The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-30
PRESIDENTIAL HYPOCRISY.
Making Scapegoats of Obscure "Partisans,S
While Prominent Officials Escape.

Making Scaperoats of Obscure 'Partisanaw
While Prominent Officials Escape.
New York Mail and Express.
If the President stops here in the infection az
punishment for the disobedience OF his orde-,
many people will believe that be removed Mr.
Stone because he spoke against Mr. Black and
for Mr. Beaver. He must have acted on this
case in fit of anger, and the removal of Mr.
Benton was therefore an aTter-thought to con-
ceal the terribly offensive partsanship of Mr.
Stones dismissal It may be that the mugwumn
civilservice reformers will be satisfied with Mr.
Benton's punishment, but to our thinking the
President has thrown very small tub to a very
big whale, for he will be obliged to reckon with
more than the mugwumps; he will have to sat
isfy the whole country, and the country likes
fair play.
If Cleveland intends to inforce his order pro-
hibiting officers of the government from taking
part in political campaigns, he must punish
good many other people. he has before him
charges that are much graver than any which
have been preferred against either Stone or Ben
ton. He is aware. for instance, that one OF his
Ciyil-service Commissioners has been writing
partisan letters falsely asserting that the Repub
lican Commissioners executed the clvi-service act
in partisan spirit He knows that he himself
and his Commissioners connived, by changing
the rules, to help Pensioner Black fiji his Office
with Democratic examiners. he has before him
the charges preferred by Lucius b. Swift, the
leading mugwump of Indianapolis, which was
the home of the dead Vice president. Those
charges have informed him that Aquilla Jones,
postmaster Of Indianapolis. has persistently vio-
lated the civil-service law and the rules which
were approved by Mr.. Arthur and himself; that
there have been wholesale removals OF Re-
publcans and appointments of Democrats in the
postal and internal revenue services or Indiana;
that the railway mail service of the State has
been greatly crippled by the appointments Of
clerks who read with difficulty and know next to
nothing of the geography of the routes over
which they travel and with which they
connect These charges accuse Collector
Kuhn and Postal Clerk James T. Bowling not
only of actively and Extensively working to Sc
cure the denomination of Congressman Bynum,
but of personal corruption, and they contain
specifications against at least thirteen other
Democratic federal officers whose names are
given.
The President has also before him charges
against Assistant Postmaster Crandall, Internal
Revenue Collector Shields and United States
Marshal Gibson, of New Orleans, and he has had
knowledge of all these charges and of the strong
evidence upon which they rest for more than q
month. He must act upon these accusations
be judged guilty of approving of the violation of
his own order. 1t will not be sufficient for dan"
Lamont to announce that An investigation has
been made and the charges shown to be baseless.
Mr.. Lucius B. Swift at all events has higher
reputatlou than "Dan," and his Judgment on this
question will be taken in preference to that OF
the private secretary. If "Dan" is to convince
the public that the President does right In re-
fusing to discharge the of1cers whom we nave
named, he must publish the evidence. The pub
lie prefers Mr.. Swift's and its own judgment to
"Dan's" 1t may be that the private secretary
is interested in embarrassing the accused.
And this brings US to the fact that Dan and
the Secretaries of State and the Treasury, not to
speak of Mr. Villas, without whose aid the illit-
crate postal clerks could not have been employed
in Indiana--all these are objects of suspicion.
"Dan" and Mr.. Manning are supposed to have
asked for Democratic union in our municipal
contest in order that the administration might
be strengthened while Mr.. Bayard did what he
could to help favorite candidate for Congress.
The sins of Democratic Office holders, some of
them very near to the President, are too many
and too great to be wiped out by the dismissal OF
a Republican District Attorney, and q helpless
Democrat in hopeless Democratic State The
tub is altogether too small The whale will
hardly be able to see it. The other offenders,
however high and potent they may be, must be
punished. If they are not, the country will be
justified in concluding that District Attorney
Stone was dismissed for the qualification of Mr..
w. L. Scott.