OCR Text |
Show CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. It was with j?reat difficulty that the endeavor to introduce reform in the civil .service of tho country was inaugu- , rated, and although tho movement in that direction is not so pot-itivc and t thorough as it oujht to be, still it has 1 accomplished much Rood in showing ' the great necessity of a complete refer mation in tho executivo ndministra- ' tion of public affairs. With the vast 1 number of offices to bo filled, directly , or indirectly, by tho President, it is ; iuipo.ssiblo but that occasionally bad 1 men will bo appointed, and that there will bo somo sinecure poult ions; but these errors of the appointing power : and of tho law.s, should be corrected as i soon as discovered, and not be permit- ted to leaven with corruption the whole , public service. Before tho civil war there was little corruption in the collection of tho nationalrevetiues.com- ' pared with what exists now. lint the war called into being tho internal revenue reve-nue system with its army of officials, the tnUsioiiary bureau of Gen. Howard it Co., and caused an increase of the tariff duties, while at the Fame time the moral effect of it was to lower the standard of public morality. War is tho great demoralizer. Teach a man that it is his duty to obey an order to plunder and destroy, and if his inclination inclina-tion tends in that direction iu the slightest degrco, ho readily reasons himself into tho idea that if it is his right and duty to obey such orders when issued by his commanding officers, offi-cers, lie may if inclination or necessity tempts, plunder and destroy on his own motion. Since the iuaugural gun uf our sectional sec-tional convulsion was fired, official corruption cor-ruption has increased in a geometrical ratio. Senator Fenton, in a speech in tho senate upon the question of reform, said that $90,000,000 or one-fourth of tho internal revenues, was expended and lost in their collection. collec-tion. The testimony already given be-foro be-foro the senate commit tco of investigation investiga-tion at New York proves the utter rot teuess oP the custom houso management manage-ment in that city, and the s;ime is true, in degree, with tho other custom houses in the country. Sinecure positions posi-tions in the oustom houses are created for no otlmr purpose than to provide places with fat salaries for political bummers; and tho robbery of importers impor-ters is licensed by tho chief authorities, authori-ties, upon tho condition that a per centage of tho plunder is to be used to further tho political advancement of tho party io power. Senator Trumbull, Trum-bull, in a speech upon civil service reform, re-form, in reply to a remark of senator Morton, couipliuicuting the honesty of the civil administration of the country, expressed a doubt if in any government govern-ment on earth there was so much corruption cor-ruption in the civil service, as in that of the United States. But no one doubts the necessity of reform. The public are only anxious that the beginning begin-ning made in New York city, may be continued until all official departments, national and local, are overhauled, thieves detected and punished, and sinecure offices abolished. We have an army of officials barnacled on the public treasury, who in addition to the direct harm they do under licensed or open robbery, damage the country, iu-directly, iu-directly, by making offive seeking au employment that by its example oi lii;ht or no sorvieo. for large p iy, diverts di-verts from useful occupations many of our young, ambitious men. |