Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-07

President Cleveland deserves the thanks
of the whole country-republcans demo-
Gratis. popuists, and all-for the fidelity
with which he has supported the cause of
civil service reform. In spite Of powerful
opposition-much of it from within the po-
htical party with which he has been fdenti-
fied-the President has insisted that the
business of the executive branch OF the
government should be done in a business
like way. His views on the subject of civil
service reform were clearly stated before
he was ever suggested as Presidential
possibility. In letter accepting the demo-
cratic nomination for governor of the State
of New York he thus expressed himself:
"Subordinates in public place should be
selected and retained for their efficiency,
and not because they may be used to ac
complish partisan ends. The people have
right to demand, here, as in cases of pri-
yate employment, that their money be paid
to those who will render the best service
in return, and that the appointment to, and
tenure of. such places should depend upon
ability and merit"
Perhaps the practical politicians imagined
that the governor-elect was not entirely
sincere, but they must have begun to sus-
pect the truth when, in accepting his first
nomination as President Mr.. Cleveland
once more declared himself in the following
unmistakable manner:
The selection and retention of subordi-
mates in government employment should
depend upon their ascertained fitness and
the value of their work, and they should be
neither expected nor allowed to do Ques-
tionable party service. The interests of the
people Will be better protected; the esti-
mate of public labor and duty will be inn
mensely improved; public employment will
be open to all who demonstrate their
fitness to enter it; the unSeamly scramble
Dlapp under ~
Sequent importantly which embitters Of
fetal life, will cease, and the public depart
ments will not be filled with those who con-
ceiVe 1t to be their first duty to aid the
party 10 which they owe their places, in
stead of rendering patient and honest re-
turn to the people"
To the principles upon which civil service
reform is founded President Cleveland has
been, much to the disappointment of the
spoilsme1. unswervingly faithful. Slowly,
but surely, he has extended the protection
which the law authorizes, until there are
now more than eiglity-five thousand gov
eminent employees who are within the clas-
sified service, and who may not be dis
charged save for cause. The executive
order. which was made public yesterday,
added almost thirty thousand federal posi-
tons to the roll en- which no name can ap-
pear until the proprietor of that name has
u
Other Presidents contributed more or less
to the gratifyingly-larg total, but no
other was SO active in the good work as
President Cleveland has been. pleasing
feature of the situation is the fact that no
matter what the changes of national adj
ministration, the work cannot be undone.
1t will, of course, be possible for schemins
politicians of the baser sort to GUST an &C.
casional individual by trunping up some
seeming cause for dismissal, but such cases
will be few.
The sweeping extension of the civil SER
vice rule was a coura geo-s act but it was
not surprising. No one has ever accused
President Cleveland of cowardice and we
do not imagine that anyone will do 50.
The Presidents convictions are sometimes
out OF accord with the popular idea, but no
one can seriously say that they are not
absolutely honest in tn cir origin and argyll
nent. In this case the presidential conclu-
slons harmonic with the will of the great
majority of Americans, and they cannot be
too warmly praised; they are the logical
sequence Of the many presidential utter
ances In behalf of civil service reform, and
fully entitled 20 the enconfurns which
will surely be showered upon them by
every citizen of the United States VINO be-
Heves in good government
Locally, the extension means a great
zeal 1t renders impossible the quadren-
NAL upsettins which has heretofore sue
eeeded each Inaugural ton. 1t will give to
departmental employees assurance of stable
employment which can only result in max
ing the national capital, more than ever
before, city of hones.
In all things pertaining to civil service
reform President Cleveland has done well.