Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-21
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

agitated the public in the last few years
is that OF civil service reform. Reform
was the campaign cry of 1915, and re-
form was the plank on which Samuel j.
Tilden came so near obtaining the Presi-
dency. Then it was not so much what
is now termed civil service reform as re-
form from the ways OF corruption in Of
fee of which the carpet baggers in the
South were the great lights and leaders.
About the last of this series of political
rings was the st. Louis whisky ring, OF
which Babcock was chief. 1t was during
the trials of the leaders of this
ring that Grant made his famous
remark, "Let no guilty man escape"
There were no guilty men there, as they
all escaped. There has been enough
corruption in Office since then, and some
to spare, but it has greatly lessened; and
however tame and much of temperance
administration Hayes may have had, yet
he did not surround himself with men
whose chief aim was spoils. In this re-
spect he was superior to Arthur, although
Arthur was a much abler man. But the
days of corruption in Office for corruption's
sake are gone, no matter what political
party may rule, nor what the platform
may be. The reform of to-day is in the
theory of office-holding, and the country
at large, at least the greater part, has re-
pudiated the theory of Andrew Jackson
that to the victors belong the spoils.
That theory is pernicious in every
respect, and holds that government is
merely a means of livelihood for those
who may be SO fortunate as to get an
office. 1t teaches that men are but
knaves and that it is blessing that the
others did not get into Office, for they are
so much worse than those who are in,
that the little irregularities which they
commit are really virtuous acts. The
theory of civil service reform is that gov
ernment is regulation and public admin
istration of those affairs in which the
whole community is interested, and that
! in those branches where the administra-
ton of affairs is of purely business
nature and requires the same attention
and ability only as are required in the
business affairs of banks and commercial
! the duties should remain in
their positions during good behavior,
irrespective of a change of party and
policy. 1t was to further and put in prac-
tice this theory that Pendleton introduced
and secured the passage of his civil ser
vice reform bill. 1t was laughed at,
scofed at; called Utopian and pure
Democracy by its opponents, who foretold
its failure, chiefest among whom were the
leaders of the Republican party, although
there were many Democrats who had no
faith in the measure. But the failure did
not come, and the man who carried that
/ banner of reform was placed in the high
est position within the gift Of the Ameri-
can people. To-day there are none who
are invoking its cabalistic power SO much
as those who laughed and scoffed, reviled
at, and revelled in its predicted failure.
Doubtless the theories of that reform
will be carried further than they are now,
and many offices that are now appolntive
will become competitive. But the very
spirit of that reform is that good men are
to be placed in Office as well as retaining
them in office, and where there are those
in the service who are not competent or
are using their Office for other purposes
they should be Immediately removed.
1t is a dream, of which More would never
have thought, to say that under the frre
sponsible rule of twenty-four years, with
no system of selection but that of favorit-
ism, there would be no incompetent men
to remove, and that reform consisted in
never removing them. There are many
good and competent men in Office and
they should be retained, but there
are plenty who are not and they should
be removed; but if men who are no more
competent than they, are to bel put in, the
removal is merely for spoils. Those
officials who are representative of policy
rather than administrators Of public busi-
ness, should be selected for their politi-
cal adherence to the party whose policy
they represent, and they should be men
of the first rank. To this class belong
ministers to foreign courts, heads of de-
partments, governors of Territories and
such like. This is the rule of the civil
service of England, and England, to
great extent, is our model in this respect.
1t is to be hoped that President Cleveland
will select as the representatives of the
Democratic policy those who are Demo-
Gratis, and in harmony with that policy
they do not belong to the clerical class of
and should not be selected on
the basis OF their selection.
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UNTO THE FOURTH GENERATION. |