Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1894-12-06
COMMUNICATED.

EDITOR REGIsTER-The most nota-
Bile political news since the election is
the widely circulated report that the
President is contemplating wide ex-
tension of the scope of the Civil Ser
vice Law, even applying its provisions
to postmasters throughout the country.
Whatever may be the defects Of the
present law, no one will dispute that
the principle on which. it is based is
one that must inure to the benefit Of
the public service; for it is the princi-
pie which experience has led men to
adopt in order to secure faithful and
efficient service in their private affairs.
While this was admitted, however, it
was long thought that the exigencies
of party organization demanded that
there should be ''spoils' to distribute
among the workers" Now the par
ties stand for antagonistic policies
which must have more powerful eff
feet for good or i'll on the national life
and prosperity than can possibly flow
from the good or bad management of
the executive departments; and so 1t
has seemed to honest and sincere men
that it would be better that the pub
lie service should suffer to a certain
degree, if their party might thereby be
assured the opportunity to put its car
dinal policies into effect.
In the light of history, however, 1t
has come to be doubtful whether the
distribution of offices has not done both
parties more harm than good and this
would seem to be particularly true IN
the case of the Democratic party. If
there were but three applications for
each office-and the average is I'M
doubtedly higher than that-it must
follow that two-thirds Of those most ac-
lively interested in party matters will
be disappointed and left more or less
"sore" over being turned down.
Members of Congress are the accredlt-
ed purveyors of the great bulk of the
offices and the history Of the last fifty
years shows that the party which wins
the Presidency invariably loses heavily
in the Congressional elections two years
after. The Democratic loss in this way
two years after Mr.. Cleveland's FIST
election was proportionately very small;
and it is a significant fact that his re-
movals from Office during the early part
of his term were fewer than were ever
known before upon a change of par
ties. In our own district, even in our
own county, we all know that there
has been more discomfort and apathy
due to the manner in which the Offices
were dispensed than to all other causes
combined so that the result of the
system, instead of being an aid to the
party, has necessitated a great deal Of
hard word to overcome the harm it has
done us.
1t needs no argument to show that
we are bound to suffer if we refuse to
use the offices 70 reward our own party
men, but at the same time allow the
Republicans to make such use Of them,
We are strongly Of the opinion, how
ever, that it would be for the ultimate
good of our party if there were no such
thing as spoils, provided of course that
an honest system based solely upon
merit were substituted for the present
system, especially as it has been manip-
ulated by Democratic administrations
The efficiency Of the public service
would undoubtedly be increased and
the result would be an actual saving
in money to the whole people. Atten-
ton would be directed more strongly
to the principles that the parties rep
resent. And if it be objected that we
would be taking away the strongest
incentive to those who are active in our
politics now, the obvious reply is that a
different class would take their places;
and the party has not been so triumph
antIy and uniformly successful under
its past management as to make it
certain suicide to make the experiment
of a change. BENZ. TRAPNELL.