The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-08-03


are talking of Police Commissioner
Theodore Roosevelt's future. The
vigorous fight he is waging for the en-
forcement Of law in this city and the
abuse which he naturally incurs from
the lawless element. who have never
before been treated to the spectacle Of
city administration really intent upon
doing its duty and not to be dissuaded
from such purpose, either by bribes
or pulls, have combined to make him
for the moment the most talked about
man In Gotham. 1t seems to be the
consensus Of belief that he may succeed
Colonel Strong as mayor; or that he
may be governor, In time; and there are
some who go so far as to intimate that.
as civil service reform ideas spread and
the era Of cleaner politics dawns, Roose-
welt, as the fighting chieftain of this
great political reformation, may yet be
the logical candidate of decent and
| grateful men for president. Such Is the
talk on the streets and in the offices
| and hotels; but 1t does not appear to
effect Mr.. Roosevelt in the slightest.
| In the thick of it he Is the same brainy,
| fearless, aggressive and self-contained
| man as Of yore, surcharged with energy
yet full at the same time of prudence
| and discretion. 1t Is the misapprehen-
| sion of some that Roosevelt Is an err
ratio. impulsive, uncertain character.
| Nothing Is further from the truth. He
Is sagacity personifled. No other young
man In American public life Is endowed
with a larger quantity Of ballast than
Is Theodore Roosevelt.
| Tributes from Fair Opponents.
Some Of the best tributes to this
virile young American came from men
who have differed from him In partisan
| effort and discussion. Take, for in
stance, Henry Macfarland's recent
| Washington letter. Macfarland Is a
Democrat Of the Democrats, working
necessarily for Democratic interests.
Roosevelt to an equal degree Is Re-
publican, where party does not clash
with public duty. Yet Macfarland
writes Of Roosevelt: II had supposed
that If any on thing occurring here dur
Ing the last decade was thoroughly we'll
known the country over. and even in
the New York newspaper offices, 1t was
! that Theodore Roosevelt had achieved
a remarkable success in his work here.
l thought he had fully demonstrated
| to all the inhabitants Of these United
States that he had the ability, the pa
tience, the pugnacity-in short all those
things that are needful to win a great
battle against great odds. Yet, now
that he is engaged In what is actually
a less important contest, in all it's cir
cumstances and consequences. some Of
the New York papers seem to think that
he can be either ridlculed or bulldozed
out of it. They simply show that they
do not know the man or what he did
here.
| What Roosevelt Has Done.
"When Mr.. Roosevelt came to Wash
ington he found the civil service law on
the statute books, to be sure. and a
civil service commission in existence
to enforce it, but he found, too, that in
spite of what had been done by con-
gress and by the executive under the
pressure Of well-directed, though lin
tied public opinion, the great majority
Of politicians Of both parties, including
all the party bosses. hated civil service
reform, hated 1t all the more because SO
much had been wrung from them In its
name, and were prepared to do every
thing In their power to thwart ii. He
came to Washington at a time when
some Of the stoutest hearts among civil
service reformers were inclined to
doubt whether they would be able to
hold what they had gained, and were
more than doubtful as to making any
advance. 1t seemed to be the hour OF
the power Of darkness and some of the
spoilsmen We're confident that II
marked the beginning Of the end of the
much-despised reform.
ut is not too much to say that civil
service reform owes all that 1t has
gained sirce that time much more
largely to Theodore Roosevelt than to
any other man. Since George William
Curtis acted as chairman of the first
,ivil service commission. under Presi-
dent Grant. nobody used the opportun.
tiles Of the civil service commissioners
ship to advance it's objects as Mr.. Roos.
evelt did. His predecessors had hin
dered the reform at least as often as
they had helped it and had always fol
lowed rather than led the reformers
Mr.. Roosevelt. as civil service commits
sioner, became the actual leader of thc
reform forces, although Mr.. Curtis and
others still sounded the trumpets, and
by his aggressive. and at the same time
prudent and even tactful fighting, he
established the reform In an impreS-
nable position.
The Triumph Of Reform.
"No one has any Coutt now that the
principles of civil service reform viii
be appled to all the offices Of the gov
ernment and that in al PROBABILITY thk
work viii be accomplished before the
present administration goes out Of pow
er. and the most an;iquated spoilsmar
has no real belief that he will ever bt
able to get the old system restored
even in very limited WHY. Presiden
Cleveland has extended the civil ser
vice rule to the last stronghold OF the
spokesman in the federal service-th,
government printing ofilce--so tina
there is now no government place out
side of the classified service except tht
Administrative offices. The office!
known as chiefs OF divisions. AMI thu
private secretaries. together with tn,
charwomen and such humble labor err
and these excepted places, only a few
score all told, will probably be brough