The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-17
CHARGES AGAINST M'NNLEY
sPoILs SYSTEM FLoURIsRES UN.
DER ADMINISTRATION.
President Yields to Partisan Pressure
and Pledges Have Not Been Re
deemed-Civil Service Resolutions.

Baltimore, Md, Dec 16-The Ma
tional- Civil Service Reform association,
in convention here at its second day s
session, devoted almost the entire
morning to a discussion of the report of
the committee on resolutions, which
charged the present national admins
tration with a violation of the spirit, if
not the letter, of the civil service rules.
The resolution, as finally adopted,
congratulate the lovers of good gov
ernment on the failure of the recent
attack in congress upon the merit sys-
tenn" Assert that the convention has
heard with grave concern the report
that the president of the United States
intends to withdraw from civil service
rules a large number of positions under
the government and express the belief
that such action is contrary to the in
terests Of the public service; cite in
stances of alleged departure from civil
service rules within the past year;
charge that the administration has
failed to redeem its promise to extend
the rule wherever possible, and in con-
clusiCn assert that the rule of the
newly acquired dependencies will result
in disaster and disgrace if conducted
On the plans Of the spoils politician.
The following officers were elected:
President, Carl Schurz; vice presidents
Charles Francis Adams of Boston,
Henry Hitchcock of St. Louis, August
Madonough of Chicago, H. z. Lea of
Philadelphia, Franklin MacVeagh of
Chicago, Bishop H. c. Potter of New
York, Bishop H. P. Ryan of Philadel-
phia, \. NJ. Potts Of New York.
The afternoon session was taken up
with the reading of papers, the first of
which was THE Need and Means Of
Providing Stable and Competent Civil
Service for Our New Dependencies, by
Dorman D. Eaton.
Mr. Eaton said: when we see the
president, at SO momentous time as
this, apparently yielding to partisan
pressure in our own civil administTa-
ton, we may well be anxious, not only
pendencies, but for the historic reputa-
ton of the government CT the United
States in one Of the grayest crises OF its
history"
Herbert Welsh of Philadelphia, sec
retary of the Indian Rights associa-
ton, read a paper on the "Murrain Of
SPoils in the Indian Service" He said:
There is a. disease in American poll
tics much to be dreaded. It is the 'Mur-
rain of spoils. He went on to speak
Of what he knew of its ravages in the
Indian service under the five admins
trations of which he had personal
knowledge. During that period he knew
of but q single appointment to the In
dian commissionership (that Of General
T. J. Morgan by President Harrison)
where the choice was made with an eye
single TO the welfare Of the Indians
Mr. Welsh regretted to say that so
far in the present administration no
distinctively beneficial policy had been
Instituted, and no conspicuously help
ful act performed. He knew of no in
stance where the spells pressure had
been resisted, and of a very large num-
ber Of cases where it had been the
controlling force. He had known no
administration where the appeal of dis
interested friends Of the Indian, based
on facts and reason, had so constantly
gone unheeded, and where the voice of
the spokesman had so universally pre-
vailed.
The final paper was presented by
Charles ]. Bonaparte of Baltimore, and
was entitled Can We Trust Our Army
to Spoilsmen?"