Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-07-05

We shall see.
 THE BOSS PLEDGE BREAKER.
 President Harrison has proved himself the boss pledge breaker of American politics. His record in the white house has been one continuous round of repu diation of promises and utterances made in the past. Especially is this the case in reference to his attitude towards civil service reform.
 In 1888, when the republican senate of the United States tried to put President Cleveland in a hole by compelling him to furnish reasons for the removals he made in the civil service, Benjamin Harrison was particularly blatant in his protests against policy ''that is,' as he claimed. "without precedent, and that will be without imitation-a policy of stimula- ting and receiving secret charges against the reputation of men, of denying to the accused any access to knowledge of the charges, and of acting upon these charges in the dark" President Harri- sons method of making removals has been to disregard even the formal cour- tesies of correspondence that gentlem en employ, to give the most abrupt notice of removal and to give the democratic official neither opportunity nor possibil- ity of knowing the reasons for his dis missal. Wherein does his practice differ from the methods he so glibly denounced to make himself solid with his constit- uents? In the course of the same address Mir Harrison denounced the alleged vio- lation, by President Cleveland, of a pledge to officeholders ''that if they had discharged their public duties conscien- tiously and we'll they might hold their offices until the end of their terms" !" And in his letter of acceptance he assert ell that, ''in appointments to every grade and department, fitness and not party service should be the essential and dis eliminating test,' and that "only the in terests of the public service should sug- gest removals from office." President Harrison is now engaged daily in violating that pledge, and in nine ap- PoAASACAGo OuG oA tCIA CAC llc to his promises and leaving himself open to the same charges he flippantly brought against President Cleveland. Wherein is he better than the man he so savagely denounced
 Again the senator who is now presi- dent breathed "a hearty prayer that we may never have a president who will not either pursue, and compel his cab- inet advisers to pursue, the civil ser vice policy pure and simple and upon a just basis, allowing men accused to be heard, and deciding against them only upon competent proof and fairly-either have that kind of a civil service. or, for Gods sake, let us have that other frank and bold, if brutal, method of turning men and women out simply for political opinion" If there has ever been a per- feet illustration of the "brutal method'' | which Benjamin Harrison as senator so deeply deplored Benjamin Harrison as president has furnished iG. Every act been the refinement of what he himself terms brutality, and in every instance he has shown his supreme contempt for the law which he claims to have SUD- ported when he sat in the senate.
 President Harrison is d professedly godly man. He is a stickler for religious observances in the white house-at least he has been so represented by the re- publican organs of the country. Just how he reconciles his pledge-breaking performances with his religious con- | science we do not know, but we pre- sume he believes that in politics 1t is perfectly justifiable to rob Peter to pay Paul. Pickwick and Buzfuz seem to be a better guide for hlm ill politics than St Paul or John Calvin. Benjamin Har- rison is the boss pledge breaker of the age-even republicans have some of his broken pledges scored up against him. That's why Tom Platt thought God almighty's coat wouldn't make a vest for Harrison"