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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 8, 1899)
f " P > " \ 7 v < ' , 145 'L' R > i ! # ti- "I : .L HtiA.-f. \ 'Che Conservative * to degrade political contests to mere struggles for the possession of offices , and to substitute agreement in regard to the distribution of positions in the pub lic service for these ngrcements in re gard to important questions of govern mental policy that should constitute the bjtses of party organization. Lincoln's Warning. Abraham Lincoln perceived this dau- . ger and did not overestimate it. After -.the . fall of Riolutiond ho pointed to a crowd of < clan\orous place-hunters with ithe words > . "Wo have overthrown the rebellion but there stands an element fraught 'Nvith far more danger to the republic than the armed rebels whom we have subdued. " "Wo may compare with this the re mark of the customs officer to whom James II , the last king of England to claim to rule by a right superior to that derived from the people whom he gov erned , had issued commands to do all ho could to aid in the election of candidates to parliament favorable to the govern ment : "I have , " said this'servant of the public , "fourteen reasons for obey ing the command of his majesty a wife and thirteen young children. " Spoilsmen and their retainers are the Hessians of political combat. Having no principles more lofty than the desire to secure power and plunder they are free to adopt the popular side of every question and to pledge themselves to whatever policies may seem most likely to lead to success. They do not hesitate to appeal to the basest motives which may temporarily influence the masses , nor to distort the truth and misrepresent fact. When successful in obtaining office they are ready repudiate the argu ments with which they have secured the honest portion of their support and to break every promise made during their campaigns. "Platforms" said the rail way conductor , "were made to got in on and not to stand on , " and the phrase has become a popular one among a certain class of politicians. "Thou shalt not steal" even though the victims of the theft are taxpayers and the enforced contributions of each are not great in amount. It will scarcely be possible to enumerate all of the various ways in which taxpayers are robbed by the spoils system. One is by the multiplication of unnecessary offices and the unreasonable increase of com pensation. It is a matter of public re cord that at one time under this system there were 8,400 persons employed in the treasury department of whom less than 1,600 were there under authority of law. Of these 8,400 employees 1,700 were put on and off the rolls at the pleasure of the secretary who paid them out of funds that had not been appro priated for that purpose. At the same time there were employed in the bureau of engraving and printing 958 persons of whom 539 , with annual salaries aggre gating $890,000 were found by impartial investigation to bo superfluous. It was reported that for years the force in some branches of the bureau had boon twice and oven three times as great as the work required. The committee that made this investigation decided that in that branch of the public service alone the spoils system had wasted millions of dollars of the people's money. " \Vasto ami Extravagance. A person of reliability and of accurate information testified before a committee of the senate that in one case "thirty- five persons were put upon the lapse fund of the treasurer's office for eight days at the end of a fiscal year to sop up some money which was in danger of being saved and returned to the treas ury. " That this is merely an instance from many is indicated by the fact that from 1878 to 1883 , a decade during which the spoils system was in full operation , the number of clerks in the departments increased from 8,278 to 5,528 , or sixty- eight per cent , while from 1888 to 1896 , thirteen years during which civil service reform has been , though imperfectly and against many obstacles and with many set-backs , developing a merit sys tem , the number of clerks in the posi tions now classified actually decreased more than three per cent. During the later period the number of unclassified positions has increased 87.6 per cent and the aggregate of the salaries paid to those who hold them 87 per cent. If wo seek a more modern instance , it will readily be found. In the last con gress , on February 20 , 1897 , the chair man of the committee on appropriations of the house of representatives , spoke as follows : "In the last congress , in the congress before that , in every congress that I have ever served in , there have been at least one-third more employees than enough to do all the work. " And three days later the charman of the committee on banking and currency is reported in the Congressional Record as having said of the former committee : "They reported a bill here carrying about $25,000 in violation of the law , consciously , deliberately , and doing it to gratify the desire for spoils of us mem bers of congress under this despicable , nasty , vile spoils system. * * * I make the point that this money was spent corruptly because whenever a man is employed unnecessarily , wastefully , in the service , as they said one-fourth of them were , then the members of this house did spend the people's money cor ruptly. " The spoils system prevents the aboli tion of offices when in the mutations of time the duties of these that once served a useful purpose become nominal and the salaries paid to their incumbents un necessarily burden the taxpaying public. If the abolition of such an office is con sidered , the inouinbent is practically ertain to receive a "tip" in advance. Suppose he is the invaluable lieutenant or the worthless relative of a prominent politician. The latter is notified. "Sus pend order abolishing office until I can bo heard , " he telegraphs. Official cour tesy demands acquiescence. All possible pressure is brought to bear upon the of ficial who would discontinue the useless office. If ho resists , the possibility of cutting the appropriation for work he knows to be essential to the success of his administration of his office is sug gested , or the annoyance of a congres sional investigation maybe hinted. The president may bo appealed to. Plausible though mendacious arguments are ranged to prove the utility of the office ; they are no longer scrutinized with con scientious care and it is continued. Senator Lodge is authority for the statement that the application of the merit system to the immigrant depart ment and in the enforcement of the alien contract laws effected an annual saving of nearly $80,000. He adds as an illustration : "They had an immigrant inspector down here at Alexandria ( Va. ) at a pay of eight dollars a day to inspect immi grants who came there. The moment it was put under the civil service it dis appeared. As long as it was an excepted place to be filled on request , it was kept although it was not needed. " Some Instances. It is no doubt natural that a person accepting a position , the tenure of which is uncertain and likely to cease after a brief incumbency , for which a present occupation , however unsatisfactory or meagrely remunerative must be aban doned and after which a new business must be developed , should ask some com pensation for these hardships and this uncertainty. Economic principleswhich are quite thoroughly established , teach that this claim would of necessity be re cognized through a higher rate of com pensation than would otherwise bo paid. This , in addition to other influences that tend unduly to augment salaries. The following facts were related to the last house of representatives by a prom inent member of the committee on ap propriations ( Moody of Mass. ) "We pay the chief engineer on the senate side of the capital $2,150 per an num and his assistants $1,440 each. On the house side the chief engineer receives a less sum $1,700 per annum , and his assistants $1,200 each. In the treasury building yonder the chief engineer re ceives only $1,400 and his assistants $1,000 and $750 respectively. It costs $1,200 to run an elevator in this building while a mile and a quarter away in the treasury building , and in all the other