Year: 1877




Civil Service Reform.


A gathering Of Grangen on the farm
Of Mr.. Chandler. near Lansing, was
addressed by him as follows:


Mr.. Chandler said that It afforded
him the greatest pleasure to welcome
so large and 30 intelligent an audience.
After congratulating the Ingham
county society az the model society of
the State of Michigan, he prfised the
Improvement that had taken place In
the last ten years among the farms of
that locality. The stock was. ten
years ago, OF q different and inferior
character from what IL now Is, and he
congratulated them all that they lived
In this age Of improvement IN an
cient times this most useful and honor
able employment was but little under
stood. Their pl0ws were crooked
sticks. But constant improvement
had brought them to their present per-
fection. He started several years ago
with a theory-a theory was very
dangerous thing to have [laughter1,
particularly II they attempted to carry
It out. Laughter He started with
q theory that this great marsh had
been for ages the receptacle of all the
best part Of the uplands. It was his
theory, and he believed In 1t, but he
had found that 1t was very expensive
theory TO carry out. LaughJer. He
had had the satisfaction Of carrying
out that theory, and unlike some the
orists. he paid his way as he went.


He believed in pure, blooded stock
for farm.


Another theory of his was not quite
so satisfactory in its practiced results.
AT that time everybody said civil ser
vice was just the thing, and 80 he
adopted civil service, too. daughter. /
He went to the Agricultural College
chose the highest candidate. He was
trial, and he gave this civil service
But under civil service reformer man.
agement they did not give his sheep
any water, and during the first year
about half of his sheep died. 1t was
civil service management, however,
and he stuck to it 80 as to give the
thing q fair trial. Laughter. After
tbAOO y Cuto CAPCAlCuCC AO lOuuu LlldU
civil service would not run q farm.
ILaughter.] He did not want them
to be alarmed, for he was not talking
politics; he was talking of civil SER
vice. Laughter. But one thing he
did want to say about that question.
There were no patent rules in any kind
of business. What his hearers wanted,
what the country wanted, what the
citizens of all governments wanted,
was common sense, and plenty Of it.
Applause What did men do in the
management Of their own business
If they found an incompetent man
they discharged him and put compe-
tent man in his place, il they found
lazy man they discharged him and put
an industrious man In his place; If
they found q dishonest man they DIS
charged him and put an honest man
In his place. And when they found
good man, when they had q compe.
tent man In their employ, they pro.
NOTED him whether he was in q Gov
ernment office or on farm. What
was wanted was business capacity.
Take that great apostle Of civil service
reform, George VIM. Curtis, and al
though he could write good editorials,
put him In charge of Harpers' publish
ing house and he would bankrupt it in
a year. He could not manage an i'm
p0rtant business with his impractica-
BILE ideas, but he did not know it.
This was the great trouble with all the
civil service admirers, he said. They
were full of theories that were imprac-
ticable.


1t was not true, as was being con-
stantly said, that the world was worse
now than 1t was hundred years ago.
1t was not worse than it was so years
ago nor worse than it was ten years
ago. 1t was growing better each year.
He did not believe in the cry of the de-
pravity of the times. Some men were
claiming that such was the
case, but when they saw man who
was shouting that all other men were
or had been cheating, his
had better keep an eye on
him; he would bear watching. He
begged pardon for touching upon the
subject of civil service he intended to
talk about the Chandler farm, but
civil service was dragged into that sub
ject In some way, and needed explana-
con.


In 1867 he was persuaded to purchase
a tract, covering the spot very nearly
where he was then standing, tract Of
over 800 acres Of land. In 1869 he went
to Paris, and here he saw land sim
ilarly situated to his own, under the
best cultivation. He wrote home to
his agent and told him to buy all the
land adjacent to his own that he could
get, and the agent did buy pretty near
all the land there " as for sale. Laugh
ter. He then went on and dug
which were expected to re-
move the water by drainage. He no.
ticed, after while, that the bitches
had almost filled up, and on looking
into the matter he discovered that the
ditches had not filed up so much as
the land had settled toward their level.
He estimated that the land had settled
at least two feet. He knew that there
was q discouraging look to this effort
TO improve land half covered with wa
ter. The, trouble was that people
stopped just before they succeeded in
what they were striving
for. All these discouragements must
not have the effect ofmaking the work
stop, but the enterprises must be car
ried out. He might have to put on his
land mixture of lime and sand, be-
cause he rather thought that the soil
was deficient In lime. But he believed
that when their uplands were barren
he would be raising the largest crops
of wheat, 80 or 40 bushels to the acre.
He did not claim that this venture was
more than an experiment rs
vet, buthe could see from the outlook
that it would be something more than
q costly experiment in shore time.


Mr.. Chandler then spoke Of the diff
ferent kinds Of grasses that could be
raised, and stated that he had found a
fowl meadow grass, which he believed
to be q native grass. He found that he
could obtain the seed In Boston and
wrote for rs bushels, but learned that
about peck was the limit Of orders
and that there were not
Is bushels of this grass seed In Amer.
lea. Laughter. In another year he
succeeded In getting 25 bushels, and
from the crop obtained he took the
chaff (about Is wagon loads) and scat
tered 1t broadcast over whatever land
r.