The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-11-27

sonal debts with the money of the public
This has become so common that its really
discredtable nature is not generally seen
az The spoils system dminishes the eff
cheney of the civil service and at the same
time increases its cost. II diminishes its
efficiency because 1t does not pretend to
base appointments upon proved cOmpe-
tency, and favoritism is as apt to be eXer-
cised towards the unfit as towards the we'll
qualified. Secretary Window said in 1881 :
Five-sixths of the applications for Office
in the treasury department in the past
eight months have been from men who
could not support themselves" 1t dimin-
ishes the efficiency Of the civil service
because under its vicious system fidelity to
trusts and ability in performing duty are
not recognized and rewarded as they should
be. The spoils system increases the cost of
doing the public business Offices are often
created for the mere purpose of rewarding
personal dependents. President Garfield
maintained that under a iudcous civil serv-
ice the government could be carried on at
about one-haf its usual cost. Such state
ments are partly based upon the well-known
fact that often the salaries are larger than
the amount and character Of the work JUS
tiiy. Before rcfOrmatory measures were
adopted the salaries of government Office
holders were regularly assessed a certain
percentage for party campaign purposes,
and in the expectation of this assessment
the stipends were often placed unreasona-
bly, high. Thus the whole country, includ-
ing all parties, was Indirectly taxed for the
campaign expenses of one party Then
too, those who were nominally servants of
the public were often, under the spoils sys-
TEN, engaged away from their offices i'm par
tisan work, % The Spoils system has
proved it is an evil because it has proved it
is a source of degeneration aud demOraliza-
ton. Under it political contests have be-
to 1arfr fartI sf,1nf. l..ftt
the outs and the ms" mere manpu-
vers and struggles for the offices and their
emolumeuts. High matters of state the
most serious interests, have often been re-
manded To the background, while shrewd
sChemers have plotted and counter plotted
for pelf. Our great elections have been
contaminated with corrupt practices
Bribery has put on unblushing effrOntery.
II has come to such pass that states have
reached half way around the globe i'm search
of method Of protecting the purity Of the
ballot. The Australian mode of voting may
answer a good purpose. Let it be tried
where it can be used to advantage.
Mr.. Wright here quoted an address to the
voters Of the United States by a committee
of the National Civil Service Reform League,
which points ont tersely the bad effects of
the spoils system. He then slletched the
efforts that have been made to reform the
service in this country. The classified
service, - he said, now includes some 2S. 600
positions, the bulk. of the highest paid
officials among the minor employees of the
government, so that between One-fourth
and one-fifth in number and nearly one-half
in pOnt of salaries of the minor employees of
the government are now taken out from
under the operation of the demoraizing
system. There is given " a fair field and
no favor 1t is grand achievement 1t
takes $50 00O,0O OF the annual bribery fund
QUO of the way But the old system dies
Il,
began has been above criticism. Even the
tremendous will of Grant, who believed in
the reform and wanted to further il, quailed
before the onset of the patronage-brokers
and place-hunters. Hayes, Garfield, Ar
thur and Cleveland all are to be com
mended as furthering the reform, yet all
have been criticised as proving unfaithful
to it at times. The present administration,
pledged to the letter and the spirit of the
reform by the most positive and explicit
statement in its platform, and committed
to it by tine most unequvocal assurance of
its head yet needs to be reminded of its
pledge and recalled again and again to its
standards by those who are deeply con-
WINGED that the safety of the republic lies
along the new and better way. We are told
that 1900 fourth-class postmasters Onore
than one-fourth of the whole number of
such officers) were replaced in the first five
months Of this administration
But while we may rejoice that so great a
gain has been made in so short a time we
must grid ourselves for further conflict,
assured of still better things in the future
for this reform appeals to the virtue patri-
otism and good sense of the great mass of
the people. They, and not greedy place
hunters, are in the majority in this land,
and they only need to see what it aims at to
heartily endorse it, for it is simply "appled
common sense" 1t is thoroughly in accord
with the genius of a republic, for it gives a
chance to all 1t has already won its way
in England, in spite of the advantages the
patronage system must have had there
and now for twenty-five years there has
been hardly a murmur of objection to it,,
Not more than seventy officers are changed
in the whole realm, Gladstone assures us,
when there is party change in administra-
ton. A few weeks ago the Atchison rail
road elected new directors. How absurd it
would have been TO remove every engineer
and conductor 1t would wreck the bust
ness of any corporation. This reform
simply aims to secure the transaction of the
public business in business-ike way.
II is, believe, matter of statistics that it
cost our country in 1874 three times as large
"A percentage to collect it's duty on imports
as it cost France and five times the per-
centage il cost Great Britain. The hopeful
signs are now multiplying, May God grant