Show THE WIREPULLERS WARNING I Mr Dana of the New York Sun with I his office cat is now on a tour of theI j effete monarchies ol Yurrup but from f the following it is evident that Mr Amos Cummings who now wields the Sun club either has a healthy kitten on hand or he is a most apt pupil of the great expounder of political law The PostmasterGeneral is behind the j times when he prints in the Postal Guide I President Clevelands letter warning officeholders I office-holders to deny themselves all efforts to control political movements in their localities locali-ties It has been shown by the various oases to which it has been applied for settlement settle-ment that by itself this letter is not sufficiently suf-ficiently definite Several instances of misconception mis-conception on the part of officeholders have been revealed and the disoossion of each case has either evoked some more concise construction from official quarters or has shown that there still needs to be revision and additions before the officeholders path is staked out for him so that he cannot fail I to keep within the prescribed limits For example SolicitorGeneral Jenks delivered de-livered the opinion to a mystified Postmaster Postmas-ter that the control of political movements move-ments meant participation in nominating conventions and that the Postmaster must keep out of them However after they were over ho might take the stump I Then in the case of Collector Redman of Maine the officeholder declared his construction con-struction of the dooument to be that it didnt apply to holidays He was on a holiday holi-day when accused of transgressing the letters let-ters precepts Mr Redmans point has not yet been officially settled This is enough to show that a publication of the letter by itself would be just about as satisfactory as a publication of the Constitution Consti-tution without the amendments Without the rulings on its proper mode of construction construc-tion it cannot fail occasionally to work injustice in-justice upon the officials who in the desire to put their conduct beyond official reproach may be inclined to exaggerate its rigor The PostmasterGeneral who prints it for i the perusal of the clerks in his department and Collector Saltonstall of Boston who I requires that each Government employe should turn in a printed copy with his name on the back to testify to his reading of it should get out a new edition The writing and publication of the letter let-ter referred to was a piece of questionable policy on the part of the President but he had to do something to show his horror the methods in m voguewhich had by reason of long standing come to be viewed as laws during the Republican Republi-can regimewhereby every office holder and down to the humblest in the service felt himself to be a committee of one to electioneer early and late for his party and frequently gave weeks and months to such service which were charged up to and paid for by the Government as services rendered some department of I ligitimate business One of the strongest cards played by the Democracy Democ-racy in the election was the Reform card and under it the party was pledged to reform existing abuses of that nature and by bouncing the objectionable ob-jectionable men and filling their places with new men the thing was nearly accomplished ac-complished But there was found a certain cer-tain contingent certain to be in every political party the members of which sought defy the great object of the Administration Ad-ministration and pull wires in and out of season to the detriment of the public service It was to these men that the Presidents letter was addressed and not to gentlemen who having a pride and interest in-terest in the ascendency of their party desire to help its members to gain honorably honor-ably control of important factors in the general fight While it is well to avoid the open frauds perpetrated by the Republican machine through the bartering of political patronage for power it in not well nor is it sensible to let slip all chances for strengthening the partys hold on the government and the fact that the issuance of the letter gave the Republican I Repub-lican press a good handle to turn should not deter Democrats the country over from using all honorable means to fortify the position of the Administration and strengthen the cause of good government iu the land The illadvised actions of certain officeholders in publishing this letter to their subordinates should not betaken be-taken as the will of the Executive but the caution implied in the letter will have a salutary effect on all alike and that is just what it was meant for |