Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-08-12
WHAT AN OFFENSIVE PARTISAN IS


The question of what is and what is not
an offensive partisan is being discussed
very extensively nowadays. An often
sive partisan may be termed one who
has far more interest and solicitude for
the success of his party than for the
proper and honest discharge of the duties
pertaining to his office. An offensive
partisan is one who makes fidelity to his
oath ofofice secondary to fidelity to party.
Such is an offensive partisan. The doc
trine, in a representative Republican
government, that "to the victors belong
the spoils," is the most pernicious doc
trine ever started; it has degenerated
into the doctrine of the corsair, and an
election has come to mean loot. The
ordinary Offices of government, the duties
Of which have nothing whatever to do
with the policy of party, should be en-
tirely removed from the domain of poll
tics, and admission to them should be had
through the competitive system, and to
him who has shown the greatest merit as
determined by a competitive examina-
ton should be given the place. Offensive
partisans, no matter what the complex
ion OF their politics, should be the last
men to be placed in Office. But it is
claimed that man who has no interest
in his party has no interest in his govern
ment. Under the scramble-for-office sys-
tenn he is far more liable to care every
thing for his party and nothing for the
Government. The purely business part of
the government should be put upon apure-
ly business basis, the same as the affairs
of private individuals. Such a course
would greatly facilitate public affairs, and
would entirely do away with the ques-
ton of offensive partisans. If offensive
partisans of the Republican party are to
be removed to make places for offensive
partisans of the Democratic party, it is
wrong no matter by whom done. But
offensive partisans should be removed
just the same, although many will cry
out that it is wrong to remove men who
have shown their devotion to their coun-
try by seeking to advance the ideas and
interests of their party.
An editorial in the August Century puts
the matter of appointment to minor offices
upon its proper basis, and we give an ex-
tract from it as putting the case plainly
and as it is:
"The obvious remedy is to extend the
system of impartial selection to all places
except those by which the policy of the Ad-
ministration is shaped. But before this can
be done, there must be rooted out of the
public mind the notion that any public place
can properly be bestowed as the reward of
partisan service. The great administrative
Offices must be filled by adherents of the
dominant party, not to reward them for
of the majority of the people, as
expressed at the polls may be ex-
ecuted. But, in any broad public
view, it is a matter of utter indifference
whether the men who fill the minor minis
terial, clerical, and laboring places belong to
one party or the other. There is no differ
ence in principle between the services re-
quired of civil officers and those performed
by officers of the army and navy. All that
is required in either case is honesty, capacity
and trained obedience to the Constitution,
the laws, and the lawful orders of their su-
periors. The Jeffersonian test covers the
whole ground: is he honest, is he capable,
is he faithful to the Constitution
"The chief obstacle to the extension of the
merit system is the fact that for twenty-four
years the public offices have been monopo-
hzed by one political party. 1t was to be
expected that the opposition party on COM
ing into power should wish to fill at least
part of those places with its own adherents.
But il is plain that some check must be
placed on the qualification of this wish, if
we are to get any efficient work in the line
of 'retrenchment and reform out of the
present Administration. After the division
of the public offices between the two parties
has been in some degree equalized, there
will be the best opportunity that has ever
occurred of putting the whole public service,
from high to low, the few great admins
trative offices alone excepted, on per-
manent non-partisan footing. To accom-
plish this, the lower grade in every branch
of the service must be thrown open to i'm
partial but searching competitive examin-
ations, and all of the higher places, up to
the very top, must be filled by the promotion
of meritorious subordinates. This is the
natural, logical, and, as we believe, inevit-
able outcome of the civil service reform
movement. Whether this goal can be
reached in one administration remains to
be seen; but when it is reached, one of the
greatest political revolutions that this coun-
try has ever seen will have been accom-
plished. Our elections will then no longer
be mere scrambles for the spoils of Office,
but, what our theory of government intends
they shall be, pure contests of principle"
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