The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-10

veteran, General Sfannard- For the same
reason Democratic General Rosecrans ID
retained today in Office by the Republican
administration. With these limitations,
the average voter of either party be-
lieves in the doctrine that to the victofs
belong the spoils; he believes in it, because
it is like . bull against the fight of o
comet or the fall Of Niagara to enforce
any other theory of politics. President
Cleveland tried to keep his promises to
the civil service reformers, but he was
compelled to succumb TO the situation,
for he found that his party we're all of the
same mind as the Ohio Democrat, who
said that under the civil service law he
would test capacity, but only that Of
Democrats, and to this view both Thur
man and Hendricks said .samen"
That is the issue to which both parties,
when they have got done posturing for
political effect, will come at last Civil
service reform is q good enough shib-
boleth to humble when Mugwumps
are the makeweight between parties, but
the viriie forces of both parties despise or
distrust the civil service reformers as
either impracticable idealists, like Curtis,
or cunning demagogues, like Schurz. The
brains of neither party believes in the
civil service law. Our old civil service
system needed nothing but efficient
administration; that is, president
with an honest, efficient cabinet
would have an honest, efficient adj
ministration from top TO bottom, and
if the president and his cabinet chose
to nullify, evade or devitalize the civil
service statutes tomorrow it could be
easily accomplished. With or without the
civil service law it is merely a question of
honest, efficient administration. If the
president is able, efficient, honest, he
needs no civil service law to purify or en-
ergize his administration, and if he is not
able, efficient. earnest and honest no civil
service law can purify or energize it
against his desire. Cleveland, who started
a sincere disciple of Curtis and Schurz,
proved how easy it is for a president to
act in the spirit of the spoils system and
yet have his mouth full of civil service re-
form homiletics.
Garfield in his inaugural did not conceal
his contempt for the civil-service buglers;
Arthur obeyed the law but never believed
in it; Conkling and Blaine never concealed
their disgust for it as practical measure
of salutary reform, and, outside of Cleve-
land, no Democratic statesman ever pre-
tended to believe in it, but described it
as statute cast in contempt of human
nature. The rude rule of life is ''To the
victor belong the spoils." 1t is the rule in
trade, in society, in peace and politics, as
well as in war, and he is but an eloquent,
amiablc idealist or demagogue blowing
soap bubbles to capture the eye of the silly
crowd that throws up his hat for civil
service reform with the toilet and
bathroom of competitive examinations
attached.
To the victors belong the spoils is
the rule of life; it is as memorable as the
law of evolution that proclaims the sur
vival of the fittest. The best test of fitness
for government position is the test COM
mon to the business world, viz: Ascer-
tain as far as possible his record for ca
pacity, honesty, intelligence and sobriety,
and then put him on trial. This is better
than an examination that tests nothing
but his memory; his mere requirements
rather than his powers of understanding
and execution; his scholastic learning
rather than his aptitude for business; his
tact and temper. A young schoolmaster
passed an examination before the civil
service board at Washington with flying
colors. The bureau he entered had an
excellent and valuable chief clerk. An
examination was held for the vacancy of
examiner; the young schoolmaster, fresh
from his books, distanced all competitors
and became examiner; the chief clerk re-
signed; the government had lost an able
servant and gained a very indifferent
clerk in the schoolmaster