The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1922-06-02
CARRYING HYPOCRISY TO
THE EXTREME LIMIT

|
The Danville, Va, Register, pub
lished by Senator Carter Glass, of
Virginia, recently printed an editorial
attacking the Harding administration
and Republican senators for their
brutal frankness" in enunciating
"the old policy Of to the victor be-
longs the spoils' and asserting with
amazing candor the right of the domi-
nant party to abuse the civil service
of the country to the point of bestow-
ing desira BILE offices as political re-
wards" Senator Moses is attacked
with special vigor because of his dec
laration that the partisan Democratic
hang-overs of the Wilson administra-
ton should be displaced by appoin-
tees in sympathy with the new admin
| istration
The spectacle of a Virginia Demo-
cratic organ edited by a Virginia
Democratic senator sounding the
praises of nonpartisanship and the
infamies of the system of bestowing
offices as political reward is enough
to cause uproarious effgies in Statu-
airy Hall. The Danville Register is
the organ of a political party which,
dominant in Virginia, not by an ex-
preston of the will of the majority,
but thru the process of disfranchis-
ing five-sixths of the voters of the
state, entirely excludes all but the
dominant party from any -fepresen-
tation whatever in the executive de-
partment of the state.
There is not a Republican state in
the Union in which minority repre-
sentation upon state boards is not
customary. Virginia is one of sew
eral Solid South states in which Re-
publicans are excluded from men,
bership on any board, altho Virginia
Republicans, even under a swindling
election system, cast one-third of the
Votes. The penal, benevolent and ed
ucational institutions of Virginia are
partisanized to the limit. Not Re-
publican is ever appointed to any of
them. Even the courts are partisan
lied by a system of appointment from
Richmond, and always the men NAM |
ed to the bench are chosen by the
Democratic state machine. Local |
self-government is denied in respect |
to the schools as well as the courts |
County superintendents Of schools are
chosen from Richmond, and all are
deserving Democrats. The schools,
the hospitals for the insane, the pri-
sons and all similar institutions and
the registration and election boards
are made political plumber under the
laws and practices of the party in Vir-
ginia for which the Danville Register
speaks. And yet this publication
complains because there is demand
that men appointed for party reasons
under Wilson should be removed un-
der Harding, basing its position upon
an affected opposition to 'the spoils
system!"
son Andrew Jackson was mere pix
err" in craftsmanship No President
ever made half so many appointments
for partisan reasons as did President
Wilson. Republicans were separated
from the public service as rapidly as
the Wilson administration could get
to them. Positions on boards made
by law were given to
men who, as nominal Republicans,
had supported the opposition party
Now we are told that the job holders
who got in by the party route should ,
be held in because of devotion by the
new administration to the high and
holy cause of civil service reform. ,
And this policy is urged by the organ
" political party which, in Virginia,
has made even the insane, the pau
Ders, the school children and the 7
,onvicts the victims of thoroughly 4.
,igoted partisan spoils system right /,
It home !,
Is there no limit to the hypocrisy ;,
# that school of politicians which a
res out loudly for reform and prog .
ess in national affairs Will carrying \
eaction at-home even to the point of
estroying popular government in the "
ection they ominate?-Weston W.
Independent.