced in such petitions. Whether such
an appointment was made with a full
knowledge of the facts or not
will not alter the case so far as
the distinguished Democrats who
recommended the man are concerned.
They got what they asked tor, and ii
they do not like it they must lay the
blame on their own want of care and
rectitude in signing petitions for Office.
Without. however, placing much reli-
ance in the story about this particular
appointment, it is evident, from the
Presidents statements in connection
with the Postmastership at Rome, n. Y,
that he has been confused and worried
by unmeaning recommendations. and
that he does not pay as much attention
to petitions and the names signed there
to as petitioners generally suppose.
What he has said on the subject is
known in every State in the Union to be
true; and if it induces citizens of intiu-
ence and standing to be somewhat
more careful in granting their sigma
lures to petit onS needed reform will
have been set on foot. All that is re-
quired is that recommendations shall
be based upon personal knowledge of
the applicants or other thoroughly re-
liable information, and that the petit
ti0nS of unworthy or unfit persons shall
not bear Endorsements calculated to de-
ceive or miSlead the official to whom they
are addressed. Louis Republican.