New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-07-11
TESTS IND DLSCLOSERES.


The best Of all possible competitive examina-
tons as most people are aware, is one in which
the competitor is tested by the performance of
ordinary daily duty, unconscious that he has
any other than the ordinary reason for accuracy
or fidelity. Just now the Civil Service Reform
ers are being subjected 10 such test. All I'M
conscious that anything unusual depends upon
their performance they are making record
which will finally and forever determine their
competence and fitness as refOrmeIs. Some OF
them are Mugwumps, who have for years been
trying to impress the public with the behet that
they, aud they only, were living and laboring
with an eye single to the purity and perfection
of the public service Others are Democrats
who have made such exalted professions OF zeal
for reform and willingness to rise above party
that they have more or less inclined people to
believe in their superiority of motive and con-
duct They are all under competitive exam
inotion, and the intelligent public are the
judges.
The tests applied are the appointments Of
President Harrison. Each real or pretended
reformer in his turn is called upon to express
his opinion Of the Presidents selections. There
hv though most Of them do not seem to be
aware of it, each reformer disclOSeS his own
concepton of reform. his own knowledge OF
men and Of public affairs and needs, his own
freedom or want Of freedom from partisan BIAS
his own integrity and fairness. 1t Is remark
ably Iioid examination, and the intelligent pub
lie is getting very accurate knowledge OF the
merits or dement's Of the various refOrmers.
The question that is apparently the simplest
II a. "A a
candidates. Day by day, in published com
mentS or in personal conversations they have
In answer the question lave PRESIDENT
HarIiSon's appointments rs whole been worthy
or unworthy ~ Just here all the partsanshlp,
all the personal vndictiveneSS Of small mDoS,
all the meanness and lancOr Of ininiteSimal
souls. get disclosed and illustrated. For the
public has already learned that the professional
reformer in great many instances IS only
man so small and weak, and yet 80 VAIN ana
puffed up with a sense of his own Holiness that
he cannot abide the great party which has failed
to recognize him by important aud responsible
trusts IL he is a partisan, he is as much more
dishonest than other men in his ordinary Judg-
ment as he processes to be more honest. II he
sets ND for non -patisanship, he is malicious
uersonal holiness. toward the party which failed
10 honor him. In either case, he is incapable
of Judging correctly or fairly series OF APP
rciptments which the intelligent pubic hndS
decidedly meiitoriouS in fitness, past record ana
nersonal character, and c0nspicuouSly praise
worthy for the comparative infrequency OF
mistakes.
Each appointment announced puts to the re-
former question Of more or less dlincultE'
Thus the selection Of superintendent OF the
Coast Survey, just made, deserved especial
communication because Of the eminent htneSs
of the nre.ident of the National Academy OF
Sciences and of the Rose Polytechnic Institute
for = service peculiarly scientific in character.
Pint the spteful little Mugwump, being under
examination. cannot help saying with The
New orll Times " that if the President hao
cared only for the good Of the service he would
have promoted mere routine oiilcer' whose
scientific attachments the public has entirely
failed to recognize. So the aforesaid spiteluI
little Mugwump, quite unaware that he IS uhuer
con,netitive examination, writes himself down
= ,,erscu meaner less honest and incomparably
los qualified for the work of reform in any
true sense than the President whom he cut-
icises.
The test has gone far enough already to sat
isfv the public that most of the professional
yeformers. who have talked most loudly of their
zeal for the purity and perfection of the public
service, are persons who have been for the bes'
Of reasons omitted from places OF trust. Let
any fair man review the comments OF MugWump
or Democratic journals on President llarrlson's
appointments, and he will find therein a pal
pabe incapacity to Judge honestly. The critic
nroyes that he has less integrity Of mind, less
real freedom from partisan blindness and bias
less conception Of the needs Of the public SER
vice than the Administration which he labOrs
IN diSparage