Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-05
HERE IS MACS" LETTER, Complexion of the Civil Service
 Commission. ABOUT THE SUNN SIDE OF IT The langle of the limoges in the Nicaragua BuSiness-Natonal News Served in
 Crisp and Inviting Form.

Washington, April 3O.-Since the report
 has become current that Mr. Theodore
 Roosevelt has rendered his resignation
 as civil service commissioner to the pres-
 ident in order to accept a position as
 head of the police commission of New
 York the discovery has been made by the
 republican press of this city and empha-
 sized by the average toiler in the ranks
 of the republican party, that the board
 of civil service commissioners is at pres
 ent composed of men from three parties
 MT. Roosevelt is rated as republican,
 MT. Proctor as democrat, and MT. Ly-
 man as an independent. This discovery
 is remarkable only for the fact that it is
 used as an argument in favor Of replac-
 ing Mr Roosevelt with a republican 'in
 order that the party may have repre-
 sentative in the board" It strikes the
 average wayfarer as funny that 1t has
 taken all of these years to discover that
 MT. Roosevelt is the only republican in
 the board of civil service commissioners,
 and that his withdrawal will leave the g.
 o. D. without representative should the
 president appoint democrat to succeed
 him. It is a sad fact that the press or
 Washington doles out a good deal of
 
 for aught I know, be a sad fact that the
 readers aforesaid are fond of the diet, but
 it requires the vivid and refulgent imag-
 ination of a Baron Munchausen to dis
 cover that the civil service board has TOT
 all of these years contained but one re-
 publican
 When the civil service law, through the
 kind offices of MT. Pendleton, was placed
 upon the statute books, republican president occupied the White 1use and
 both branches of congress were domi-
 mated by the same party. The board ap-
 pointed as a result of the enactment ot
 that law consisted of three members.
 The dominant party secured two of these
 and the minority party one. Ever since, throughout the changes that have been rung, this condition of affairs has existed, and the democratic party, though twice in power has never enjoyed the distlnc- ton of having a majority representa- ton in the board. If MT. Lyman during all these years, has been an independent, standing, as one paper puts it, not for party but for civil service reform pure, simple and only, it has taken the country a long time to make the discovery. CIVIL
 service reform is good thing. It has, all
 now admit, come to stay, and after Wlt-
 messing the operation I am of those who
 believe that the government is the better for it's operation, but the sickly effort to
 secure to the g. o. D. continuation or
 prestige in the board causes the average onlooker to be overcome with that tired feeling" to such an extent that even Lydia Pinkham's compound will not eff feet a cure. It's rather late in the day for our friends, the enemy, to be- gin to cry 'poor me!' They have not only enjoyed the greater part of the usufruct arising from the operation | of the law, but they have been sorry that the board was not solidly republican. The work Mir Cleveland IS very likely to secure an ardent civil ser vice reformer, for he is a thorough be- liever in the good effects of the law, but he will also see to it that the appointee was raised on democratic milk. It is a fact that the commission should, in its official conduct, know no politics. but personally it's members should be allowed a choice when casting their ballots, and the choice of the majority should be to consider it a proud event to vote for democrats.
 The United States didn't pull the British lions tail after all as a result of the little | unpleasantness at present existing be- tween England and Nicaragua. Perhaps | it is as well, for had this government established the precedent of interfering | to prevent the collection of debts from | the South American republics, 1t would | have had one eternal trouble on it's | hands. All the same there is the shadow | of an opinion prevailing that once Johnny | Bull fastens his feet upon the shore of l Nicaragua, he will be loath to remove l them, and may conclude to hold on to l everything in sight. John has way | about him of looking with 1ustful eyes | upon the earth and when he is given the 1 opportunity of planting himself upon | foreign soil he does his level best to con | vert that soil into British possession. | Well, we shall see what we shall see. l In the meantime the administration is | of course being everlastingly lambasted | by the hurrah press because 1t didn't | fall into the jingo pace set so beautifully | by MT. Blaine during his incumbency | of the state department. To the presi- | dents credit be it said he is not a jingoist. | He never plays for effect or for the ap- | plause of the curbstone crowd. He studies | the questions of right and wrong as he sees them, and having made up his mind | the curtain goes up on the drama mapped | out by him without flourish of trumpet | or beat of tom-tom. He realizes that l ''he'll be d. if he does and be d. if | he doesn't,' and evidently he doesn t | care a continental which horn of the | dilemma Is seized for club by the clans
 outside. He Is probably the most abused | and at the same time the most widely ad- | mired president who ever occupied the | executive mansion, and will occupy a | proud position in contemporaneous his
 tory. He is bold even to the verge of 1 madness as witness ms now famous | tariff message and his more recent dec | laration against the free and unlimited | coinage of silver.
 | Speaking of this latter declaration
 leads me to wonder If the trouble now | prophesied by the calamity howlers is | to overtake the democratic party be- cause it refuses to solidly array itself in l favor of the unlimited sway of the white 1 meatl. might believe this did not mem
 ory go back to the time when these same | gentlemen-every jack of them-pro- | claimed that it would be suicide to re-