The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-30
FOR sPoILs.


That a determined assault on the
civil service reform system of the gov
eminent is going to be made there is
no longer any doubt. It looks as
though the assault were going to be
of that kind which stakes all on its
success or failure. The system will
either be more strongly entrenched or
completely routed. The Cincinnati En-
quirer a great power in Ohio and the
surrounding states, is the deadly foe
of the system. It says that we live I'M
der a government by party; that the
people have always divided upon some
public question or line of policy into
two great parties. The Enquirer says
that the men who are made candidates
by party conventions never pose during
the election campaigns as non-partisan;
that they are all politicians, and they
shout the virtues of their party; that
the canvass is POLITICAL; that the people
are all in politics for the time being;
that they are not then told that Of
fees ought not to be bestowed
on political grounds; and the candi'-
dates politics are regarded as the best
guarantee that he will make the best
officer.
That may all be, but neither are the
people told that every incumbent of
office will be turned out if the party in
opposition succeeds. That would drive
off more voters than it would attract
The Enquirer thinks the civil service
rules are a. violation of common sense,
common honesty and common graft
tude, and it would remedy it all by
abolishing the law creating the civil
service commission. 1t is very thor
oughgoing in all it says, declaring that
the Republicans are entitled to the
federal offices under Republican rule,
and their representatives in congress
should see that they have them. If
they do not do this let the civil service
rules be applied by the voters in choos-
ing congressman. Let the candidates
for congress answer schoolmasters
conundrums from the stump, and let
those who excel in that be sent TO con-
gress. The civil service rules were
passed through fear Of a few of the
Miss Nancys of politics. Now let them
be repealed through fear Of the robust
and stalwart party men who believe in
the policies of their party and who
want the offices to be held by reliable
party men, so that the influence they
give to those who hold them may be
exercised in favor of what they believe
to be good
The present system of selecting gov
eminent employees may not be entirely
satisfactory, but it is more satisfactory
than the old spoils system. For the
quarter of a century the Republican
party was uninterruptedly in power the
spoils system had full sway and it was
a continual scandal to the country.
With the advent of each new admins
tration there was such saturnalia Of
spoils as the world never witnessed be-
fore or since. The party was in power
all the time, but the successful faction
got the spells. How did that aid in
furthering the policy of the party?
Where a party is continued in power
for several successive administrations
and the spoils system is in vogue, the
offices very soon fall under the control
of the bosses, who use them to reward
their immediate personal following and
TO punish those of their party who re-
fuse to bow their nec<s to the bosses
yoke. And a party boss, with his party
in power, is simply curse TO the whole
community A reversion to the old
spoils system would be a step back
wards; the country will scarcely
take it.