1
I3be Conservative *
TTbe Conservative ,
J. STERLING MORTON , Editor.
A "Weekly Journal devoted to t1o Dis
cussion of Political , Economic and Socio
logical Questions.
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
One dollar and a half per year , in advance ,
postpaid , to any part of the United States or
Canada. Remittances made payable to The
Morton Printing Company.
Address , TUB CONHKHVATIVK , Nebraska
City , Neb.
Advertising Rates made known upon appli
cation.
Entered at the postolllee at Nebraska City ,
Neb. , as Second Class matter , July With , 1808.
Nfbrtuhi Oiln , Thursday , * \ injnst.1SOS. .
A XKGLKOTKI ) Recent agitation
FALLACY OF for the repeal of
SPOILSMAN. the civil service
law has given occasion for renewed ex
pression of the opinion , current among
the inexperienced , which assumes that
the application of the spoils system to
the Federal civil service would insure
the selection of public servants from
among those pnly who have demon
strated their fidelity to the party in
power as well as their ability to servo it
l.1 by rendering valiant and more or less
. honorable assistance during its contests
for supremacy. Those most noisy and
disingeimous in their advocacy of the
repeal of the law have based their
strongest appeals to partisanship upon
the advisability of cementing "the or
ganization" by the judicious distribution
of appointments to oflico especially
among the young and ambitious workers ,
and many otherwise upright men , whoso
love of system and organization has
been highly developed , have , deluded by
these pretentious , been led to regard it
as sometimes reputable and frequently
advisable to subordinate the efficiency
of the public service to the apparent
necessities of their party. To the latter
as well as to those among the rank and
file of partisans who have been led to be
lieve that the straggle for the readoption
of the spoils system is in their interest ,
the perception of the truth , easily dem
onstrable , that there has never been and
never can bo any consistent or general
application of a partisan test in the selec
tion of minor officials may bo accom
panied by something in the nature of a
shock. The spoils system does not , as
some of its advocates would have a mis
guided public believe , give over the
public service to a political party thereby
charged with full responsibility for the
results , but it does do that which is al
most infinitely worse ; it permits places
to be treated as the personal perquisites
of a few politicians. Sometimes these
politicians constitute the dominant fac
tion of the party in power , at others
they are reinforced by members of other
parties whose support of doubtful meas
ures is desired , but at all times and on
all occasions their distribution of the ap
pointments alloted to them is with re
gard , solely to their personal interests.
Their needy relatives , their associates in
business , their unsuccessful schoolmates ,
their social companions , their political
henchmen , and the purchasable support
ers of their rivals all have much more
numerous chances of sharing in the distribution -
tribution than those whoso contribu
tions , however considerable to the suc
cess of the party have been inspired by
regard for its principles. That some
thing more than mere partisanship was
required under the spoils system would
be sufficiently evident from the fact that
under successive republican collectors of
the port of Now York , prior to the pass
age of the civil service law of 1883 ,
there were 1 , ( > 7S removals during 1 , / > ( > 5
secular days but it is wholly unnecessary
to revert to such an early period in
order to investigate any phase of the
spoils system. The latter is in full oper
ation in connection with the employees
of congress and will not bo wholly erad
icated in the executive departments of
the Federal government so long as ap
pointing officers are permitted to receive
and consider recommendations and re
quests from legislators and others out
side their own offices in regard to the
retention and advancement of those in
office whether the latter were appointed
through favoritism or as a consequence
of merit established in open competition.
Those who have observed it carefully in
any branch of the service do not need to
be told that genuine partisan considera
tions are excluded almost as regularly as
those which relate to the ability and in
tegrity of applicants and with little less
open acknowledgment. The most ex
haustive labors in aid of the campaign
of the siiccessful party arc of but little
weight against the claims of the ener
getic henchman whose ante-election
activities brought to the successful can
didate the support of a needed delegate
to the nominating convention or against
the importunities of an impecunious and
incompetent relative of the dispenser of
patronage. There is not a cabinet officer
or other intelligent person in the public
service at the present time who does not
know that a great majority of the re
quests made by spoilsmen in behalf of
employees or applicants for appointment ,
though ostensibly based in many in
stances upon political expediency , are
really prompted by personal considera
tions too frequently of the most un
worthy typo. Bad as a merely political
civil service would unquestionably be
the real spoils system is incomparably
less desirable. The man who contri
butes materially to the political success
of his party must have ability and the
attributes of industry and integrity are
by no means excluded. Such a man in
public office would be the representative
of a party and not of a personal faction.
The practical operation of the spoils sys
tem however gives the latter preference
over the former. The henchman or the
parasite is chosen , the partisan excluded.
But this is not all. The right of making
appointments to public oflico being re
garded as the prerogative of successful
politicians the latter are naturally called
upon to distribute the favors at their
command in acknowledgment of claims
of every conceivable land. Particularly
in behalf of their worthless or incompe
tent relatives politicians temporarily or
permanently out of office invoke the
courtesies of their successful rivals and
many useless individuals who seem to bo
secure throughout all political changes
in the incumbency of positions in which
they are incapable of rendering valuable
services owe their contimianco in office
to the recognition by appointing officers
of such claims of friendship or the belief
of the latter that in the mutations of
politics their complacence may be recip
rocated. It has been abundantly and
frequently demonstrated that the dis
tribution of patronage is detrimental
rather than helpful to partisan organiza
tions and chances of success. The same
result would probably have been
observed had only the veterans of politi
cal contests been regarded as eligible for
appointment to office but no such appli
cation of the spoils system is possible.
Appointing officials will not , in any con
siderable number , treat the places within
their control as held in trust for the
benefit of their parties because there can
be no effective supervision of their acts
in this particular and the temptation to
treat them as personal hereditaments is
too great to be resisted. This being
true a favorite argument of spoilsmen
and an accepted tenet of their dupes is
destroyed. In its default those who
would insist upon the destruction of the
merit system must bo prepared to con
tend that the honors and emoluments of
high public station are not only inade
quate but that they may suitably bo
supplemented by permission to billet
upon the tax-paying public the burden
of maintaining their personal favorites ,
political retainers , and disreputable kins
folk. H. T. NEAVCOMU.
Washington , D. 0.
A now publication at hand is THE
CONSERVATIVE , published at Nebraska
City by the Morton Printing Company ,
ex-Secretary of Agriculture , T. Sterling
Morton , editor. The subscription price
is $1.50 per year , and it is well worth
the money. Devoted as it is to the dis
cussion of political , economic and socio
logical qiiestions by so eminent and ver
satile a writer as Mr. Morton the new
publication will take rank among the
first of its land in the country. It will
pay any man to read it. Address , THE
CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska City , Nob.
Hayes County Republican.