Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-05-06
The Administration and the Civil Service.

Under the above heading, the N. Y.
Herald of the 1st inst, contains an elabo-
rate editorial, from which we make the
following lengthy extract
1T has been reported of late that extern
slve removals are in contemplation, and
this raises the question, interesting to all
friends OF reform, on what theory these
removals will be made. We are confident,
from a careful study of the Presidents va
rlous utterances on this matter, that they
Will De made for reasons entirely satistac-
tory to the friends of reformed Civil Ser
vice; that they will be a rightful and nee
essary purgiDg of the service of men who
ought not to be there.
First-We think no reformer will COM
plain if the President shall remove all Off
Gals who in the last campaign and since
the adoption of the CIVIL service law gave
money for party purposes, or became the
instruments for collecting or discussing
party contributions, or who left their off
clal duties, whether ON the pretext of va
cation or not, to engage in partisan work,
speech making, attending conventions,
bosslng caucuses or what not Men who
thus gave part of their salaries drawn from
the Treasury or the influence of their
plac t. partisan work ought to be re-
moved.
Of course the country will expect the
President 10 warn those whom he puts into
the places thus vacated that they also must
carefully abstain from such partisan work,
and we have no doubt that he will do this.
Second-We imagine he will make a
great many removals from offices in the
Southern States. He ought to. The fede-
raj office-hol1ers in those States are, al
most as a body, implicated in the odious
carpet bag misrule. they have been Sc
lected almost entirely since the war-not
because they were honest or reputable men,
but because they were INSCRIPTIONS parti-
sans and manipulatOrs of the colored vote.
They have been part of the vast criminal
maladministration in most of those States
very often the leaders in it-and conse
quently they have not the respect and con-
tidence of the people among whom they
live. Where there are good and true men,
honest and capable, who have done their
duty and abstained from politics while in
office i'll those States, they ought not to be
removed; but in our belief not a large
number of such will be found. The 9th
ers ought to be removed.
But in these cases also the country will
expect the President to warn those he ap
points that they must rigidly abstain from
partisan work.
Thrd-The question remains What
manner of men will the President choose
to put into the offices thus vacated? That
he will try 10 select honest and competent
men goes without saying. But we hope
he will aim at something more besides
this. If he has a political faith of his
own, if he intends TO favor given policy
IN public affairs, he has an undoubted
right to prefer for Office under him such
men as agree with him. He can scarcely
do otherwise without being false to his own
convictions. We hold, therefore,
FOarth-That, as he is friend of sound
finance, he ought to take care not to ap-
point to Office anywhere fat-money men or
unlimited greenbackers. He ought not to
appoint any man to office who does not re-
gard with horror or disgust the recent le-
BARTENDER decision of the Supreme Court,
the most scandalous and dishonest decision
any high court has uttered i'll this country
since the formation of the government.
FJM-The Democratic party is pledged
to a genuine reform of the tariff. In our
judgment the President ought not to ap-
point To office any one who does not posi-
lively favor tariff reform.
Sirth-W henever, therefore. citizen is
to be appointed to office we should like to
know that the President, or the Cabinet
officer selecting him, has ascertained not
only that he is honest and competent, but
also that he is a. Democrat on these points
that he IS IA friend of civil service re-
form; that he j. a believer in a sound me-
tallic currency, or paper based on coin, and
that he is supporter of tariff reform.
In making these tests the President will
do very great service not only to his par
tY. but to the cnnntrv -