Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-29
CURTIS FULL OF HOPE
For the Millennium of Politics With
Civil Service Reform.
MORE PRAISE FOR CLEVELAND,
The Only Man in the Late Administration
on the Right Side.
SECRETARY TRACY GETS HIS DUES, TOO

BALTIMORE, April 2S-Lehmann Hall
was well filed tonight with brilliant
audience to hear George William Curtis de.
liver his appointed lecture opening the an.
nual meeting of the National Committee oi
the Association for the Reform OF Civil
Service. The following were significant
extracts of the address:
hundred years ago in England the King
bought votes in Parliament; to-day in
America party buys votes at the polls. The
party system has subjected the citizen to
the machine, and the first great resource OF
its bribery fund Is patronage. Workers must
be paid, and the patronage of the govern
ment, that is to say the emolument of place.
is the natural fund for such payment This
is the simple plea of the spoils system. 1t
places every party on a wholly venal basis.
Under its control party is no longer q COM
bination of citizens for public ends; it is a
trading company seeking the advantage of
the leading parties. 1t is the self1shness of
the individual, not the public spirit Of the
citizen, upon which it rests.
This sophistry of the suoils extends itself
readily beyond elections and appointments
and assessments in the Civil Service not
only into the whole political system, but
into every department of national life. 1t
is undoubtedly true that whether there were
q spoils system or not great interests of all
kinds in the pursuit of their own advantage
would always attempt to bribe Legislatures
and that public officers and voters would
still be bought at the polls.
The Big Advantage of the Ins.
We are approaching the third Presidential
election since the League was organized.
Does any intelligent observer doubt that the
party OF administration controlling the vast
salary fund OF the Civil Service, which is
practically corruption fund, enters upon
the campaign with an immense but wholly
Illicit advantage? Like every administra-
tion party it is justly entitled to every ad-
vantage that arises from a wise policy, from
the honest and efficient conduct of affairs,
from strict adhesion to the promises by
which it solicited public support, and from
the faithful fulfillment of voluntary execu-
tive pledges. To all these legitimate ad-
vantages the party is entitled But so far as
its administration has expended SEQ 600 600 in
salaries with q view to the next election and
TO the continuance of the party in power, so
far it has betrayed the principle OF popular
government, because SO far it has deliber-
ately bought party support with public
money.
Tho disposition of that fund was CON-
mitted to it in trust for the public welfare,
and every cent of it which this administra-
tion has spent to advance q party interest
has been spent in BETRAYAL of q public trust
1t the national patronage fund were $780,
10000 instead of $50 600 000 it is not impossi-
bic that, in the present development of the
party system, the party of this administra-
tion. as of any other, by the shrewd ex-
penditure of that sum might maintain itself
in power.
a Tale of Two Administrations.
1t will not be forgotten not only that the
party Of the President of four years ago had
not demanded reform, but that its controll-
Srary i1a sf %ho<
done under the last administration-and
what was done gave the question of reform
a place in practical politics which it will
not lose until the reform is fully achieved
was done by the President alone. Except
for his courage and fidelity to his personal
convictions, the reform law of 1888 would
have been practically nullified and the re-
form ignored and discarded.
Tried by the standard of absolute reform,
he failed as President Grant failed ten years
before, and Tor the same reason, the hostil-
lty of his party. But tested by the actual
situation OF today, Notwithstanding the e1-
ecutive yielding to party pressure. the pure
flame of reform sentiment not only was not
eXtinguished during the late administTa-
tion, but burned more brightly in the public
mind the administration ended-burned
so brightly, indeed, that the opposition
party in the platform upon which they car
ifed the election made the strongest pro
fession of reform faith and purpose that
any party ever made.
The present administration came into
power not with the usual vague platitnde
upon the subject, but with definite prom
ise of reform and the distinct pledge to full
fill its pledges. But it celebrated the sue
cess OF its party with a wild debauch of
spoils in which its promises and pledges
were the meats and the drinks that were
riOtOusly consumed.
What the Present Regime Has Done |
Nevertheless, the reform law has been as |
faithfully observed as by its predecessor,
and the scope of the reformed service has |
been greatly enlarged. The Secretary of the |
Navy, in the interest of the public, and he |
could have done his party also no greater |
service, has introduced the reform into the |
skilled and unslilled labor systems of the |
navy yards. In his late speech in Rhode |
Island, a carefully and skillfully prepared |
defense of the administration and the |
strongest presentation of its claims to pub
lie confidence that will probably be made
during the pending campaign, Secretary |
Tracy says:
believe am justified in saying that SO far its |
administration Is concerned the navy has never |
been treated so little in the spirit of party Ques-
ton as II is to-day; the regulations OF the depart
mcnt within the last year have eradicated all DO
ward labor and have made that employment de- |
pendent upon the skin and efficiency Of the work |
men.
a more signal illustration of the practical |
progress eff reform cannot be found, es- !
pecially when we add to this action OF Re-
publican Secretary of the Navy the fact that |
a Democratic member of the House of Repre-
scntatives has unanimously reported from
the committee of which he is Chairman a +
bill to make the order of the Secretary in /
one department the law in all departments
OF tile Government.
POSING AS JACK THE RIPPER.