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

tnat reform should apply to $1,000 EN-.
ployes only of the 120, 900 employees O,
the government, and that the rest
should be treated as spoils, but that
the spirit of reform, whatever the
method of appointment, should be OBJ.
served throughout the service. When,
therefore, the assistant postmaster.
general endeared himself to the CHIEF
administration agent of spoils in New
York, by cutting off official heads as
fast as possible, he violated the ex-
press pledge of his party to respect the
spirit OF reform as much as if, being a
soldier of the union, he had broken
the orders of the march and disgraced
his flag; and the president, by tolera-
! ting such riot of contempt for his own
professions and for promises of his
party, made all such promises con-
temptible and forfeited the claim OF
his administration to be considered q
reform administration. Keeping one
pledge does not condone breaking an
other. A party, like a man, is cer-
talnly not bound to make a promise.
But If it promises and breaks the
pledge, although party is an elusive
entity, a vote is not, and punishment
is possible.
But while no administration can be
fairly called reform administration
which, like the present and the preced-
ing administrations, makes spoils of
the great multitude of offices not in
cluded within the law, it does not fol-
low thad reform does not advance
under such administrations, nor that
ntc Of NH ial, I
spoken did not sustain the Civil Serv-
ice Commission in enforcing the law.
1t may noj be thought high praise to
say that an executive officer enforces
the law which he is sworn to enforce,
but there are different ways of en-
forcing law. In the dark ages of
the Fugitive Slave law there was an
officer in Boston, who, being entrusted
with writ of arrest for a fugitive
slave, used to go into the quarter OF
the city where the colored people con-
gregated and announce that he be-
lieved the fugitive to be there and
that he should call for him in The aft
ernoon and expect to have hiEl deliv-
erd up at once without delay" and it is
surprising" he said, "tha5 a.ter such
ample and definite noG.ce making
everything easy for those who were
criminally harboring the offender, /
was never able to find a single fugi-
tive" There is another method ofen-
forcing law to be studied in the case
Of the Sunday liquor law in the city
of New York. The farmer remarked
of the Canada thistle and twi5ch grass
in his fields, that the more he pulled
them up the more they grew. 1t may
be said in the same way that the more
the Sunday liquor law is enforced in
the present way, the more liquor is
sold on Sunday. Indeed, in the early
days of civil service reforms when it
was not enforced by law, but by an
executive order of Presidents Grant
and Hayes, knew an appointing
officer who used the order as q short
and easy way with politicians whom
he did not care to gratify, and so Sc
cured leisure to distribute his patron
age more satisfactorily. In our his
tory of ten years it is very great vic
tory of reform THAI the national civil
service commission has been an hon
est and efficient ministry of the law,
and that Presidents Arthur, Cleve-
land and Harrison have honestly sup
ported it.
Still another victory is the fact that
the system of party assessments on
the civil service and the kindred evil
of the interference of Office holders in
elections are now so efectually stig-
matized by public opinion that al
though not abandoned they have be-
come disgraceful. The effort to justify
the levying of blackmail by party
committees OF Congress or of local
districts, and to defend the moral CO.
ercion of public employees by irrespon-
sible officers of the government, has
disappeared in the contemptuous
scorn of public common sense. I'm
dou5tedly, the practice in some de-
gree still continues, as the late dis
graceful letter of the Ohio Republican
State Executive committee shows,
but only as sneak-thieving and pock-
et-picking, continue after laws. are
enacted to prevent them. The SUI
preme court of the United States has
affirmed the constiGuGiOnality of
the laws prohibiting such ASSESS
given to the widespread and fragrant
ehGOrUlOHS VI the UOUOflOuS IluUDell
Congressional campaign committee of
1882 no Senator or Representative in
Congress who is sensitive to public
contempt would authorize the sigma
ture of his name to circulars demand
ing Of pos5-ofice clerks at home and
consular officers abroad, and even of
women clerks who have no vote, the
surrender OF two per cent and four per
cent of their salaries to be spent in
buying seven more mules or in dis
patching soap to India or in marshall
ing floauers in blocks of five.
This steady change of public opin-
ion in regard to political changes in
the non political public service is the
happiest result of the ten years. agi-
taGion of reform. 1t is indeed only TO
a certain degree a change in prac-
tice, but the change Of opinion
greatly facilitates it's practical
completion. The reform rules en-
brace only about quarter OF
the places in the registry of the
service, and within that range the re-
form may be fairly said TO be effected.
But beyond that range the civil
service is still liable to be treated as