Morning journal and courier., 1888-01-12
Fiftieth Congress--First Session.

! the afternoon.
 Fiftieth COngress--First Session. r. WASHINGTON, Jan. il. | SENATE-A number of bills were intro duced, among others one for the increase of pension for the loss of an eye to $24 a month.
 ! The resolution offered by Mr. Hale, of Maine, on the twelfth of December for ses | lect committee to examine fully into the present condition of the civil service was taken up, and Mir. Hale addressed the Sen ate in explanation and advocacy of it. He declared that his object in offering it was to secure an investigation, with sincere pur- pose of bringing before Congress the present actual condition of the civil service of the | country, and also the performances of cer- ! tain high and low officials of the govern ment. Both the great parties in 1884 de- clared themselves in their platforms in favor of civil service reform; but as the campaign progressed it was seen that 8 considerable body of men who had been before affiliated with the Republican party had determined to oppose it's candidate and it soon became clear that not only was that body of men bent on opposing the Republican candidate,
 but was looking about for reasons to sup port his opponent. Governor Cleveland, the candidate of the Democratic party
 had not failed to observe this and he accordingly professed adherence to civil service principles in his letter of acceptance. MT. Cleveland's declarations in that respect had their effect. In the close States they had influence enough on the voters to be de- cisive of the result and MT. Cleveland was elected President. MT. Hale quoted from an interview with MT. Cleveland published in Boston in 1885, in which Mir. Cleveland is reported as saying: 'I have tried to be true to my own pledges and to the pledges of my party. We both promised to divorce the office of the country from being used for party services" Here they had as clearly as words could give them the pledges of the ad- ministratien to the civil service reformers He had before him 8 table showing the sweeping changes in all the departments of the government up to the 11th of June 1887. That table showed that out of 2, 379 presidential postmasters there had been 1000 changes; out of 52, ,609 fourth class postmas- ters there had been 40, 900 changes; out of B foreign ministers, 32 changes; out of 21 secretaries of legation, 16 changes; out of Ill collectors of customs, 100 changes; 32 surveyors of customs were all changed; not one of the naval officers remained; of 36 appraisers but 2 remained; of 13 superin- tendents of hints and assay offices there were Il changes; the 9 assistant appraisers were all gone; of the 85 collectors of internal revenue 84 had gone in June last; of the II inspectors of steam vessels were gone; of
 
 65 were changed; of 30 territorial judges Judicial offices) g were changed of territorial governors all were gone of IS pension agents but remained; every one of the 16 surveyors general was gone; of 224 local land officers 190 were gone; of 10 Indian inspec- tors and special agents but one remained; of 59 Indian agents but 8 and of 83 special agents of the general land office but 4. At this time, June, 1887, the Democratic ad- ministration had been but a little over two years in power. Not satisfied (said Mr. Hale) because a small number of officers were still in the hands of old public servants who did not sympathize politically with the new ad- ministration, since that time changes had been going on and he hoped to have in few days further table showing how this con- quering march of the Democratic party in pursuit of office had continued down to the beginning of this year. It could not be said that most of those changes tion of the terms of the incumbents because scrutiny disclosed the fact that nine teen one-hundredths of all the cases where changes had occurred were places where there was no fixed tenure of office, but where the incumbents were removable at the pleas. ure of the President. Secretary Lamar had recently taken occasion to commend John c. Calhoun for his position against the spells sy stem and had felicitated himself on the fact that he belonged to an administration which was carrying out in that respect the principles of Calhoun. And yet the stern facts which confronted the Senate in the de- partment presided over by MT. Lamar were that every territorial governor had been re- moved; also 16 out of IS pension agents; every surveyor general; four-ffths of the local land officers; nine-tenths of the Indian inspectors and agents; 79 out of e3 special agents of the general land office and two thirds of the special examiners in the pen cir k0n1 tr.1 record by his uttered words as against the spells system and posed as reformer. Coming back to the question of presidential postmasters MT. Halsted said that in the little space of time between the adjournment of Congress and the Presidents visit to the Adirondacks he had made 91 re- moyals out of the 223 postmasters who had been left and only one appointment had been made of postmaster to succeed him self. Passing to the question of the partici- patton of federal officials in political conven- tions and elections MT. Hale referred to the meeting of the New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland State committees, at all of which prominent federal officials had been active participants.
 Mir. Hawley asked whether Mir. Hale was sure that there had been no removals in these cases. M
 MT. Hale replied that he9had yet to learn not only of any removals, bat of any censure.
 
 and in no case had there been change made except accidentally or on account of something entirely disconnected with the administration. He did not know a case where the President had put streng hand upon any of these men and made it seem that he wanted to perform what he promised. In fact so gross had be- come the violation of every principle of re- form and of the pledges of the President that even the Evening Post of New York had said of these things that they would be used in the campaign there with terrible effect. The President had not hesitated himself to deal deadly blows at the cause of reform. In this connection MT. Hale referred to the recent municipal election in New York when MT. Fellowes and Mir. Nicon were candidates for the office of district attorney, and in which campaign the papers, the civil service reform associations and merchants and business men had espoused the candidacy of MT. Nicoll He spoke of Mir. Fellowes as an old broken down New York politician whose character was none too high and who had been the crony and beneficiary of Tweed in the days of the worst corruption that ever disgraced New York. Here, he said, was an oppor- tunity for the President to have done some thing in the cause of reform. Here was an opportunity for him to have stretched out his hand to the men of New York who were fighting against corruption and against thieves and robbers and bribe givers and bribe takers in the cause of good government. But those who believed he would do so had been bitterly disappointed. At the great ratification meeting in New York city under the patronage of Tammany for the purpose of ratifying the nominations. letter had been read from MT. Cleveland regretting his inability to be present and ex- pressing the hope that every candidate on that excellent ticket of the united Democra- cy might be triumphantly elected But the President had not stopped with his letter read to the ratification meeting. He had written another to Mfr. Edward Cooper say- ing the newspaper clippings sent him did not amount to enough even to raise doubt con cerning his desire for the success of both the State and city local tickets of the united Democracy. It was that letter which led