Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-07-22
The Reform Trayesty.

i President Cleveland has written an
other finely phrased letter by way of re
minding the country that the screaming
farce of "Civil Service Reform" still
holds the boards. After the very ma.
merous and convincing evidences which
have been furnished by the practical pol
iticians who have been parceling out th'
Offices in the interests of the Democracy
and according to the time-honered spoil;
system, this epistle notifying his subor
dinates against making any attempts t.
control political movements is really re-
freshing. Were it not for the fact thai
every body knows that the officeholder;
by Mr.. Clevelsnd's appointment never
fail to embrace every opportunity to ex
ert their influence in behalf of the Dem
ocratic party. many might be led to be,
| lieve that the President was really in
earnest and actually imagined himself
as the center of a great reform move
ment that was ramifying throughout the
entire country.
While the facts remain as they are
while the heads of departments whom
Mr.. Cleveland has so innocently warned
against even the appearance of "offen
sive partisanship" are suffered without
rebuke to trample the Civil Service law
and rules under foot-letters like the
one now under consideration will de-
ceiye nobody. To write as though civil
service reform was being faithfully and
scrupulously carried out in all its de-
tails. and then to shut his eyes, as Mr..
Cleveland has done, to the most persist
ent ard fragrant violation of every es'
sential principle of that reform. is self
qualification of which even a ward poll
ticisn should be ashamed.
Mr.. George William Curtis, the leading
representative of civil service reform
sentiment, had very tersely and vigor'
ously criticised Mr.. Cleveland's letter
before it had appeared in print. While
the President was getting into shape his
latest attempt to bolster up his hypocrit-
ical professions, the Mugwump editor
had contributed to the columns of his
journal some pertinent views on civil
service reform in general and in the New
York custom house in particular. Re-
ferring to what has been recently devel-
oped in New York, Mr.. Curtis says:
There can be no reasonable doubt that
its spirit and purpose have been habit>
ually and Intentionally outraged in the
management of the Custom house, to
the extreme discredit of the President
and the prejudice of the reform ITSELF"
This is strong language coming from
one who did so much to elect Mr.. Cleve-
land and who has been exceedingly re-
luctant to charge him with insincerity,
much less with studiously refusing to
rebuke or punish those who were casting
discredit upon him. But Mr.. Curtis does
not stop there. He reminds his readers
that Mr.. Oberly, who had been appointed
by the President Civil Service Commits
sioner, is himself zone of the most active
of Democratic partisan politicians" and
that his first public act in displacing Re-
publican members of the New York ex>
amining board has had this effect: "All
the distractions which honest believers
in the reform system may have inter-
posed to practical spoils course are now
removed. If the situation in the New
York custom house under Collector
Hedden has been brought to the atten-
tion of the President, he knows that it
is the merest travesty Of reform"
Does anybody believe that the Presi-
dent is not fully advised as to the situa-
tion of affairs in the principal Office in
the country and In his own StateP He
knew ali about Mr.. Hedden's puppet
performances at the dictation of BOSS"
Thompson, and Mr.. Curtis is driven to
this melancholy conclusion :-"If the
President believes that civil reform is
honestly carried out in the New York
Custom house, it would be impossible to
persuade him that it is disregarded ev.
cry where. and equally impossible to per-
suade the sincere friends of reform that
he does not tolerate the most defiant and
contemptuous conduct on the part of his
subordidates. Pitts. Com. Gazette.