The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-09
Mr., FsuiKe,s ADDRESS Last Evening.

room. Professor Parr, of DePauw University.
and Professor Woodward, of the State Univer-
sity. made brief remarks in reference to the or
aanization and condition of the auxiliary So
cieties at those places.
Hon. William Dudley Fouke, president of the
State association, delivered the annual address.
He started with the proposition that, inasmuch
as the whole people pay taxes for the support Of
the government and all are alike interested its
well being, it ought to be administered for
the benefit of the whole people, and
not for the benefit of one political
party alone. He also laid down the
principle that civil-servce reformers insist upon
That in appointments so Office, as in the manage
ment of all public affairs 1t ia far better to rely
upon system of fixed laws and rules wherever
they can be made applicable. than the mere dis
erection of those in authority. Experience with
boards of trustees and even with presidents and
postmaster generals is the same and it is better
to establish certain fixed rules to control ap-
pointments than to leave the power any longer
to their purely arbitrary will. 1t is simple jus
tice that the man who knows best how to per-
form the duties Of an office should have q chance
of showing his qualifications. The opportunity
should be equally open to all. This is nothing
but simple democratic equality principle with
out any aristocratic ingredient in it.
Mr. Foulke paid attention to the civil-service
inquiry into the Indianapolis postof6ce as coz
Quoted by AQuilla Jones' and showed the spirit
in which that officer had administered his trust,
setting the Pendleton act at defiance He
showed the condition of the Hospital for the
Insane. and exhibited clearly the fact that DR..
Harrison had allowed the most important allega
tons against his misconduct in the trust to go
unrefuted. He showed the clean sweep that
had been made in Indiana in which there had
been every possible violation of the civilservice
act; that requests were frequently made respect
ing the charges against discharged public serv
ants and an opportunity for investigation. but
no opportunity given, were the charges
disclosed. Frequently the accuser is rewarded
for his secret Islander by appointment to the
Office
In conclusion he sad
Civil service reform has firm foundation,
both in reason and actual experience and we
have had little difficulty in persuading the
prejudiced who have had leisure and opportuni
ty to study the doctrine ard examine its practi-
cal working in places where it has been tried.
Thus it makes Roadway rapidly in our education
al institutions. The instructors III our colleges
generally are on our side. The two civil-service
reform clubs in Indiana outside of the State as
ISOLATION, one at Bloomington and one at Green
castle, both university towns, sustained
largely from the faculty and students of Indiana
and DePauw universities. This promises much
good in another generation, but it is only the
commencement of our great work of spreading
the propaganda through the State. The bulk of
the people. those who follow the plow, and the
workmen in our factories, are not yet fairly
AWAKE w LHo u0CSSSlby OL CIVIL S0EVlC0 E6IOILu.
nor do they see its advantages to them and their
children. Now, unless we can reach that broad
substratum of popular feeling upon which our
political institutions resi- we can have no perma-
nent foundation for civil-service reform. Be-
fore the lasting growth of our principles can be
assured they must be deeply rooted in the soil.
The great body of the people must believe in
them or they are not safe. And 1t is not enough
merely to secure the assent of intellect They
should become moving, animating principle:
1f
part of the farmers patriotism; they
sense as the common school system
and the jury trial. they should be held by him in
the same kind of religious generation with which
he regards the principles for which his brother
died quarter of century ago, when he lays
his flowers and tears together upon THAI brothers
grave. They must stand side by side in the imag-
nations of his heart with all the bright thoughts
which cluster around the sacred name of his
country They must be united in his spirit with
those liberties which he loves so well and which
they are necessary to perpetuate With every
thought of his country's honor there should
blend some recollection even unknown to him
self, of that wise and just.system by which alone
his country's honor can be preserved from the
greed of the spoilsmen and the corrupt
ing power of the ambitious and self seeking.
When we have imbedded all these things in the
great, honest heart of the country, then, and not
till then, is civil-service reform at all secure.
We must plow deep into the soil of patriotic
feeling. Professors might demonstrate and
statesmen argue; but it not until the great
heart of England was awakened by the gaunt
form of famine, and Bright and Golden lit with
the torch of their indignant eloquence the pict-
ures of the thousands who were starving from a
hunger created by merciless statute that the
corn laws were repealed The great power
which still moves the community is not mere
naked reason, but earnest feeling. Until we
touch the heart, our talk is but sounding brass
and tinkling cymbal.