The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-07-28
Partisan Reconstruction of the Civil
Service.


In another column we present to our read
ers this morning an arraignment of President
Clevelands record such as could not, prob
ably, have been made against any other
President Of the United States. The basis
for this arraignment is neither rumor nor
hearsay, nor wholly the statements of parti-
san papers and officials; but simply collec-
tion made by the New York Tribune from
statements which have appeared during the
last three years, principally in Democratic
and independent newspapers. Out of l045
editorials and dispatches quoted as authority
for this arralgnment only 249 are from the
New York Tribune or other Republican
newspapers; while more than three quarters
are from newspapers that are now support
ing Mr.. Cleveland for reelection. This is
not. therefore, an arraignment of Mr.. Cleve-
land from the mouths of his enemies, but
from the tongues of his friends The record
af Mr. Claualand's h-nl,a,, 1.aiaav~s- az. sSz
story. But there is to be drawn from it
lesson and moral which should be kept
before the voters, especially the young
voters, who are to determine by their ballots
this fall whether the government of this
country is to be entrusted for another four
years to the man whose civil service policy
is hyposcrisy and sham. Four years ago
the middle of next month Mr.. Cleveland
issued his letter of acceptance, in which
were these very important paragraphs
The selection and retention of subordinates /.
government employment should depend upon
snelr ascenalned fitness and the value of their
Work, ana they should neither be expected nor
alOWeu 10 DO unquesti0nable party service
The unseemly scramble for place under the gov
embitters official life, win cease: and lie nnhiic
departments viii not be filled by those who con-
which they owe their places. "
In the one paragraph he laid down a prin-
ciple which was to govern his official action
as President; in the other he gave assurance
of the results of the reform which he was to
work. These promises were no inconsider-
ate utterances made in haste to be repented
OF at leisure. They were part of well laid
plan to capture the large Independent vote
which was so necessary to his fortunes in the
doubtful State Of New York There can be
no doubt, either, that Mr.. Cleveland under
stood what he was promising. for, in the
Decemberafter the election of 1884, he said in
his famous letter to Mr.. George William
Curtis:
The lessons of the past should be unlearped.
and such officials, as well as their successors
should be taught that efficiency, fitness and 'de,
continuance in public place and thu. the o uI
and unobtrusive exercise Of Individual nolificai
rights Is the reasonable measure of their party
service - P"'''
And in his letter of acceptance he even
went step further and announced the prop
osition that so great were the temptations
to prostitute the civil service, that Presi-
dent should not be eligible to reelection.
The effect Of these utterances, with the re-
appointment of Postmaster Pearson in New
York, upon the Independent voters is we'll
known; by their hasty and enthusiastic rec
ignition OF Cleveland as a reformer they
bound themselves to his chariot wheels long
before they knew the direction the trium-
phal procession was to take. But even these
Independents cannot overlook a treaehery so
shameless, and we find what was leading
Independent paper in 1884, the New York
Evening Post, declaring in an issue now
about two months old
The painful truth is that we doubt if a single
independent voter in this State OF the thousands
who supported President Cleveland in 1854 any
longer attaches any Importance to the utterances
subject of civil service reform or any LONGER
refuses TO believe that the Presidents promises
anu prOIeSSlonS nave been violated or disre-
garded on great scale with the utmost bold
ness, In sIndry places and in divers manners,
and that men like Judge Maynard and SURVEYOR
Beattie nave actually been detailed or told off to
practice as much civil service abuse as can he
readily concealed or disguised when they are
found out and exposed.
1t is true that the Evening Post and sew
eral other formerly Independent papers are
supporting Mr.. Cleveland this year; but
they are doing it because he is a free trader
and not civil service reformer. They be-
lieve with the London Times and the Lon
don News, and the papers of Sheffield and
Birmingham and Liverpool that freer ad-
mission OF British manufactures is good
paramount to reform or sven common hon
esty in the civil service To such as hold
this opinion it is useless to hold up the scan
dals in the civil service. But to that great
multitude who believe in industrial indepen-
dence and public honesty, Mr.. Cleveland's
civil service record may be left without COM
ment. 1t explains and condemns itself