The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-12-13
Important Gathering Of Prominent Men
From Various Parts Of the Country.
THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
NATIONAL LEAGUE.
Ex-Secretary of the Interior Carl
SchurZ Delivers an Address on the
Question at Issue, Complimenting
Cleveland and the Heads OF De-
concentrations for the Extension of
tho
the Service.

the Service.
WASHINGTON, Dec 12.-There was
an important gathering in this city of
prominent men from various parts of
the country to-day, the occasion being
the annual meeting of the National
! Civil Service Reform League, which
will last through until tomorrow even
ing. Many pleasant social features will
be combined with the business meeting
of the organization.
The meeting to-day was called to
order by John Joy Edison, President of
the District League. Many distin-
guished delegates are present.
The special business session will be
held tomorrow, when the President
and Vice-President will be elected, and
other routine business transacted.
AT the executive meeting of the
league George McEnaney was elected
Secretary, and ]. F. Schiefflen was
elected Treasurer.
! Two new organizations were admit
ted to membership in the league, the
! Civil Service Reform Association of ST.
Paul and Princeton College. The dele
gate from the former is c.. p. Moves,
and from the latter Professor William
! M. Sloane.
All the members of the Executive
Committee We're reelected.
! AT the evening session the principal
event of the proceedings was an able
! speech by Hon. Carl Schurz, President
! or the league, who upon being intro
dUced by John Joy Edison, made an adj
dress Of an hour and a half duration.
Mr.. Schurz, who was listened to with
great attention, and who received a
most courteous welcome from many old
friends prominent in Washington cir
cles said in part:
1t is with feeling of peculiar salts
faction that / greet the fifteenth an
nual meeting of the National Service
Reform League at the seat of National
! Government-the place where the ne
cesSity of the reform we advocate has
been most conspicuouSly demonstrated
and where also its most conspicuous
and fruitful successes have been
achieved"
/ He traced the history of the country
which in a century, from a thin string
Of agricultural settlements on the At
/ lantic Coast, had expanded into a vast
empire, spanning a continent, and eX-
ceiling in wealth and material power
every other nation on the globe. I'VE
! cannot close our eyes to the fact that
! in some important respects we are APP
preaching the social conditions of the
/ old world, and in the near future the
! greater part OF our population will be
/ gathered in the large towns
! AS functions of government grow in
/ extent, Importance and complexity, the
necessity grows of their being admins
/ tered not only with honesty, but also
with trained ability and knowledge
/ While every sane man accepts this
proposition as self-evident in theory, it
may be said that every opponent Of
civil service reform desires it in prac-
/ tice The danger is not in a sudden
grand and startling collapse, but the
/ gradual decay Of those elements essen
/ tial to vitality"
/ He eXtolled democratic government
as defined by Lincoln-"Of the people,
/ by the people and for the people"-but
as the offices are used to serve ends
other than the public benefit, or are en-
/ trusted to persons not apt to give to the
! people the best attainable servfce-in
4 that measure democratic government
/ fails.
4 He said he had no particular objec-
/ ton to the doctrine that democratic
/ government is government through
{ political parties. But he added
/ whenever they seek to divert the pub
I lie offices instituted solely for the serv-
Z
/ true purpose, in order to use them for
/ their own Service and benefit, to this
J extent turning the Government
I through political parties into a gov
eminent for political parties, they
strike at one of the vital principles of
/ democratic government"
! Mr. Schurz alluded to the fact that
well-known men and women have
j lately fallen in love with the spIendor
/ of monarchial courts, but he was con-
WINGED that our chief danger did not
/ spring from this source so much as the
/ possibility of the ultimate appearance
/ of a strong man, the chief of an organ
ization, looking for plumber He de-
4 clared that there had actually been
such monarchy on a small scale
among us, and detailed the career of
Tweed, who was not called king, but
I its equivalent, boss From this he
argued that there We're other bosses y
( State bosses" who protected and fos-
( tered one another and he compared
them with the electors of Germany and
/ the rulers of Europe generally, who
J stood side by side with one another
/ This was all due to the existence of the
spoils system. which allows that which
/ belongs to the public, especially the
/ public offices, to be diverted from pub
! lie to private use. Without that sys-
! TEN political bossism would not be pos
] sible.
| Civil service, twenty years ago strug-
Cling apparently in vain, has marvel
ously risen in popular interest because
/ the popular intellect, Disguised with ex-
/ listing abuses, and apprehensiye of
worse things to come. saw in civil serv-
! ice reform the only effective method to
destroy the spoils system. And every
! day the popular demand grows more
general and more energetic for its ex-
I a.
system has stood the test OF practical
! ex perience so triumphantly that the vo-
/ ciferous objections and reyilings of it in
which the spoils politicians used to de-
/ light. have sunk to a mournful mutter
The problem remains how to secure
what we have won by further con-
quest: for the results will not be entirely
safe until the spoils system is totally
abolished.
| He appealed for legislative reform in
/ this matter. Executives were gener-
/ ally safe. but the opponents of civil
service invariably went to Congresses
and Legislatures to thwart the will of
| the people.
! The speaker detailed at great length
\ the perplexites, embarrassments and
4 debasements of the newly elected Con-
gresham. which the spoils system i'm
poses upon him; and as legislator
/ himself told how he had been almost
! forced to recommend for office men he
! knew to be unfit, and others of whom he
knew nothing whatever. THE use of
patronage by members of Congress is
I essentially corrupt and corrupting.
4 II is not this gross form of corruption
which consists in passing bride money
( from hand to hand. But ii is that more
dangerous and demoralizIng, because
more insinuating, corruption, which
wraps itself in the garb of party zeal.