EDITOR'S TABLE. 



Hi 



otherwise than as a reward of political 

 services. One of these, a year or so 

 ago, bluntly expressed his innermost 

 thought on the subject by saying tliat 

 the efifect of such civil-service reform 

 as the Pendleton bill aimed at was to 

 leave nothing for political ambition 

 but — we must be pardoned if we quote 

 the words exactly as given by the ener- 

 getic editor — " a damned barren ideal- 

 ity." Another editor, not less energetic 

 or able, sums up his objections to the 

 present civil-service reform movement 

 by calling it " pot-hook reform," hold- 

 ing it apparently beneath the dignity of 

 a spoilsman to know anything about 

 pot-hooks, or any other elements of a 

 decent education. Enough that he 

 should have known how to drum up a 

 score of votes on election-day. 



"We see the results of the system, 

 further, in the extreme inefficiency of 

 legislation upon matters of national as 

 opposed to matters of local conse- 

 quence. An appropriation bill can al- 

 ways be put through. There are never 

 wanting hands to roll that particular 

 chariot along. Everybody seems to 

 understand voting money. Everybody, 

 with few exceptions, is ready to echo 

 tlie cant phrases, the bogus formulas, 

 about the importance of having the 

 national Government represented in re- 

 mote localities by costly public build- 

 ings, and extravagant mail services. 

 Wherever a contract can be scented, it 

 is easy to excite interest ; but, when it 

 is a simple matter affecting the national 

 credit, the improvement of extradition 

 treaties, the acquitting of a debt, the 

 regulation of the consular service, the 

 investigation of frauds on the republic, 

 the case is very different; then it 

 seems as if nobody could do anything, 

 and matters are laid over from year to 

 year. Anything more abortive or In- 

 ane than a discussion on the tariff no- 

 body could imagine. The advantage 

 generally rests with the men who want 

 high taxation, for the simple reason 

 that they know what they want, and 



show an admirable consistency of pur- 

 pose in laying burdens on the country 

 at large for the benefit of themselves 

 and their friends. The name this kind 

 of thing goes by, strange to say, is not 

 "plunder," but "protection." Until, 

 however, those who believe in free 

 trade have the courage to say so, the 

 plunderers, who never lack for audaci- 

 ty, will have the best of it. 



What the demands of the spoils 

 system are upon the energies of cabi- 

 net ministers and others who ought to 

 be attending to Important duties, for 

 which they are paid by the public, need 

 hardly be dwelt upon. Those who have 

 most experience in such matters will 

 not contradict us if we say that three 

 fourths of the time, and a larger pro- 

 portion still of the energy of the heads 

 of departments, are taken up, in one 

 way or another, with questions of 

 patronage, and that only the residue 

 goes to considering how the public 

 business can best be done. The office- 

 seekers were a greater terror to Abra- 

 ham Lincoln than the Southern armies, 

 and, if the whole truth were known, it 

 would be found that many a man has 

 been hounded by them into his grave. 

 Guiteau was but an extreme example 

 of the audacity and shamelessness of 

 the tribe. All the intermediate grades 

 are kept full, and probably men are 

 now known to the heads of the execu- 

 tive, not less impudent than Guiteau, 

 though, happily, lacking his murderous 

 fanaticism. 



That relief should be sought from 

 the terrors and horrors of the spoils 

 system, in what is known as civil-serv- 

 ice reform, is not surprising; and yet 

 some of the arguments of those who 

 oppose such reform are not without 

 weight. They say that it is not desir- 

 able to form an official class ; that it is 

 not desirable to introduce into this coun- 

 try the stereotyped methods and the 

 deadly routine of European officialism. 

 They say that, where bureaucracy has 

 thoroughly established itself, the office- 



