Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-06-01

campaigns and the control of positions.
These uaen very often become leaders and
enjoy reputation for patriotism and as
party workers of great value and energy,
whom it is right to reward for their serv-
ices. When they attain to place they
usually have corps of subordinates who
sail for favor as their principals direct,
and the latter thus become the heads Of
political machines and as such powers"
The body of the people, Senator Ed
munds thinks, want their officers selected
for capacity and fitness, and do not wish
the political worker to be feed with
place he is untitled to fill; at the same
time they do recognize the propriety of
acknowledging the services of such men as
have been unselfshly active politically.
This is a correct conclusion, but it does
not cross the purpose of wise civil service
reform, which must obtain with US if we
are not to surrender our liberties, .iudg-
ment which the Senator does not in so
lany words pronounce, but which it is
uasy to discern between the lines of his
paper. He well says that we cannot hope
to suppress the thirst for power, but we
may control and limit its qualification.
To this end the demand for displace-
ment of faithful and competent public
servants, merely to reward political work.
ers must be boldly antagonized by an
awakened moral sense of the people, who
must be made to realize that the policy of
"spoils lies at the root of the danger
threatening them by the usurpation of
their rights at the ballot-box. This is the
difficult problem now before the nation
and upon its correct solution may turn the
fate of the nation. 1t is simply impossible
to continue in prosperity and safety, and
at the same time laugh to scorn the truths
Of history and the experience of mankind,
which teach that such practices as the
Senator catalogues, are motors of decad-
ence and instruments for the undermin-
ing OF a representative form of govern
ment. 1t is true, as he says, that we want
no ofiice-holding class, but we may add
that corrupt class dominating official
patronage is more to be feared. However,
civil service reform contemplates no office
holding class. The great bulk of the
small administrative empIoyments, SAYS
the Senator, involve no governmental pol
icy, and relate only to strictly defined bus
mess work. Civil service reform demands.
as the RECoID-UNIoN has uniformly held,
that for all such there shall be applied
business principles, the accurate, rapid and
honest discharge Of the public business
standing always superior to the demands
of party servitors for reward The citizen
must feel as concerned that the business of
his Government is as well discharged as
he would in his own private enter
prises. This is the pith of civil service re-
form, and the Senator gives its friends
comfort by the statement that despite
avoidance by party, and the open opposi-
ton OF large class, the reform has made
material progress, and encourages the hope
that before many years the great body of
the civil employment will cease to be the
spoil Of party contention.
The removal of the spoils system Will
greatly purify political methods by with
drawal of the incentive for corruption, but
it will not wholly eliminate the evils that
the thoughtful consider as present menaces
to the integrity of representative forms.
As Senator Edmunds says-and we inter-
ject other possible reforms-registratio
laws must be such as will conserve the
well-springs of true liberty; elections must
be conducted by men of high character
and tried ability, and under provisions
putting it as far as is possible out of the
power Of the corrupt to pervert the verdict
of the people; the secresy of the ballot
must be assured, and thereby the protec-
ton of the voter from COW by those inter
ested in coercing him; there should be
public canvassing of votes and the publ
cation of all election expenses and their
verifcation under oath there should be
speedy hearing of election contests; drastic
punishment of bribers and the bribed and
of ali who illegally register or vote; dis
Greet reformation Of the naturalization
laws; limitation Of immigration to those
classes assimilative and sincerely eschew-
ing foreign allegiance, and not likely to
become public charges and public terrors;
and finally, more attention must be given
to the instruction Of youth in civil govern
ment and the substructural principles of
the republic, instead of trusting them to
the haphazard and pickup" methods of
acquiring a knowledge of their rights and
the origin of the same, and of their duties
and obligations 10 each other and to their
country. No one expects to reform human
nature by legal regulation, nor by law to
lessen the greed and venality of men, but
we may make the qualification very diff
cult, the knowledge and love of free insti-
tutlons broader and reverence for their
sanctity greater.
THE CANADIAN QUESTION.
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