Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-04
BUREAUCRACY OR ROTATION IN OFFICE.

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BUREAUCRACY OR ROTATION IN OFFICE.
The Forum, for August, contains an
article entitled, "Does Public Life Give
Long Careers?" 1t is written by Mr..
Edward p. Clark, of whom we know
nothing, but as to whose political ances-
try we will venture number of postu
lates. He is either an Englishman, or,
if American born, and of American de-
scent, his grandfather or great-grand-
fatber was Federalist, and he himself,
if be has passed the middle age, has
been successfully Whig and Repub-
ican. He begins his essay thus: "Tbe
attitude of the recent Republican
Estate convention in Ohio towards John
"Sherman raises the question whether
"his party will give the veteran leader
"another term i'll the senate, if it has
sthe chance. The incident suggests an
inquiry as to the general subject of the
stability of public life." And much
more to the same purport.
Mr.. Clark, in the course of his long
essay, shows that he is devotee of civil
service reform or bureaucracy. With
painstaking perseverance he has ac-
-cumulated an immense mass OF details
of people who have grown gray in the
public service, amongst the rest, of that
cold-bloo ded fossil John Sherman, who
has been thirty-eight years in public
life, and who would like to be there an
other thirty-eight years if he could
stand off the only creature that is known
10 be as cold-blooded as himself, viz,
Death. The healthiest sign of national
politics today is that the people of Ohio
have at last got tired of John Sherman.
The Alliance senator from Kansas,
Pfeffer, has unconsciously plagiarized
the Los Angeles HERALD when he said
that John Sherman is the biggest and
deadliest enemy of the people the United
States have ever had to combat. His
thirty-eight years in public life on
small yearly salary, in highly expen-
sive city, have left him many times
millionaire, but the legislation he has
assisted, with unvarying assiduity. to
push through congress in the interest OF
the capitalists, has left the people poor
indeed.
This bureaucratic essayist TURNS up
innumerable people who have been
elected again and again to either house
of congress, and who, between both
bodies, have demonstrated their ability
to remain Wears of Bray. In his feeble
way, he cannot forbear sneering at An
drew Jackson, who was not an official
Barnacle, and whose occupancy of Office
was only occasional. 1t is quite true
that "Old Hickory generally earned his
own living, and that the, Federalists,
bureaucrats and friends of Henry Clay,
cheated him out of one term Of the pres
ldency; but the fact nevertheless re-
mains that the victor of New Orleans
was probably, after Washington, Jeffer
son, Jackson and Lincoln, the most val
liable public man that ever figured in
the affairs of the United States.
Jackson was the man who really re-
dedicated the United States to repub-
lican-democratic government. Mr.. Clark
puts in great deal of time sneering at
Jefferson and jackson. Both OF these
eminent Democrats should be held in
daily and affectionate remembrance by
those of our people in whose being
there is strong yearning for govern
ment of the people, for the people and
by the people. Jefferson first, and
jackson next, threw out powerful break
waters under which the republican ship
of state could anchor.
If it had not been for Jackson's noble
democratic-republican and anti-bureau-
cratic stand for free and elastic govern
ment, responsible to the people, our
nincompoops would be sending over for
one Of Mrs. Victims nincompoops,
called Prince This or Prince That, GER
tain that, be his name what it might,
he would have the leading characterist-
les of Victoria's ad-beat-and-no-ac-
count SONS to reign over them. Rota-
ton in office-Jackson's shibboleth--
and Marcy's "to the victors belong the
spoils,u has saved the United States
from monarchical cataclysm. When
jackson kicked the federal ofice-hold-
ers into the street and throttled the
United States bank, he gave the Amer
ican republic another lease Of life. For
this heroic and most salutary action he
has never been forgiven by the feeble
iorcibIe slaves Of power, who resent his
offense of endowing Americans with ro-
bust manhood.
These two\ men alone, Jefferson the
creator, and jackson the defender of