Show THE I RECORD benjamin harrison and the republican party pledged themi themselves elves four years ago to practice tile the doctrines of civil reform these pledges were specific and direct find and left no for evasion thov they were made amadii as in an offer in exchange for favors at the alie polls the promise was solemnly made and earnestly received the party made its promise in these carefully chosen words the men v ito ho abandoned the I 1 republican party in 1634 anti anil continue to adhere to tai the party have deserted not 0 IV tile cause of honest government ern ment of sound li finance nance of freedom of puri purity ty of tile ilie ballot but especially have deserted I 1 alio ike cause of reform in tile alie civil service we will ill not fail to keep keel our pledges becam e P aliey have broken theirs or because t their air candidate has broken his we therefore re repeat cat our declaration of ma W to nit th to c reform of the civil service auspiciously it begun under tile republican ad i i ration should be ani plated by th the f further artl ler extension of ilia I 1 I 1 e sy system already already established I 1 v I 1 elsw v to all the grades 0 of tile the service bervice tov to inc it is applicable the spirit and purdue pu ruse of tile the reform sili should be vol it iii all executive appointments ani and all laws at variance with the object of inform legislation legis lation should be to HIP end that the dangers ui ane ins 9 luik hill in the pon er of official patronage maybe may be wisely and in aji actually avoided lest tuii offer should not le ile sufficient to zE i curc oure the votes desired I 1 mr harrion harri on supplemented it in his bis letter of acceptance with the lie following emphatic utterance of his bis own the law gu ul atine latina appointments to the bivil service received my ilie senate in tl the L c belief that it opened op c ned ire I 1 1 4 nay ay to a inucci in uch needed reform I 1 at i 1 I flunk so and cordially till iii rove r vc the clear and forcible expression f i 1 lie convention upon this thia subject law should blick uld have lave the aid of a friend interpretation till be fruitfully and i i t bously enforced lill all ap ments it A should be ab riat ly y free front to i artisan ir considerations and int luence N nie me extensions of the clas lilied list ic i practicable and desir cabic and forthe licis laton extending the reform to ta oth t i branches of the ver cervice vice to which it i 1 applicable bould receive WJ roy approval app in ili appoint appointment men is to every grade and it fitness and not arty party seri eem i hould be the essential and dis crimin i n g test and fidelity anti and e efficiency fici ency th only sure gure tenure of Off office offrice only thein the retsof retson brets of tile public sen mice ice should bug burt removals from office I 1 know the p i difficulties atten at ling the aftem I 1 I 1 to i apply the spirit of tile the civil i niles ta to all appointments still and it will however be my sincere cincere pin plino me c it if elected to advance the re reform fortin in malin making C these promises promise the llorlys if ll charges C that mr 1 I and his party part sought ought and 1 I 1 vote under false pretenses ilie IK were nvere repudiated in I 1 hiie lie first hour of the nd ad ministrant mini strat it all and bioni that time to this it ins been practice in atil all departie dep artim to the letteron lette of the law nd ild to mock its spirit openly 4 4 in aim ointments to every grade and dap 11 said aard mr ilar rison li gifts and not party bervice ab sorrl ail lie ile the essential and teet was ivas it fitness or vi ti it party service that dictated i iii r selection of wana avada fr a cabinet place if that perr it 11 had any capacity or fitness loll 1011 f 11 aie lie important duties of sit r general nobody was aware of 0 the fact but lie he had tendered a i party service bervice ile ho had bad raise i in an enormous corruption fund ani T 1 I 11 II which clec electoral toral votes had bad been boug bought lit the men who contributed the money anne v demanded his appointment a ai the rightful price of their service tho goods they had bad bought with their cash they called upon the president to stand and deliver and lie stood and delivered was livas it fitness of party service thu that governed mr harridon in ill the appointment of tanner that preposterous pert on oil was known throughout L out the cou country n arv as a blatherskite ers kit e and a demagogue disqualified by temperament and by ignorance for any rL responsible duty duly but lie too haj had rendered a party service it was he who at a crisis 1 J had been sent to tell the pension seekers ekers te that tile they shot should ba have bavo VO the surplus in return for their support of harrison and in order th that it his promises es might have weight it had been given out while the campaign was in progress with mr knowledg knowledge e and all without protest front from hi him I 1 n that tanner himself should be in trusted with the fulfilment fulfillment of tile the bargain thus thua offered that pledge mr II arrison redeemed when lie appointed tanner having put tile the pension office in pawn for votes he repaid the loan at maturity was aa it for the ake of fitness and not party service i that J S Cl clarkson arkon tho high priest of the sp alii doctrine was made first assistant postmaster ster general was it to seccie fitness that Clark clareton clarkton ton removed po postmasters within a few month distributed all the offices within his gift ns as rewards for party service and converted tile the postal service into a powerful political machine for the advancement of mr harrisons own personal ambitions these three appointments were notices of the presidents ants repudiation of till all the promises made as to civil service reform and they were hilariously rc received by the republican ire s as proof that the era of spoils politics had come coine back unembarrassed by any h pretense T alie ic most influential republican journal at tile the capital 0 of f new york a few months mantl I 1 s after clarksons Clark sons appointment put its rejoicing into this his form fifteen thousand fourth class post maters inai stirs have been removed up to late date and mr air clarkson remains in ill washington with willi liis his coat lill and liis his shirt lolled up tip go it clarkson out willi the vo whole hole by january 1 and in ill this tone the scandalous proceeding was greeted by party newspapers gene generally rally As the id ministration administration q began so has it continued to this hour fidelity and were to bo be the only sure tenure of office yet let 1 mr I pearson tile the postmaster at new york w whose hose fideli fidelity tv and efficiency were so marked that though 15 lie was a 1 republican a democratic president had retained and re appointed him was set aside by mr in harrison in order that a more active politician might take his PI place ac el A most faithful and efficient naval officer at new york was wab reino removed veI for the same reason and later at tho the suggestion of a Ioli political boss bos joel B el ehrhardt a republican and a i peculia peculiarly peculiars rl 3 A efficient afi chent public officer whom mr harrison had himself appointed was forced out of tile customhouse custom house simply because lie insisted upon attending on to the business incas of the office faithfully find and efficient efficiently and refused to employ the niell men under his control as a agents enta for the m manipulation ani pu lation of the control of f conventions and the carrying of elections this was the practical interpretation mr II lf arrion gave to his promise that only th alie interests ot ol tile the public service should bu i epst est removals from office these nrc are but examples the list might lie be multiplied by thousands ili in every quarter of the country it was promised that the civil system should lie ile extended to to all tile the grades of the service to which it is applicable yet when it was pi apropo opo rd ed to extend tile the rules to the cineus office mr refused to that office they were peculiarly applicable anil and it in it there was special need of their application A foreign adventurer a juggling statistician for hire a 1 bitter partisan for what lie could make out of partisanship had been placemat pla placed cedat at the lead of tile the bureau not for fitness but for party service rendered and to be rendered the legitimate work of the bureau was of a i purely busin business character it required in every one of it its thou thousands gands of employees preci precisely acly that kind of fitness which the civil service examinations are best calculated to discover and secure it had bail honestly no pos possible Lible concern with politics by every hect of applicability ti alie e census bureau was one in which c ll 11 tile tho civil service pervice rules were most lost necessary and most certain to produce salutary results result but when this obvious oc occasion arose for proving his sincerity mr harrison refused though his refusal in ill such a cise case amounted to the serving of public notice that lie haj bad no intention to respect tile pledges ili his party had made and lie had reiterated the pledges ij by which he had bec becu u r red ed the votes of thousands of men in en who trusted him the pledges upon of which lie he had icon won his election TV the reason of ty refusal is if not far to cacek bac k mr II arrison is ii a 1 strong partisan anil a still ston er lf Harri arrion ion man mail lie ile entered upon his administration determined to leave no stone unturned to secure his own election reelection re and the continued domini ince of his party part the census bureau onerea enormous opportunities in that direction it must 21 give ive employment to lo thousands of men inen not n ot enly in washington ashing tou but in every city village hamlet and rural community throughout the cou country gitry next to the lie postal service it offered the greatest of for the building up till of a ilardi II arrion 1011 machine and the on organization P niza tion of republican it furnished r spoils boils in reward for past servie services es anil and tile the means of inducing 0 service service in in future every census clerk and every enumerator coul could ld be made a republican worker and a I 1 II larrison arrison howler but none of these thin thins things k s could be accomplished if the civil service rules were extended to the census office under those rules ever every y employee would owe his pl place ce an and d pay to his hi demonstrated fitness and not to favor ile he would owe faithful census work and not party service in return and no agent of party could infer his politics from his position such uch spoils i were too precious to be given 0 given up and there was a furt further 1 let consideration budgin judging from what was actually lone done it is fair to pre presume aulne that porter regarded 1 it as a s a part of his commission to falsify the census in republican interest t to 0 qu eci the figures 0 of the enumeration so BO as to rob democratic communities muni ties of their just share of representation in congress and in the I 1 colic college g 0 for such a purpose lie he needed a force selected as bis force was bonfe confessedly selected at the dictation of L local republic republican call bosses and consisting of men wholly subservient to party uses and subject J act to control there was some pretense of faithfulness made in the extension of the civil service rules to the railway mail service but it was inere merely ly a pretense care was taken not to make that chan change chane e until clarkson had made a clea clean n sweep in that quarter so that the application of the rules should serve only to defeat the real purposes of civil service reform and to give to mr harrisons icons own partisan appointees a secure tenure and in the process of that thai organization of tho the railway mail service service upon a spoils basis some sor ile appointments of the most disgraceful character were made and adhered to in spite of the shocked pi otest of honest men men were restored to the service for partisan who had been dismissed for the most outrageous misconduct 0 some of them even for crimes 0 of i which they had been convicted and for which they had been sent to clon the entire course of the administration lias has been a very orgie of spoils politics a reign of bosses and in T the he public ser cr vice lias has been convert converted ld not only into a partisan army but into a a factional machine it has been made the personal following of tl the e president Pr eident the body of a f household hou selio id troops by whose activity lie lias bas and hopes to reelect re elect himself |