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Show ' '') AGAINST CIVIL-SEItyiCE REFORM. Representative Seney, of Ohio, will in-1 in-1 troduceabill into the House for the re- ' peal of the Civil-Service Act. Mr. Seney is; a Democrat, and was in the XLVIII. Congress, but he mistakes the sentiments of the better part of his party if he assumes that they desire a repeal of the Civil-Service Act without the substitution ; i of a better and more thorough one. Mr. Seney says he is confident that ' the present Act . is unconstitu- tional, because it takes away the ' power vested in the President. The solicitude for the President's prerogative i is very touching in fact, altogether too touching so touching that it suggests the : idea that there is the shadow of patronage .'.! in the distance. While Mr. Seney says : he could not have passed the examina- j tions which he listened to last summer he states nothing wonderful, but had he been applying for an office, a few hours' review of things learned many years ago would have admirably fitted him for the i ' - examination. Ue says there are many '- men in his district who would like to r , enter the Government service, and yet they will not take these examinations. If such is the case, let the Government J be deprived of their services.' What is their objection to the examinations?" If they can pass thein it is no insult to ask : them to undergo them; while if they cannot pass them, they are not fit for the service. The men of whom Mr. Seney speaks are doubtless perfectly willing to i ask their friends, and their enemies too, probably, to endorse them, and say how eminently fit they are for the office they i desire. If they are so eminently well i I fitted for the office they seek, why not show their fitness in such a simple uian- i t ner as the law prescribes? According to ; their recommendations these same men who refuse to take an examination are in all likelihood greater men than Caesar or Napoleon, and far better qualified to serve the country than Mr. Cleveland himself him-self is. Great anxiety is manifested lest . i , the President may be deprived of a ' Constitutional iower. What if the Pres- dent were to insist on the exercise of his j lower and to totally ignore the requests j and demands of Congressmen for places j for their-henchmen ?' Would this smtJ i i ' Mr. Seney's idea? We are inclined to think not. There are over one hundred ' J thousand offices to be filled, and it seems j to be the idea of many that it is the sole j duty of the President to fill these offices j merely for the purpose of keeping a party j in power. " Government . by party is not i the same as government for party, and it j i would 1 well if this idea were more i widely understood. Civil-service reform has come with the intention of locating j permanently, and it will find the climate j just suited to it in a year or two. Those who are opposed to it will have to go eventually. |
