Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-17
WHY SOME HATE THEM.

Mr.. Theodore Roosevelt, than whom few
men are better known for their fearless
ness, and who is conspicuous for his clean
illness in political action, is one of the Fed
eral Civil Service Commissioners. Re-
Gently that body was under investigation
! by Congressional Committee and Mr..
Roosevelt testified. In response to. a
question as to what the Commission had
done, what it is doing now and why some
leading men in the nation oppose it, he
said
| We have been in Office one year during the
| difficult period Immediately succeeding a
| change of administration, when the rage for
| otlce is hottest and the anger of disappointed
| applicants most intense. We have been busily
/ engaged not only in repelling outside attacks,
| but IN waging active war against wrong-doeTs,
| who were often intrenched behind the most
powerful political influences. With insufficient
means, we have been forced to meet and solve
| problem after problem of the most difficult
| character. Under such circumstances it was to
| be expected that we would make occasional
mistakes and it is very possible that we have
| done so, but certainly none have been pointed
| out by our prosecutors.
| We are being assailed not for having admins
| tered the law badly, but for having sdmiuis-
| tered it well. There are upright and honorable
men who do not believe in the civil service law,
and who oppose 1t on its merits, fairly and
openly, but none of these are TO be found in the
ranks OF our present aecusers. Those who are
now assalllng us hate us for precisely the same
reasons that the criminal classes hate an eff
cient policeman. The best tribute TO and meas
ure OF the work we have accomplished is TO be
found IN the impotent malice of these men-a
malice which does not excite our anger, be-
cause 1t is incapable OF rousing deeper feeling
than profound contempt.
Nv l,o-o olo,o,, L.
words with deliberation; he is not one
given to hasty speaking, and as he was
under oath and testifyIng as an official, it
must be assumed that he meant every word
to be accepted for the full of its entire
meaning.
1t will strike most unpreiudiced OBJ
servers that the Commissioner was entirely
within the limits of the truth when he
said that the Commission is not assailed
because OF inefficiency, but because il has
enforced the law, the virtues of which
have run counter to the selfish schemes of
the professional politicians. 1t is the re-
suit Of the observation of all men who
have not been blinded by partisan preiu-
dice, that the work of the opposition that
develops to the civil service laws is based
upon the objection that they prevent the
distribution Of patronage in reward for
partisan service. The right of the Gov
eminent to have efficient men in places of
trust, the injury that the Government
takes when its employees are responsible to
an authority outside of its departments
rarely occurs to, or is brusquely evaded by
these directors. What they are solicitous
about is party strength above all claims of
Government for efficiency, and about Fed
eral patronage as a means of augmenting
such party strength. There are a very
few self-respecting men, as Mr.. Roosevelt
says, who are opposed to the law from the
bottom up, and who, without any equivo-
cation, announce their luminosity. But all
such frankly and fearlessly say that they
believe in the spoils system, in distribut-
ing the trophies of war among the victors;
that the reward of party is the natural
and right sequence of victory; that when
the people pronounce for party policy,
they mean to say that the men Of that
party only should fill the places of trust.
For this order of men we have respect.
but none for the opponents who profess to
believe that the Government is entitled to
the best service it can get, but who assail
the civil service laws and the Commission
on false pretenses such as Mr.. Roosevelt
refers to. These men really want to crush |
the Commission and blot out the law and
return to the spoils system in its original
form, but they lack the courage to say SO.
We have watched the course of the Com
mission with interest, under all its changes
and all administrations, and We are free to
say that no other revolutionary reform in
our history has been peaceably pushed
with greater persistency or with more SUBJ
stantial progress, in the face of such mon
strous obstacles and bitter prejudices, as
that of civil service reform.