Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-03-08
ONE YEAR OF DEMOCRATIC
REFORM.

note now Tar the peflOI uaHce HAS
warranted the extragant advertise
ment. 1t was first promised that the
department at Washington were to
renovated. Swarms of inefficient or
unnecessary clerks and employees,
the henchmen of republican congress-
men, were to be driven out, and the
places which knew them were 10
know no successors. A few were
discharged, but are their places now
empty? Has the service been i'm
proved by dismlssing the heads of
bureaus who had worked their ways
up by years of industry and putting
in their places men who had claims
upon the party OF upon democratic
congressman? Has it improved the
public service to dismiss chief clerks
and then give them subordinate
places in order that they may render
the men who take their places as
sistance in the discharge of their du-
ties? Who has noticed any evidence
of reform in the estimates made by
the democratic heads of departments
for the maintenance of their branch
es of the service? Wherein has the
character and efficiency of the for
eign and consular service been i'm
proved? Has the internal revenue
been better collected by an entire
change in the collectors? Has the
efficiency and character of the reyen-
ue service been promoted by the
dismlssing of large number Of
special agents who had made high
reputation for efficiency, and putting
men of no experience and capacity in
their places, as has been done in in
stances which can be cited? Is that
the promised reform under which
thousands of railway postal clerks
have been removed to make room
for fresh men, thereby seriously i'm
pairing the efficiency of the service
in many states? Reform was prom
ised in the Navy department, and a
leading mugwump a few months ago
declared in The organ of the civil
service association that the patron
age of the Kittery Yard has become
the property of a prominent New
Hampshire democrats this reform !?
| Is reform another name for the treat
ment of John Roach? In Vermont it
is asserted that the reform collector
of customs cut down the number of
subordinates so that the office would
no longer fall under the civil service
rules and subsequently has applied
for larger force, thereby making
places which may be filled with dem
ocrats-is that sample of this new
tangled reform? Such men as Sena-
tor German of Maryland are per-
mitted to fill Federal offices with
such men as Thomas and Higgins
men denounced by civil service re.
formers for political and persona
offenses-is this the sort of reform
which the country is called upon tt
applaud? A few democrats in Bos
ton request it, and village post-office:
are put into the hands of persons
who are objectional to the resident
thereof-is this q feature of the re
form? In more than one large tow
in Massachusetts the man asked 70
: by the democrats has been passe,
by and one selected by the tow
committee or few managers ha
received the post-mastnrship-is thi
democratic reform? The president
in his recent message to the senate
: declares that he is trying to improv
5 the civil service Was he trying t
t do it when, in a Massachusetts tow
he made q man bred in a liquor ST
loon the successor of a woman VIII
i gave general satisfaction, or whel
: in another town, a well-to-do demo
i crat was selected to succeed a ont
{ legged soldier with whom no fau
y was found? For months scanda
e affecting the character of attorne
general and the administration
p the office have circulated fiom OF
y end of the country to the other al
d been condemned by many of Il
" presidents supporters, and yet Il
q administration makes the offense
70 owns this an offshoot of the I
form which came with the democrat
is and Mr.. Cleveland ?-Boston JOo
nal.