The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-01-12

THE Northheld NeDS, 80 far as our
observation extends, is the first paper
in the new year to start the biennial
crusade against individuals holding the
high State offices below those of gov
ernor and lieutenant governor. The
contemporary discourses upon the wis
dom Of rotation in Office and imagines
that it hears public demand, quite i'm
perative in it's tone-imagination is
someti mes a powerful aid to the sense
of hearing and fruitful source of con-
venient facts-that the secretary OF state
and the state treasurer, in particular,
shall yield up their respective offices to
some one Of the hungry and thirsty as
pirants for lucrative official places. 1t
is worthy of note in this connection
that this cry starts this year from To-
cality that, through one of its promi.
nent citizens, held the Office of secre.
tary of state from the year 1866 TO 1884,
a period of nineteen years. Yet the
Ne,cS is begrudging the present occu-
pant Of that Office continuance in its
honors of less than half that perit d.
1t is recalled by those familiar with all
the circumstances, that the State was
served with ever increasing efficiency
by DR.. Nichols, and in no year more
efficiently and acceptably than in the
last of his long tenure of the office.
The minor executive offices are filed
by capable men who have performed
their duties with degree of ability and
fidelity that can hardly be bettered by
any change that would be made. In
deed, it is matter of serious doubt if
the public service would be as efficient
ly performed, at least for one or more
official terms, by new men in the places
OF the old. 1t may be that none of the
present incumbents of the offices in
question desires further reelection -
but that is another story, as Kipling
might say.
In the debate, last week, on the modi-
acation OF the civil service law in the
direction of reason and real practical
business efficiency, the public, as rep
resented by the crowded galleries, ap-
plauded Representative Grosvenor's
denunciation ofthe abuses in the pub
lie service that have been practiced in
the name of civil service reform. The
faddists, with Carl Schurtz at their
head, who annually meet and rehearse
their dreary stuff about the particular
reform and go over their state cant
about the "spoils system" are respon-
sible for large part of the popular
dissatisfaction with the existing law
regulating appointments to the public
service. They have been instrumen tal
in securing the adoption of those re-
quirements of law against which the
members of the cabinet, in response to
the request of Congress for an express
sion Of opinion, have directed their
criticism. The law made it possible
for Grover Cleveland, just before step
ping down and out of the public SER
vice to CONFIRM some $4,000 of the ap.
pointees under his administration in
their offices by his order extending the
limits of the classified service. AS
matter of morals this act was very much
like stripping the executive mansion of
its furnishings and Juggling them away
to Princeton. 1t was supreme act of
partisanship. 1t was pre.empting, for
a class of men politically opposed to
the administration that WAS to succeed
to the government, offices that should
be filed by persons in sympathy with
the new order Of things. 1t was taking
away from the heads of the chief ad-
ministrative departments the power to
appoint their confidential clerks and
assistants, for whose acts they were in.
dividually responsible. 1t was an act