Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-05-19
TWELVE PAGES.
SATURDAY. MAY 10, 1900.
SENATOR HALE'S WARNING.

AS to the value and advantages OF
the civil service system in the making
of public appointments there is a wide
difference of opinion among men OF all
parties in this country. The system has
its warm champions and its bitter op
ponents even among those who are not
in any sense the beneflciaries or the
victims Of the spoils system. AS car
ried out by this administration, the
civil service system Is the merest sham
and hypocrisy. and, of course. Is come
Into the contempt that sooner or later
overtakes sham and hypocrisy. Whether
civil service system. faithfully carried
out. would insure an unimpeachab BILE
public service may we'll be doubted.
That 1t would result in u vast improve
ment over the spoils system. now prev
alent. Is clearly indicated by the expe-
rience of other nations.
The Cuban postal scandals and the
prospect 1--WE might say the certainty
that they will be repeated in other
forms In others of the colonies" have
forced this question again to the front,
and have empha sized the necessity for
providing some means whereby fitness.
rather than more or less shady" SER
vice to the party. shall dominate in the
selection of those who shall administer
affairs in outlying territory.
Senaor Hale. when speaking to the
resolution calling for the application of
civil service rules to the making of all
future appointments in the territory ac-
quired. was we'll within the facts when
he asserted:
THE history OF colonial possessions,
from the days of the Romans to the
present time is a history of robbery,
peculation. extravaganza. wrong, doing
In high quarters, and corruption broad
and large. I do not think that the ex-
amples of to-day are going to show
that the American people are to be ex-
empt from the monstrous evils which
always have attempted n colonial pol
ICY"
Americans believe In doing things in
large way. and the examples Mr.. Nc
Kinley's henchmen have given OF steal
ing and lootng in the colonies show
that magnitude and munifcence in ac-
QUESTION and expenditure are to obtain
dhere as they have often obtained in
administrations. more directly respon-
eible to the American people. Even
native Cubans. accustomed as they
we're TO Spanish populations, were
numbfounded and amazed by the scale
and facility that marked the thieyinr
OF MI Nicely and his numerous accom-
plices. OF high and low degree.
u hit
@stent concomitant OF American adj
Enin1stration OF colonial affairs? Ia the
American politician, with a rIpe know1-
edge OF ways that are crooked 10 he
substituted for the impecunious and
really unsophistlcated Spanish noble
men in the constant stream Of those
who shall so out to the Islands lean of
purse and return with the plumber of
Roman Satraps In the palmy days of
the provinces, or OF English adven-
turers when India iods origin plundcrino
ground for Hastings and Give? And arc
these things to go on with little OF pro-
test or OF punishment, because Wash
inston fears to expose. and shrnks
from prosecuting the guilty ones?
These be no idle questions We have
started out that way. Who can give
any assurance that In less than six
months the story of Nicely will not be
duplicated from Porto Rico or Manila?
Certainly not an administration domi-
mated by spoilsmen and in mortal ter
FOR OF those who have brought disgrace
upon 1t and upon the nation.
It IS really too bad that the esteemed