The Portland daily press., 1885-08-19
OBSTACLES TO OFFICE SEEKERS.

Signs multiply that the Democracy are far
from happy. Indeed very large number of
them are positively miserable The affection
from which they are suffering appears to be
hamilton, the result partly of the sloWness
with which the President deals out the sup
plies, and partly of the cutting off of con-
siderable part of the fodder by the civil ser
vice reform law. Publicly the most of them
express the highest respect for Mr. Cleve-
lands policy. They are shrewd enough to
see that to abuse the President would jeopar-
die whatever chance there is that they will
eventually get what they want and until this
chance is dissipated we shall hear little open
condemnation of the administration. But
there is plenty of suppressed muttering of
discomfort and sometimes, as was the case
in the Cuyahoga convention, it becomes loud
enough to attract the attention of the public
1t is a fact, however, that good part of this
complaint against the President is entirely
unjust Much of the administrations
dilatoriness in turning the rascals OUT
is attributable to lack of agreement
on the part of the Democracy as
to who shall be put in. Take
the Maine offices as an illustration. For sew
the President was ready to turn out the in
cumbents of the relationship and surveyor
ship of this port whenever the Democracy
could agree upon the men he should put in.
Yet they are still haggling over the matter
and are apparently as far from agreement
as ever And what is true of the Port
land offices is equally true of a great
number of offices scattered through the coun-
try. The President has been slow in filling
them with Democrats simply because be
has been anxious to know the wishes of the
Democracy in regard to them, and has not
been able to learn them. This slowness of
the President to which the Mugwumps point
with pride as evidence that he is one of
their sort, is, to very large extent,
due to his anxiety not to appoint men unac-
ceptable to the masses of the Democracy
Whenever the Democracy have agreed in
recommending man for certain office with
very few exceptionsia.vacancy has been Gre
ated forthwith, ,and he has been appointed
to fill it.
The Democratic:quarrel with the Civil Ser
vice law, unlike that with the President is
open and public. While that law is on the
statute book in its present form
and administered by the present com
missioners the Democracy are inexor-
ably cut off from enjoying a consid-
erablepart of the spoils which they believe
rightly belong to them. Accordingly they
are determined to get rid of it altogether or
modify it so that it can do them little harm.
Their hostility to the law becomes more
open daily, and their efforts to impair its eff
cheney holder. Their hunger and thirst are
so acute that they cannot wait for the meet
ing of Congress- They have begun to under
mine it-or to test it as they say-in some
of the larger offices in the coun-
try. The principal attack is being made
in the New York custom house. Collector
Hedden and Surveyor Beattie have compelled
enough designations in the local board of
civil service examiners to leave that board
without the quorum to perform its work.
Until these vacancies are filed the opera
tions of the reform law are brought to a
standstill in the custom house. Under the
Pendleton act and supplementary rules the
collector and surveyor suggest several names