The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-08-02

The fortress of civil service reform
has stood the furious onslaught of the
horde that rallied last March to breach
the walls and capture the citadel. They
stormed and bombarded in vain. Their
catapults have hurled their missiles
against it fruitlessly. Even their covert
sympathizers inside have been unable
to do more than sneak one in now and
then; but the walls remain intact, and
those who feared that they would not
resist the first assault are cheered by
their impregnability. Later there was
begun in the senate the process Of
sapping and mining, but, so far, no
progress appears to have been made.
All such attacks spend their force in
the first assault, and discoura cement
rapidly disintegrates the assaulting
forces. Their commissariat is not equal
to a prolonged siege, and if the re-
sources within the fortress cannot be
quickly reached the pangs of hunger
drive the assailants to forage else
where.
We have had repeated assurances
that the president was considering
some order revoking one or another CT
those made by President Cleveland eX-
tending the scope Of the civil list. He
Was going to revoke the inclusion of
the government printing office and re-
"a RI 10
spoilsmen, but the order is. still I'M
issued Then he was to issue, in a
few days, an order withdrawing the
employees of the internal revenue
bureau from the protection his pre-
decessor had built around them, but
that order is still in allegiance. All they
have is an order removing from the cIas-
sided list two, and in some offices three
positions, whose incumbents stand in
such confidential or responsible rela-
tons TO the head as may possibly have
warranted their exclusion from Presf-
dent Cleveland's order. The very excep-
lions made but rivet tighter the former
order While another change. recurring.
the reasons for disCharging an emnIove
to be put into writing for review, shuts
the last door in the face of those hea ds
OF office who used the power of
removal arbitrarily, hoping to LET
fellow partisan In. True there
mas been a revocation Of the Or
der consolidating the pension agencies
5Ut that affords no consolation ia the
hungry because it merely retains a few
places not on the classified lists. Why
there should have been this expectation
that President Mckinley would DESTROY
what Cleveland had built and dirac+
MS party's steps towards a return 10
a system it has steadily repudfated-
III its platforms-is to be accounted for
only hy the imperious demands ne
munger, to which all considerations
must Weld. 1t certainly was not COM
plimentary to their president, this as
sumption that he was to stultifv mis-
record and join the assailants Of q 20
form which he had stoutIy defended
IL times past
While none Of them have given Ok
preston to the reasons on which their
evident expectation was based. it is
probable that, were they 10 unboson
themselves, they would say that they
felt justified in their anticipations by
the course Of the president in disposing
Of those Offices not included within the
reform. A consistent supporter of the
reform. they would say, would not re-
strict himself 10 obeying the letter Of
the law, but would carry It's spirit into
the performance OF analogous duties not
covered by the law. He would apply
the 4'rirciple of merit to appointments
10 places outside the classified lists.
He would put fitness first and party
service second. He certainly would not
allure his duty Of making appoint
n1ents am content himself with affirm
ing the choice Of The senators Of
states or representatives in congress.
Where he made appointments on his
own account. those that have come 70
be termed personal" he would GER
tairiy not make such VIGOROUSLY IN
fit ones rs he has made.
It is this strange combination If
profession Of loyalty TO The reform
where established. with disregard CT