Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-04-10
THE PRESIDENTS MISTAKES.
How He Has Failed to Fulfill His Civil
Service Reform Pledges.


From the York Evening Post lDcm.)
What the Evening Post thinks about the
course of the Administration either in Mary
land or Indiana has never been concealed
The Preside Is mistakes in both states have
been very serious. They have been based
on the idea. which we believe is President
Cleveland's own, that the Civil Service
ought to be reformed on sort of local
option plan that is, that in states in which
the reform sentiment was strong the spois-
men were to be resisted, but that in states in
which the reform sentiment was weak they
ought 10 be allowed to have their way The
result has been, both in MARYLAND and
Indiana, most shameful decentralization of
the public service.
That this is not what he promised when
elected, and that it is not what Mugwumps
and other rcformers expected when they
supported him, We fully admit Moreover,
that it has been, as a mere matter of party
policy, n very great blunder. we have not
the slightest doubt. We believe that the
loss of Indiana To the Democrats next fall
has been made very probable by the scandals
and abuses in the Government service which
the Administration has permitted or counived
at. We believe. moreover that the hold of
the Democratic party on the Government
will never be made secure. except through
the adoption Of Civil Service policy, without
IFS, or butts or exceptions. 1t is not Il matter
on which any President can stand up before
the American people crying Good Lord" in
one State and Good Devir' in another.
promoting purity in one place and giving
rsscals full swing in another fifty miles away
The thing is absurd on its face Horse
sense" is enough 10 kill such a policy, even
II love of righteousness did not do it.
In view of the magnitude of the otiense
which have been committed by the present
National Executive the above is certainly
q mild indictment and very inadequate
statement of facts. Instead of acting ON
the "Good Lord" policy in one State, and
"Good Devil IN another, the President
and his associates have carried out the
"Good Devil' policy all around wherever
they have thought immediate partisan ends
could be subserved. SO anxious is the
President for denomination aud for the
placement of his partisans in power that
his has been one of the most proscriptive
administrations the country has ever
realized, The more than 10000 removals
OF hepunilCanS from once, anu ms open
and often secret leagues with the
most notorious bosses and spoils-
men of the land prove this.
Where Democratic prospects are hopeless
and nothing is likely to he lost by civil
service professions and uon-partisan APP
pointments, he has tried to please his
Mugwump supporters, hoping to use them
rs decoy ducks as he did in the election
contest of 1884. The real truth is now be-
coming apparent to the entire country,
that the Bourbon Democrats and the Free
Traders have an obedient and unscrupu-
lous servant in Grover Cleveland. What
most troubles the Mugwumps of the Post |
and Times school, is that he has so COM
pletely unmasked himself before the 1
American people that the prospects of his /
reelection are little encouraging, and that /
with his defeat British Free Trade will be
brought into popular contempt.