Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-12-22

II k2 81 ing to anyway! Inc pr0pO-
ga nents in chief of the civil
service reform had con-
fabulation in Washington not long
since, and some of the ardent brethren
pitched into President Roosevelt i'll the
most vociferous fashion. Now, be it
remembered that for, 10, these many
years Colonel Roosevelt was the bell
wether in the civil service reform move
ment. He was its brightest light. His
efforts in that behalf rendered him
persona non grata to Roscoe Conkling.
who possessed an exceedingly bitter
tongue and who said some very I'M
pleasant things about President Roose-
velt when the latter was i'll the New
York legislature. In fact, Conkling
never lost an opportunity to sneer at
all civil service reformers. He denom-
mated them .'snivel service reform
ersn On memorable occasion he
characterized George William Curtis
&, Co. as imam mlliners," sobriquet
which stuck to them all their days
Conkling was the leader of the stall
warts and hated James Gillespie Blaine
and all his works with an intensity
that smacked of ferocity That Presi-
dent Roosevelt has lived to be assailed
by his old brother civil service reform
ers must be accounted one of the
strangest phenomena of these strange,
times. What can the matter be? Has
he kept faith and are they jealous of
Ia
favors which he has refused to grant?
Has he learned from practical expert
ence in high places that the theory to
whose exploitation he devoted much of
energy and time cannot be applied
successfully? Nobody knows or seems
to know. He was boldly charged with
violating the theory which he has so
long preached 1t is only fair to state
that be was stoutly defended by his
friends. 1t is a pretty quarrel as it
stands
In the meantime. when the appropri
alton for the maintenance of the civil
service commission came up the other
day, those two Republican war horses.
General Charles Henry Grosvenor of
Ohio and Colonel William Peters Hep
burn of Iowa. who believe that to the
victors belong the spoils and who have
grown gray III that faith, jumped on it
with both feet, but all their endeavors
were vain, for the house refused to
starye the commission to death. So the
civil service reform system will go Oh
for at least one year more unless the
senate kills tia thing altogether inn
probable-for one way and another, by
hook or by crook. the conscript fathers
manage to take unto themselves much
spoil. They prate a good deal about
civil service reform. but at the same
time their appetite for pap grows with
what it feeds on. Envious persons in
Massachusetts make bold to charge
that Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who
poses as a civil service reformer of the
most advanced order, is really absolute
boss of the old Bay State. Of course
he would grow indignant to be called
by such a horrible name. but he is said
to dispense the political patronage in
that aesthetic commonwealth to his
own followers and to nobody else,
which is precisely what boss does,
merely that and nothing more.
Senator Lodge also enjoys the repu-
tation of being Sc closest friend of
the president They are both literary
men. At least Senator Lodge writes
it down in his autobiography that his
profession is literature. They are both
Harvard men. They are both civil
service reforners. One has pap to give,
and it is claimed by jealous Republic
an statesmen that the other receives
more than his share.
Optinistie.