The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-03-25

N'NNNSS''i
ment-To Maintain Pure Service Eter-
nal Vigilance Is Niece ssary.
The University Civil Service Reform
club was highly honored in being able
to present Charles ]. Bonaparte, ESQ.,,
of Baltimore, last evening, at the Col
lege street hall.
Mr., Bonaparte spoke here before the
college some ten years ago, and the ta-
vorable impression then made drew
large audience despite the rather un-
pleasant weather, and the other attrac-
tions of the evening,
Mr.. Bonaparte it will be remembered,
is a grandson of the great Jerome Bon
aparte, who was made king of West
phalia by his brother, Napoleon. He
was one ofthe greatest French soldiers,
leading a division at Waterloo. Mr..
Bonaparte's brother, Jerome, was also
a great general, graduating at West
Point in 1852, he served through the
Crimean war, and was in the thick OF
that bloody conflict Doubtless some OF
the heroic martial spirit courses in the
veins of the speaker of last evening,
especially evident was it when he urged
not theory but action as the watch
word of the hour,
Promptly at s o'clock President
Dwight stepped upon the platform and
introduced the speaker.
Mr. Bonapartes theme was THE Es-
sential Element in Good Government"
He said. in part:
"At the Delphian oracle, a place
which did business on business princi-
,N1a Nd ha ch hoGfS there
was a motto over the door which was
worth more than all the doubtful pre-
dictions peddled out within. Know
thyself is equally applicable to a gov
ernment and to an individual. What,
then, are the conditions of good gov
ernment and why do we not have such?
Perhaps the first condition of success is
to know what We want. Civil service
reformers, / believe err in underesti-
mating the aims of the movement. 1t
is not merely to pull down the spoils
system and then to stop. No law nor
system will work automatically. Four
teen years of experience have shown us
this evil. 1t is a failure to recognize
the conditions under which we live. II
we are to have good government we
must have good citizens.
Long ago Burke said: There never
We're good laws among corrupt peo-
pie. There are many people in the ma
ton to-day who wish for good govern
ment, but who do not wish hard enough
to make any effort to attain it. ! re-
member an incident concerning a man
who was run over in the congested
part of large city. A crowd gathered
around him, with numerous sympathet-
ic calculations Finally a busy citizen
rushed up, took in the situation at
glance and exclaimed: I pity him
dollars worth to help provide a hack
to take him home; how much do you
pity him?' He then went about his
business.
THE principle is the same here. We
ought not to complain, then if we fail
to run the government in the interest
of the government, if some one else
steps up and runs it in his own interest.
Since we cannot have a good govern
ment until we have perfect citizens,
and that probably will not happen, at
least not right away, it does not pre-
vent us from having a better govern
ment than we have. This is a moral
and only yincidentallya a politicalquestion
The ideal before us is to impress upon
citizens the true end of government.
Method is not the only question. If we
have good men in office, no matter
what the defects in the system may be,
the chances are that We will have a
good government. But given a corrupt
office-holder, no matter how perfect the
system, the result can only be cor
rupt government. In administration
the human element must always play
the leading part.
There has been much literary and
scientific criticism. We would not dis
credit them. They are all right in their
place, but they do not take the place
of immediate action when such is nec-
essary What relief would a treatise
on a disease or of remedy do to the
widow just streturning from placing f1ow-
ers on her husbands grave?
I'm the present crisis there is some-
thing to be done But too many re-
formers are apt to stop and attempt to
explain their own particular panacea
of prohibition, woman's suffrage or sin
gle tax, whose beauty is indeed appar-
ent to the eye of faith, but is in no wise
a help to us to get at the scoundrel
who pockets the salary we pay. We
must get at the heart of the matter
and act. Letting Utopia take care of
itself, if we attempt what lies right be-
fore us, the impossible will take on a
new form, and we will attain it when
we reach out after it. Freedom and
good government are not for slumber-
ers.
1.-The word politics is apt to have
rather a bad meaning. If it means
nothing but party SpoilS it cannot be
made pure; it is only another name for
unadulterated rascality. But let US
take the term in the better sense. Pure
means sound; that set of qualities than
which no other can take its place. A
man is pure when he is honorable and
disinterested in the public business,
though he be anything but saint in
other ways. This is the difference be-
tween Alexander Hamilton and his op-
ponent, but neither was a saint in his
private life.
Civil service reformers have talked
too much about cost This is not a.
mere matter of expense. but of cover
ing our shame, of holding our coun-
try's interest sacred and of attaining
at last glorious victory over all cor