The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-17
THE PRESIDENTS ~sTEP BACK.
WkRD.

~ ARID.
II the President thought that his order
relieving about $3.50 places in the civil ser
vice from the operation Of he civil service
law would be popular he is beginning TO
ind out that he was mistaken. Very few
papers Of his own party are bold enough -
defend his action Secretary Gage, who
came forward to defend il. is being very
severely criticised. Il IS being POINTED out
that The defense ne makes Is an exceed
ingiy lame one. In fact. some Of the Re
publican papers are saying that he would
have done the President service # he
had said nothing n all. The attempt to
make il appear that the civil service COM
mission was overloaded. and hence couldn't
examine applicants fast enough for The
places 10 be flied. has failed so completely
as TO be ridiculous.
TIE truth Is. the politicians persuaded the
President 10 take a step backward" in the
matter Of civil service reform in order that
they might have places In which TO put
their henchmen and heelers. They made
him believe that in order 10 get large
number of party workers they must have
some patronage, and so the President for
party reasons. struck civil service reform
a blow.
That this Is the real reason that 5000
places were taken out Of the operation of
The civil service law is shown by an IN
terview with Senator Mark Hanna. a day
or two before he started on his trip 20 Eu-
rope. In the course Of that interview ne is
quoted as saying: The Presidents action
is a sensible remedy for bad condition of
things created by President Cleveland
who placed about 5000 places under the
civH service regulations and saddled his
appointees on the Republican party
Here we have the real reason for the
Presidents action There were TOO many
Dmocrats in the civil service. and the pol
iticians were determined TO get rid OF some
Of them and I'M their places with RepubI-
cans who could be depended upon to rem
der service to the Republican party in the
campaign in 1850 When President Cleve-
land made his sweeping civil service order
he didn't inquire whether those who oc-
cupied the Offices were Democrats or Re
that more Republicans than Democrats
were benefited by the order. The purpose
OF Mr.. Cleveland, however, was to pro-
mote the public welfare. But 1t seems the
Republican politicians couldn't endure the
idea that even minority Of the offices
should be filed by Democrats when the
Republican party had control of the gov
eminent. Therefore they prevailed upon
the President TO take a step backward"
IN the matter of civil service reform.
The President viii find before the end of
the next presidential campaign that he
couldn't have done a more unpopular thing
than to substitute the spells system for
the merit system in making civ1 service
appointments even though only 5000
places were affected by the substitution.
The people made a hard fight for The merit
system, and. having been victorious, they
expected the merit system to be perma-
nent They are shocked TO find that the
President who was one of the strongest
advocates of the merit system when it be-
came popular has become viking instru-
ment in the hands of the spoilsmen, for
the destruction Of that system.