The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-16
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
TEMPERATURES.
INVITING TROUBLE

INVITING TROUBLE.
1t comes from so many different
sources that we are compelled to ac-
cept as true the statement that the
president is returning to the method of
selecting appointees to Office that pre-
vailed in the palmy days of the spoils
system, so far as relates to the offices
not within the classified lists. AppIi-
cants who present their papers or re-
quests to the president are asked if
they have the Endorsement of their
senators or their representatives, and if
they have not they are advised to Sc
cure them. One gentleman, 1t is re-
lated, longtime friend of the presi-
dent, sought appointment for a. place
for which he was we'll fitted. Asked
what papers he had, he replied that he
thought the president we'll enough ac-
quainted with him and his ability TO
require none. He feared that he could
not secure the Endorsements of his sem
ators but was told that he had better
get them. Another case is that of Bel
was understood, the president desired
to appoint assistant secretary of state.
His fitness is conceded. But Senator
Foraker went to the president and in
formed him that Mr.. Storer was Der
soma non grata to him, having antago-
nized him politically, whereupon Mr..
Storer's name was erased from the LIST
of eligibles.
This is a distinct return to the DAYS
of senatorial courtesy" whose climax
was the Garfield Conkling controversy
and the bullet of Guiteau. 1t is a re-
turn to the practices when senator's
agreed or quarreled over the larger
federal offices in their states. and as
sumed the right to name their incum-
bents; when representatives owned the
lesser federal offices in their districts
and removed and appointed their oc-
cupants at pleasure. The material is
far less than it was in those balcvon
Gays OF the spoilsmen, but the number
of applicants will not be less. and
consequently, the friction caused will
be the greater.
We regret this because if is 81 for
elgn to that principle that lies at the
base of the reform of the civil service
a movement which has had the cordial
approval and support of the president.
that appointments to office should be
made with the fitness of the appointee
as the chief object; because it is a dis
tinct bestowal of a constitutional DUTY
and power on irresponsible persons
and because its inevitable effect will be
to restore the machine in full renair
1t also indicates lack of that strength
of character and sense Of duty that
enabled Presidents Harrison and Cleye-
land to assert their constitutional pre-
negatives and make appointments IN
der full sense of the responsibility
laid upon them by the constitution. 1t
BODIES i'll for an administration sur
rounded by conditions that require
courage, f1rmness and independence.
The selection of men to fill office by a
president who can know but very few
OF the applicants is a duty attended
with difficulties. Any president is nat
urally DESTROYS of securing competent
and reputable persons. and he is oblig-
ed to depend upon the assurance of
those whom he may know, to a very
large extent 1t is right that the pub
lie men of state, the senators and
representatives, should give him their
counsel in these cases. But to saw
that their advice and that Of no others
will be needed; that their united re-
quest will be accepted; that the ad-
vice or protests of the unofficial citizen
will be unheeded, is to divest the
president Of duty imposed by the con-
stitution and invest others with it; and.
judging from the past, 1t is to ignore
ability and fitness and install incom-
potency, favoritism and the worst fea-
lures of the spoils system.
If the president seeks to escape the
crush of applicants, and it is but natural
that he should, for they are a pestifer-
ously persistent lot, and thus avoid a
present CrOuDte, ne is merely UeIerr1nS
the day of grief. In the strifes Of the
past between senators and representa-
tives and influential men in the party
we have no doubt the presidents who
adopted the method the president now
restores found more perplexity and
trouble than did. either Mr.. Harrison or
Cleveland in the course they pursued.