The Portland daily press., 1890-01-29
The Civil Service Under Cleveland

The Civil Service Under Cleveland.
Commissioner Roosevelt's investigation of
the attitude of the officers of the New York
custom house under the Cleveland admins
tration towards the civil service reform act
furnishes fine Illustration of the sincerity
OF Mr.. Cleveland's allegiance to the princi-
pies of that reform. One of the worst prac
tices prevailing under the old spoils system
was the practice of assessing government
employees for political purposes. and when
the civil service law was passed it was for
hidden under severe penalties. For public
officer to directly or indirectly, solicit or re-
ceive, or be in any manner concerned in So
liciting or receiving, any assessment, SUBJ
scriptton or contribution, for any political
purpose whatever. from any officer, clerk or
employe OF the United States, or any DEPART
ment, branch. or bureau thereof, or from apy
person receiving any salary or compensation
from money derived from the treasury of the
United States" was declared to be INSIDE
meanor punishable by fine not exceeding
$1,000. or by imprisonment for time not ex-
ceeding three years, Or by such fine and i'm
prisonmeDt both, In the discretion of the
court
-NNsWAetosohdib6 bulo law OI congress.
which was endorsed in the strongest Ian
guage by President Cleveland, and which he
promised to see faithfully executed, Commits.
sioner Roosevelt finds that assessments for
political purposes were carried on in the mos.
conspicuous custom house In the country In
departments presided over by officers select
ed by Mr.. Cleveland That the money which
poured into the Democratic Golfers from the
Surveyors office was not all of the nature of
voluntary contribution Is shown conclu-
sively by the fact that some OF IL came from
Republicans who had no sympathy with the
purpose to which it was to be devoted They
would not have voluntarily contributed
money to defeat the party to which they be-
longed and bring victory to the one to which
they were opposed. OF course these contribu-
tlons were not solicited directly. That's to say,
the Surveyor did not send to each employe
circular signed by his name and setting forth
the amount the receiver was expected to paw.
That method would undoubtedly have ex-
posed him to the penalty of the law, and of
course that method was not adopted But
the law says no government officer shall be |
concerned, directly or indirectly, In soliciting
contributions for political purposes. That |
the officers Of the New York custom house /
were concerned indirectly In soliciting SUBJ |
scriptions for the Democratic campaign fund |
does not admit of a doubt, when the methods
by which these subscriptions were obtained
are considered. Some of the clerks, Mr..
Roosevelt tells US, were forced to contribute
by being made very uncomfortable In their
WORK until they did so. The only persons
VINO could make them uncomfortable
were their superiors. The various forms of
pressure which were put upon the emnlovee
could not have been put upon them excent bv
the connivance Of some of the higher ofioiois
of the department Of course it does not
follow that Surveyor Beattie was actually
knowing TO the methods that were adonted
to fleece his clerks for the benefit of the
Democratic campaign fund. But man
can connive at a practice as effectively
sometimes by shutting his eyes so as not to
see what is going CD, as by openly aiding and
abettiDg with his advice This apparently is
what Mr.. Beattie did, for to presume that
with his eyes open he could have been obliy-
ious to what was going on in his office Is to
credit him with much less acuteness than he
S entitled to. But it may be said that Beat
les culpability does not necessarily impli-
ate the President; that the President might
AYE been deceived. There would be some
hing In that, perhaps, II cattle had ever