The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-10-01

n Umo Puolic services party plunder.
me comedy of the autumn campaign
is that the platform of convention
directed by the chief administration
sportsman in the state re-affirms the
anectlon OF the party for Thorough,
genuine civil service reform.n
But these are only incidents of a bat
tie which is still raging. Here and
there the line is pushed back and
broken. Here, there is an advantage.
there, reverse, although the general
advance is plain. The appointment
of the late collector of New York was
a distinct violation of the executive
pledge that 1.-The spirit and the pur-
pose Of reform should be observed in
all executive appointments Butthe
intimation that the collector contem-
plated course which no law forbids
and which in the time of his prede-
cessor Swartwout was held to be en-
tirely legitimate, nevertheless pro-
Voked protest which was not limit
ed to party. l know no reason
IN MS character or career to suppose
That the late collector, whose personal
good name even amidst the rancor of
paStlsan controversy has been un-
| solled, would have wantonly blacken-
ed it by prostituting public trust to
promote q personal or party
interest, or would have deliber-
ately sophisticated himself by the pre-
tence that honest and efficient public
agents might be summarily removed
to make place for others equally hon
est and efficient agents, not because
the public service would be promoted
hIIf
advance the political interest of the
officer to whose official act the collec-
tor owed his power to do the service.
But the significant fact is that the
mere suggestion was resented
by the public sense of official
decency and personal honor.
Whatever reaction there may be at
any poinC, the moral progress of re-
form is si9nally illustrated by the un-
doubted fact that it is becoming per-
sonally discredtable to public Off
Ger to administer his office as an
agency of spoils, and serious injury
to party when it's conspicuous lead
ers are no longer statesmen but bosses.
TO say that this is not the universal
opinion is to say nothing. 1T is an
opinion general enough and strong
to make laws and regulations, to Sc
cure their faithful execution and con-
sCantly to extend the range of their
operation.
Upon survey even so general as
this of the progress of civil service re-
form within the ten years of the exist
ence of this league, it is idle to deny
the prodigious advance which it has
made, both in public opinion and in
practical application. The evil is not
new nor is the league first in calling
public attention to it. Escape from
the vicious party despotism of the old
council OF appointment in this STAGE
was one of the chief reasons for the.
adoption of the constitution of 1921.
Congress has echoed with loud debate
upon the subject, with the angry al
Jercations of party chiefs, and the ter
rible array of facts, which Is the most
| powerful plea of every political reform.
Investigations, reports, executive
| orders have followed each other. But
they have been but the temporary
weapons of party warfare, dropped
when they have served their purpose,
not the persistent pressure of increas-
ing convictions-ho gusts that blew
off green fruit, not the change of
temperature that ripens the harvest.
The league has represented not
party strategy to carry an
election, but public conviction
to reform an acknowledged evil of ad-
ministration. If it had done nothing
more it's service would be great in
having forced the spoils system to it's
defense. The political pirates are at
last driven to show the black flag and
deiantly to declare that at every cleo
tion the whole public service in every
detail, with all it's emoluments and
opportunities, shall be made the prize
OF a vast struggle of greed and in
trigue, of bribery and dishonesty of
every kind, all inflamed to fury by
party spirit. We demand that all
public business, which is not political,
shall be kept free from politics and
shall be transacted upon the simple
principles which are approved by uni
versal private experience. The mas
ters of Tammany hall, with the dealers
in mules, soap, and blocks of floaters,
who hold that in politics fraud is not
fraudulent, nor dishonesty dishonest,
declare that every where except in San
cho Panza's Bara5aria, No Mans Land,
and the Isle of Fools, the public
service is spoils and belongs to the
victor. But Washington warned us
in advance against these voices.
Webster said that whoever
controlled a mans means OF liv-
ing controlled his will. Clay said
that Marcy's doctrine would end in
despotism. Lincoln, bounded by the
remorseless demand for spoils, said
that the evil would destroy the gov
ernment. Those who would use the
patronage of public employment as
the vast bribery fund of a party are
on one side. Washington and Lin
coin, patriotism and good sense, the
wisdom of age, the instinct of youth,
are on the other. Let all good men
choose their part. We have chosen
ours.
COUNTY ATTORNEY PARTRIDGE DEAD.
Death Results From Injuries Received in
Jumninu Fran Movino Train