The San Francisco call., 1896-04-08

item of great consequence"
Allen pointed out the absurdities of
many of the questions that might be put
to postoffice applicants by the civil SER
vice examiners. and he asked what earthly
bearing such questions had on the fitness
of somebody to run little fourth-class
postoftice in village fifteen or twenty
miles from large town. The rank and
file of the people. many of whom had done
service for the country in its hour of peril,
were to be set aside, ignored and practi-
cally dlsfranchised by the adoption of such
''silly and nonsensical rules, and by that
means the peonle were to be isolated from
their own postoffices.
In the course of colloquy between
Allen, Hoar (R.l of Massachusetts, and
Villas CD of Wisconsin on the subject of
civil service Hoar referred to Roosevelt as
having been bold, courageous, intelligent
and most efficient administrator of the
civil service laws. He did not think Mr..
Cleveland, who had done great many
good things, deserved to be written up
very high on that score. The reform, how
ever, had come to stay. Hoar inveighed
against the state of things that existed be-
fore civil service reform was inaugurated.
That state of things had been, he said, the
running sore of the country-the offensive
stencil in the nostrils, the disgrace, the
degradation, the shame, the infamy of
the American people. The men who un-
dertook the reform had determined to put
a stop to that evil; and if they did not get
the best possible substitute they got what
was hundred fold. a million fold better
than that which it had displaced.
ION the WHOLE" Hoar added, "and in
the main, President Cleveland and his
Cabinet have carried out the civil service
law, and President Harrison and his Cabi-
net. with some exceptions, carried it out.
But when the history of that great reform
comes to be written the names that shall
be written in indelible characters are the
names of D. E. Eaton, Senator Hawley
and Theodore Roosevelt"
Wolcott (R.) OF Colorado made an earn
est civil service speech, in which he said
he did not agree with Senator German
that the corner grocery was the corner
stone of the Republic. He did agree with
that Senator, however, in denouncing the
habit of Cabinet officers making speeches
all over the country. The last Cabinet
l
stalking down in Georgia in favor of gold
monometallism." He should have called
attention to it earlier had it not been for
the fact that that official was better away
than at Washington so far as his public
duties and his performance of them were
concerned.
us the point you make" Hill CD of
New York asked, ''that Cabinet officer
has no right to make these speeches
throughout the country to the neglect of
his duties. or is it that he has no right to
make political speeches at all ?"
II take it," Wolcott replied, ''that he
has no right to make speeches to the
neglect of his duties"
Hill-That is the point of your criti-
cism?
Wolcott-At this time.
Hill suggested that it had been the Gus
tom heretofore for Cabinet officials to make
political speeches. and that it was also the
custom of English statesmen like Glad
stone, Salisbury and others.
Wolcott, in reply to that suggestion,
said that those statesmen were also men,
bers of the British Parliament, and there
fore were entitled to make speeches in pub
lie justifying their action. Therefore the
analogy did not lie. He commented upon
the neglect of the. Secretary of the Interior
to carry out the acts of Congress in regard
to the lands of the Uncompahgre Indian
reservation in Utah and in regard to Pa.
cific railroad lands, and said that the Sec
retary might just as we'll be making stump
speeches in Georgia as sitting in his ex-
ecutive Office. But the very lack of atten-
ton to public duties which might charac-
terize these Cabinet officials was more an
additional reason why the power of max
ing appointments should be taken from
them. Nobody knew better than the SEN
ator from Maryland (Gorman) that his
own personal wishes and the wishes Of his
absolutely for nothing in the making of
postoffice appointments.
German took exception to what he con-
sidered q restraint upon him in Wolcott's
remarks, which idea, however, Wolcott en-
tlrely disclaimed.
German declared that since he had been
a Senator Qs81) there had not been
dozen postmasters in Maryland appointed
on his recommendation. He therefore re-
senued the intimation that his opposition
to the amendment was because it would
take away patronage.
Wolcott again disclaimed having given
any such intimation, but he repeated that
it was unseemly that those appointments
of fourth-class postmasters should be based
on politics-"and on politics of a low
sort"
Stewart (Pop.) of Nevada argued against
civil service reform as having tendency
to replace simple democracy with con-
solidated despotism.
Allison (R.) of Iowa, in charge of the
bill, after remarking that the question of
civil service reform had nothing more to
do with the pending question than it had
to do with the war in Cuba moved to lay
Wolcott's amendment on the table. The
motion was agreed to and the anne ndment
was laid on the table-ayes 4s, noes 7.