Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1888-08-16
The CIVIL SERVICE.
President Cievelsnd's Ensrgctic Attacks
on the Spells System.

President CiereIsnd's Energetic Attacks
on the Spells System. f.
President Cleveland's message on
Civil-Service reform is particularly,
gratifying in showing the material
progress made in that direction, in
spite of many discouraging obstacles. 1t
has taken very long time to impress
upon the public mind the manifold adj
yantages of the reform and the necessity
of such an efficient check to the iniquit-
Gus spoils system, but it has taken
root at last, and can not be eradicated
from the civil service without destroy
ing the party that would attempt to
uproot it. At every step of the con-
siderable extent of territory travelled
over by this reform in the past three
years or more are evidences of the zeal
and vigilance of the Administ -ation.
On no subject has President Cleve-
land been more enthusiastic and ear
nest than on this reform of the civil
service, for he has had abundant ex-
perience to convince him of the iniqui-
ty and danger of the spoils system.
He has seen every branch of the Gov
eminent honeycombed with corruption
when he first took hold OF the -reins of
administration, and men, utterly des-
titute of the most essential qualities
for the offices they hold. living on the
Government because they were useful
at election time. He has seen the
"heeler" and the worker at the polls,
the men who did the dirty work for
the Republican leaders, rewarded with
offices, of the first duties of which they
were profoundly ignorant.
Those relics of Republican malad-
ministration gave. Mr.. Cleveland and
the heads of the departments more.
trouble than all the Office-seekers in
Washington, for an ofice-seeker could.
be held at bay, while the incompa-
tence and treachery of the Republican
barnacles that chung to the offices they
had received as a reward of partisan
service, were calculated to work con-
siderable harm to the good name of the
Democratic government. Mr.. Cleve-
land determined to make the civil
service a monument of the reform
character of his party, and to throw it
open to healthful competition instead of
keeping it, as his predecessors did, as
a reward for party service. He set
about the work diligently and perse-
veringly, making the examinations
eminently practical, instituting promo
ton and banishing favoritism. To him
the country owes the boon of civil
service conducted on the principles
that exist in every well-regulated pri-
vate business establishment.
In no other respect has he been SO
violently assailed by the enemies of
Democracy. The removal, for cause,
of each Republican henchman, who
wore the collar of the boss, who pro-
cured his appointment before 1885, was
followed by grievous howl from the
aforesaid boss and his subsidized or
gans. The Republican press seemed
to unite in the declaration that no
Democrat had any right to Office under
the Government, no matter what his
standing on the Civil-Service Commits
sion might be. Mr.. Cleveland has
steadily carried out to the best Of his
power his intention of making the
Civil-Service something for his party
and the country to be proud of, and
not all the lies of Mr.. Whitelaw Reid
and the rest of the yelping pack can
rob him of the gratitude and esteem of
the American people for inaugurating
such a grand reform During the four
years of his second administration he
will be enabled to complete the good
work and stamp out forever the spoils
system. IN T. ArgAs- ~.