Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-05-20

of Omee.
 By the order signed the other day Inv President Cleveland the protection of the civil service law has been thrown over 30. 900 federal employees hereto fore outside the classified lists. and q large share Of the spells of victory is snatched away from the political marty that shall be victorious at the Noyem. Der elections. This order Is so sweeDinp ill it's character that the political and official world at Washington has hardly yet grasped it's full scope and meaning.
 The civil service of the United States government has grown to be vast and complex machinery, requiring a multi l tude of hands and brains to control it. The federal employees have long been known as a great army, ' and the full significance ef the presidents action can best be appreciated by the state ment that of the rank and file of that army, not counting scullions and camp followers, en'y 775 remain who are sub- 1 ject to appointment and removal by the president of the United States or those 1 acting under his authority. When 1 James A. Garfield was elected presi dent of the United States the number
 of federal officials from whom My Dear Hubbell, treasurer of the cam
 paign committee, squeezed political contributions was something like 50.
 900, and all of them were dependent
 upon the good will of the party in pow l CT. Today there are in that greatly in-
 creased army only 775 enlisted men
 who can be reached by the political spoilsmen.
 President Cleveland's order came as a
 surprise to almost every man ill con- gress, as 1t was not generally known
 that he had such plan i'll contempla- tion, although few of those whom he regards as his personal and political friends among the senators and repre- sentatiyes had been consulted. Some of
 the department officials also had been taken into the presidents confidence. and through them the knowledge of
 what was to happen had been imparted 1 to few friends of the cause But those
 who thought they knew the president 1 best were of the opinion that he had
 abandoned the intention of taking action
 when so near the close of his presiden-
 tial term. They thought he would con- tent himself with arranging the details
 of the plan to be recommended to the 1 favorable action of his successor But apparently no such purpose animated
 the president, and 1t is just beginning to dawn upon the minds of the Republican ! saso 7.
 liberately, with malice aforethought,
 robbed them of what would have been
 their richest spells of war if they should
 win the November battle.
 1t is not in Washington, with its nu-
 merous hives of more or less busy gov
 ernment bees, that the loss of patronage will be most severely felt by the con- gressmen and others holding influential 1 political offices, but in the states where
 the federal patronage is used more di-
 rectly in behalf of ambitious congress-
 men, and where of late it has been so effective in controlling the action of con-
 ventions. Not for 15 years have the or
 dinary government clerks ill the depart
 ments at Washington been subject to
 dismissal for political reasons, and for
 the past six or seven years the chiefs of
 have been, as a rule, secure in their l places during good behavior.
 This has not been true Of the federal
 employees throughout the states, but
 now, under the new order of the presi- 1 dent. the employees of the postoffices, 1 the custom houses, the internal revenue
 offices, the deputy United States mar shals, the employees of the steamboat inspection service, marine hospital serv- | ice, lighthouse service, hints, assay of- 1 fees, and, i'll fact, all the officials below | the grade of those subject to conhrma- I ton by the senate and above that of
 labor, with a few exceptions, of every
 branch of the government service, can 1 be removed only for cause, and their successors can be appointed only upon 1 the recommendation of the civil service
 commission and after competitive ex-
 animation. Political influence will be
 powerless to control them, and, indeed, will not be consulted by the appointing 1 power.
 When the civil service law was first
 enacted. and for few years thereafter,
 congressmen opposed to it from princi-
 pie were inclined to wipe it from the
 statute books by withholding appropria-
 tions for its support, but they found 1 this an impraeticable method of killing
 a law. and as they seemed to be running ill the face of public sentiment they | abandoned all efforts to kill the law,
 and have since learned to accept the in-
 evitable with complacency. The relief
 felt at being rid of the worry of trying
 to please every applicant for an office I has almost reconciled them to the un-
 American system of perpetuating an l office holding clas&
 The Republicans, as party, are more | in favor of the civil service law than 1 the Democrats, and the real point of 1 their criticism of the presidents action s- | fhn affiaac with