New-York tribune., 1888-04-19
ONE PRETENCE ABANDONED.

The Natlonal ClVn service RelOfm League
has appointed its annual gathering for May ~
and 80 In this city, the exercises beginning with
an address by George William Curtis. the Pres
ident. The time is set week before the Dem
ocratio National Convention, probably to save
large number of the members of the League
from the embarrassment of having TO condemn
publicly the course Of President Cleveland
while they arc at the same time trying to find
pretexts for supporting him for reelection.
The exact nature of the gathering has not been
foretold 1t cannot be merrymaking, for MIR.
Godkin has certified as chairman of Reform
Club committee that the present is "a period OF
depresson,n and Mr.. Lowell and others have
echoed the lament II can hardly be called
funeral, even without the baked meats, for
though Civil Service reform is dead, so far as
this Administration is concerned, these gentle
men will probably crown with flowers the can
niba who devoured its fair body for his own
pleasure. The League will probably meet with
what the authors Of cheap fiction call min
gled emotions" and the members are undoubt-
edly wise in so arranging matters that they can
disappear from view before the st. Louis nomi-
nations are made.
"Harpers Weekly" has an article for which
it is safe to hold Mr.. Curtis responsible, and
which states the situation with an approach to
frankness we can hardly hope to see initiated
when the question of supporting Mr.. Cleveland
comes to be considered. He has found, MIR.
Curtis says, that he Is not Sustained by his
party" and so "he yields to the pressure"
"The clean sweep, If not made at the begin
ming of the Administration, will be practically
completed at its end" Mr.. Curtis even goes
so far as to say that not even the Reform law
has been enforced, because the appointment OF
men unfriendly to the law over offices gov
erned by the law, as was done in Indiana, Phil
adelphia and elsewhere, cannot be considered
fair enforcement. "The general result VIII
be, therefore, that the Administration has done
practically nothing to restrain the hand Of
spoils successor" The corollary to this will
probably be that, in spite of all he has done,
Mr.. Cleveland is not spokesman, and, that
Though he has done nothing to " "restrain" his
successor, be can safely be made that successor.
inasmuch as he IS not in need of the restraint
he has failed TO supply. This may be tortuous,
but not too much so for man who joined the
Democratic party within few weeks after max
ing the famous "hungry and thirsty' speech
of 1884.
Mr. Cleveland's Civil Service reform record
is indeed in bad way when MIR. Curtis and
his like are forced by circumstances to make
such admissions as these. 1t is beginning to
be generally understood that no other Presi-
dent since the Inauguration of the Government
has made so clean sweep of the office-holders
within his pewer as MIR. Cleveland. Senator
Halc's figures stated in the Senate early in the
session remain unanswered, either by the
mouths of Democratic Senators or IN the Dem
ocratio press. Events showing the Presidents
that nothing shall stand III the
way of his reelection follow each other so fast
that they no longer attract public attention.
The Benedict-Maynard circular has been issued
in form In which those officers manage to
evade direct responsibility while violating the
spirit of the law, but they stand as high in the
confidence of the President as ever. Senator
Kenna's circular calling on postn1asters to fur
nish lists Of all persons receiving mail, with o
statement Of their politics-something unheard
of under Republican Administrations--calls out
no rebuke from the President. Senator Hales
investigation in Philadelphia showed the most
vulgar and shocking frauds in the examina-
tions. Mr.. Lowering the leader of the Anti
Reform element In Massachusetts,. has just re-
ceived the best appointment in the State, while
Mr.. Treloar, after lifetime of service in the
New York Custom House, has been kicked from
The door, as one would drive away troublesome
street cur. Some of the Civil Service reform
ers, turning to the Republican party for help as
usual, are begging Senator Hale to bring his
committee on to investigate the New-York
Custom House. Meantime Higgins is shout
ing in Maryland for Cleveland's reelection,
and the strange part Of it is that most Of the
so-called Civil Service reformers will probably
be found, in time shouting with him.