OCR Text |
Show SUPPORTING THE ADMINISTRATION. ADMINISTRA-TION. The New York Herald's Washington correspondent says that it is being whispered whis-pered around Washington that the President Presi-dent is anxious to know how many sup1 porters the Administration is going to have. The Administration will have j ust as many supporters as there are friends of good and honest government in Congress. Con-gress. Government is not an affair of poetry or idealism, but an administration of public affaira. The administration of these affairs requires the employment of many hands, and the endeavor of Mr. Cleveland is to get the most competent hands. It i3 an endeavor that ought to succeed, and it is one in which the President Presi-dent should be seconded by all who think that good and honest government is the first demand of the people, and that to obtain it parties are founded. This idea has not always had sway, but it is gaining it, and it is this fact that makes many discontented and cause3 them to complain. The triumph of this idea that party is founded for the purpose of securing good and honest government means death to the idea that government is a contest for -office, and that office means spoils. It has meant that alto-' gether too much, but that is no reason why it should any longer. Mr. Cleveland has pledged himself to combat this idea, and he is doing it wonderfully well. It is not to be expected that the spoilsmen' will support him in his fight, but the defection in the Democratic ranks is not nearly so great as some would make out. The men who are chiefly desirous of Mr. Cleveland's failure in his fight for reform are the Republicans, for they well know that the triumph of his reform policy means death to their party. Occasionally a complaint is heard from some one in the Democratic party about civil-service reform, and such complaints com-plaints are sure to be magnified into universal uni-versal discontent by the Republican press. Mr. Cleveland was chosen by the Democratic party as their standard-bearer and he carried their standard to victory. They chose him because he was pre-eminently a reform man, and his record as Governor of New York proved him to be a thorough-going reformer in office as well as out. This was the reason for their choice of Mr. Cleveland, and the party is not going to desert him now that they have elected him President. There need be-no anxiety as to whether or not Mr. Cleveland will have supporters. On the supposition, and which is the nearest supposition, that Mr. Cleveland's party will not support him because of his reform policy, still it is better for the whole country that he do not have that support than that he should abandon the principles princi-ples of reform which he has Btarted out to make triumphant and dominant. Better to stand alone in the path of duty than to follow the crowd through the fields of error. |