The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-03-21
HOWARD ON POLITICS.
The Empire State the Key to the Polit:-
cal Lock of Democratic Supremacy.
Mr.. Cleveland the Figure-head, Manning
and Whitney the GO-betweens, and
Tilden the Real President,
Howard in Phild. Sunday Press.

N-'O
Horard in Phila. Sunday Press.
New YORK, March Al have been
looking with a great deal of interest a.
the anxious faces of two classes of
men. We have a Republican post
master in New York City, and have
had for a great many years. When
Garfield came into power he ignored
the Conkling element hereabouts and
made terms, as he supposed, for him
self and his Administration, not only
by calling MIR. James, then the post
master of New York, into his Cabinet,
but by appointing James son-in-law,
Pearson, his successor. l don't like
Pearson personally, and l don't know
anyone who does, but he has made a
good postmaster, because he had sense
enough to follow out the programme
laid down and established by his father
in-law, whose chief assistant he was.
suppose the best Illustration of first
class tyranny in all the world, Siberia,
the Sandwich Islands and the British
Navy thrown in, can be found in the
brown-stone building, universally called
here the Postoffice, the technical dis
tinction of which l believe to be the
federal building" From all l can
gather the men are over-w worked and
badly treated, under-paid and often
sively disciplined. Nothing stands be-
tween them and starvation but the
whlm and caprice of the Postmaster,
whose favorites are potential, whose
methods are not those which COM
mend themselves to good-fellowship.
Nevertheless he has persuaded this
community, as James did before him,
that the present system is the most
serviceable and best equipped possible
under the circumstances, and with a
record endorsed, l have reason to be-
lieve, by every substantial merchant in
the city, he calmly presents himself,
clad in suit of civil service reform,
and virtually challenges President
Cleveland to supplant him by another
when his term of office expires.
There are two ways of looking at this
of course. If Pearson is good post
master, and thousands testify him so to
be, why should he not be retained, and
if he be retained, why shouldn't Col
lector Robertson, and SO on, through
the entire list? Well, now, the answer
one would suppose, on a common
sense basis, would be clear enough.
Pearson may be a good postmaster,
and, grant that he is, is there no Demo-
crat in all this great state just as COM
petent, just as likely to prove accep-
table as he? To which the rejoinder is
just as apt, civil service reform re-
quires the retention of officials so long
as they do their work acceptably to
the public. The pressure upon Cleve-
land in this respect is simply tremen-
dous. No man who isn't there to see
it, no man himself unsolicited to ten
sions of this kind can appreciate it. The
Democrats from one end of the coun-
try to the other have their eyes on the
New York Postoffice. On the other
hand. the disgruntled Republicans
hereabouts claim that, without them
Mr.. Cleveland would not have been
elected, and we who sit upon the calm
horizon of observation indorse their
assertion.
SOME sHREwD MANAGEMENT.
Pearson managed his cards very ad-
roitly. He refused to give the men a
holiday that they might vote and work
and when Republican candidate for
mayor was put up here James, the
Postmaster's father-in-law, turned hi,
influence dead against him, and did
all he could to insure the election Of
William r. Grace. Grace reciprocates
the courtesy shown him by James, and
is working very hard for Pearson
There is the first battlefield, there the
first skirmish will be had, and upon
Cleveland's manipulation of this pc
culiarly delicate and embarrassing sit
uation will hinge very much of his
popularity as president, and consid-
cradle Of his availability as a candi-
date tor reelection. Pearson person
ally is of no earthly consequence. The
position is of great consequence. But
as stepping-ston to the plane where
on we must stand for a clear apprecia-
ton of Cleveland, both Pearson and
the position become of great signif-
canoe. Cleveland is politician. His
Cabinet isn't regarded strong by any
body. Nevertheless for his purposes
it is peculiarly strong. Manning is a
state politician, Whitney is loca
politician both are puppets in the
hands of Samuel ]. Tilden, and so i:
Cleveland. Mr.. Tilden has made UP
his mind that success in the future de.
ponds very largely upon the complex
ion of politics in this city next Fall
He has given instructions to Manning
and to Whitney to shape everything
toward the election of a Democratic
governor for New York next Fall. The
applicants for the candidacy are le-
gion.
First naturally turns up the present
incumbent Governor Hill, man who
under ordinary circumstances, would
never be selected for so exalted posi-.
ton. There he is, however, and i am