San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-24
The Reform OF the Civil Service
By Wisconsin Republican.
Written for the LIGHT:


By Wisconsin Republican.
Written for the LIGHT:
Some months ago a trusty Govern
ment official, who has since resigned
delivered two notable addresses re.
fiecting the sentiments of the non
office seeking voters OF his party, il
we except the structures that unfold
his civil service policy and delineate
his method of ramifyipg republican
ism and augmenting its virility by
placing officials in every hamlet in
the land thought to be inspired with
honest zeal to purify and magnify
their party and acceptably serve the
people. Reformers must regard it as
unfortunate that conscientious Of
fetal should so obviously align him.
self with the anti-civil service ele-
ment. Concrete deductions are so
often the creature of prejudice, ira
ditlon and environment that the cues
ton suggests itself, is there not some
occult influence, some subtle charm
in the function of office filling that
unconseiously dulls the perception
and warps the judgement? This Of
fetal has given only Competent men
place; but his theory that party con-
fiicts necessitate party rule (which is
easier enforced with friends than
foes in office is a revelation which
if put in practice would relegate the
existing civil service ace to the limbo
of "desuetude." This government
was not organized so lax in mechan-
ism that it can legitimately be trans
formed into machine for party eX-
pension and spoistiOn, it's functions
are not so obscurely defined that
obtrnsive party rule can ever usurp
the province of accumulated and Wis.,
ible government for the people, which
ever party controls its machinery;
yet il is possible that its structure
may be so distorted, its primal intent
so perverted that its founders would
not recognize their own handi work.
Such q consumation, however, would
be the exploit of rebellion-just as
"a lion might perish from the pune
ture of an asp"-and not the result
Of any pre-arranged device to make
national suicide natural and logical
sequence.
The inspiration to political effort
should never emanate from the
promise of office, mercenary desires
nor personal magnetism of party
leaders, but from the nature and
conscientious opinion that the princi-
Piles advocated, best subserve the
moral and material welfare of the en-
tire people. Political monopolies,
generated by influential syndicates,
for the profitable EXPEDITION of power,
while they may act as potential agen-
n 70
built on the sandy foundation of sell
ing at political exaltatien and person.
al predominance with small REGARDS
for Unnecessary muniments of honor,
and are danger signals to the party,
no matter how liberal may be their
pecuniary sacrifice to secure success:
and when the electric light of truth
punctures them the bubble bursts, the
iimsy fabric tumbles and party dis
aster ensues. In the plant weaving
of this tangle webb of intrigue, in con-
tempt of public good, the golden rule
is defied as though justice were a Jug
gle and Office the chief incen-
tive to political activity. Politics le-
ultimately having no personal nor
selfish attributes, 1T is the duty of ev-
cry citizen to strive for a government
of exact justice, for legislation of per-
feet equity to every human being in
the realm and any policy that fails to
fulfil these conditions is not in unison
with the spirit of the age nor in con-
troll of men who have a clear percep-
ton of a pure government such as
was contemplated by Its founders.
Even if precedent for an opposite
course can be cited, it cannot Justify a
bad principle nor render it admirable.
Divorce from politics the expectation
of "spoils" consequent upon success
and you free it from the element that
is vitiating the life-blood and rioting
in the virtue of both parties and their
beneficiaries. This might lessen the
vote; but are votes valuable or useful
which are not evoked by patriotism
but by the lure of Office? Is good gov
eminent strengthened or mepaced by
the vote of the few who sufly man.
hood by laboring in the polit-
ical vineyard simply for private gain?
Principles and opinions colored
with sordid motives or subject to balC-
full strife for illicit ends, detoriorate In
quality until patriotism lapses into a
myth or is lost in the attractive vani-
ties and petty vices of modern politi-
cal life. A republic modelled on the
highest plans of modern civilization,
aspiring to excel in ideals of purity
and culture, to evoke from it's people
all that is good and useful in the arts
of peace and repress all that is evil
and hateful in the dominion of sin.
must have its political creeds saturat-
ed with concur ent attributes of
refinement and excellence. Personal
and political ethics interspersed with