The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-11-23
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM,

There is no small amount of specula-
ton over what President-elect Harri-
sons policy as to the civil service Will
be. The Mugwumps, those dastardly
deserters of the Republican ship in its
time of need, are just now very profuse
IN their admiration ofGeneral Harrison,
and tt amount oftaffv they are bestow-
ing upon him shows that they believe
they may induce him not to run a Re-
publican administration when he is IN
stalled into Office. In this expectation,
which they so much court. the Mugs.
will meet disappointed. The Chicago
Inter- Ocean very forcibly points out how
much consideration these deserters,
who started out to reform Democracy,
deserve from the straight-out Republi-
can administration which will be inaug-
urated next March. 1t says:
If the cause of civil service reform
were dependent upon the helpful friend
ship of the Mugwumps it would now be
lost cause, If such men as George
William Curtis and his confreres had
started out in the summer of 1884 to do
all In their power to retrograde the
movement which at once eliminated in
and was accelerated by the civil-service
act, they could not have planned more
sagaciously. 1t is not too much to say
that the cause was bound up in and con-
ditioned upon the success of the Repub-
lican party. In preferring professions to
performance, empty promises to actual
work, the Mugwumps put it beyond
their power to render any further SER
vice to the cause they so ostentatiously
espouse. The less prominence they
have during the next four years the bet
ter it will be for the end they claim to
have in view. 1t is highly important
that this fact should be appreciated by
them.
No one of the millions of Republicans
who voted for Harrison believes for a
moment that he will plunge into revo-
lutionary movements in the direction of
the civil service or any other part of
the government. They have faith that
he will make as good President as the
country ever saw, and are willing to
trust to him to put stop to the miser-
able fraud of reform" based on hypo-
crisy and deceit.
The Inter- Ocean also makes some ex-
cellent suggestions as to what the
country needs as regards civil service
policy, and the sentiments expressed
are so clear and sensible that we believe
our reader will agree with us that this
editor has a clear understanding of
what is needed. He says:
So far as possible these marplots Mug
wumps) ought to be ignored and forgot
ten and the policy adopted which will
give the country the best civil service
without regard to them. Whatever is
be promoted, irrespective of the faint
put upon it by STOOL friends" General
Harrison and all his administration
should rise above prejudice. But it is
not for the interest of the country that
either the Chinese or the English sys-
] tenn should be adopted. This is a gov
eminent of the people, and we want no
office-holding class. What the Ameri-
can Nation demands is civil service
that shall be efficient, honest intelligent,
and economical, with every man in 1t
feeling that he is still part of the gem
eral mass of the population, and not a
charter member of some guild. So far
as the original reform movement was an
attempt to graft upon the National tree
a twig of aristocracy fitly belonging to a
monarchy, but not in keeping with Re-
publican Institutions, it ought to fail.
There are good reasons why army and
navy officers, also the judges of our Fed
eral courts, should be appointed for life
or good behavior, but those reasons do
not extend to the general machinery of
the government, and could not be 80 ex-
tended without being to that extent an
abandonment of the very first principle
of government by the people.