Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1889-02-22
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND REVIEWS HIS
ADMINISTRATION.
Thoroughly Satisfied with what Has
Been Accomplished StiIl IA Belcverin
Civil service Reform, But of
the Practical Brand.

BALTIMORE, Feb. 1.-THE Sun tomorrow
will publish a special despatch from Wash
ington giving a review of President Cleve-
lands administration based upon conversa-
tions with the president. The key note Of
Cleveland's policy from the beginning was
his determination to give the people prac-
teal and business like administration ire
spective of personal considerations. Iroha-
bly, there is no man in public politics who
has a deeper and more genuine sympathy
with the people, and there has never been a
president more accessible. He says his
afternoon receptions, or 'hand shakes, - as
he calls them, were the pleasantest incidents
of his official life. lie works as hard as any
department clerk because he is not content
to take things for granted.
1t is known to his friends that the president
feels acutely the charge that he has held aloof
from men whose character and position en-
titled their opinions to weight and has been
disposed to take the bit between the teeth
and act on his own responsibility. He has
all along been animated by a high and ser
Ious sense of duty TO the people. This has
often prompted him to course of action in
opposition to the wishes or opinions of his
personal friends. 1t is the secret Of his la
bOrious devotion to matters of routine
May be it is because ! am awkward at it, -
be said, that ! have to work so hard"
He is thoroughly satisfied with the practi-
cal outcome Of his administration and its
effects and asserts his unqualified devotion
to the party He is as firm now as ever IN
| the opinion that tariff reform is thegreatlv-
! ing issue for the democracy. He regards it
/ as an issue in harmony with the spirit and
! the traditions Of the party, one involving
/ enormous benefits to the people. He does
! - Al.
/ beaten on the tariff issue last fall but thinks
/ the defeat of the democracyis tobe doplored
| because Of injury resulting to the public in
| terests.
Personally he experiences profound sense
Of relief at the prospect OF a speedy
release from the ordeal to which
! lie has been exposed for four
years. ltisan open secret that Ire accepted the
/ nomination last summer with genuine reuc-
lance and after earnest efforts to escape it,.
His supposed political aspirations for the flu
ture do not exist and there is no rivalry on
his part between himself or anybody else.
He believes civil service reform has come
to stay and has treated it solely as a
practical question. He has been
much hampered and embarrassed by
the vagaries of sentimental reform
ers and theorists who have been continually
urging him to do this or that for mere sen
salioual effect. He has eudeavored to give
the civil service scheme fair trial and eX-
presses himself rs fully satisfied with the re-
suits He thinks examinations are the best
TEST of merit that can he devised. The worst
type of bureaucracy had developed under
the spoils system of former administrations,
and when he came INFO office he found the
department., filled with incompetents who
found p.tlDaupuT lgGpauppt throuoh f1Nori