THE Civil-Service Reformer. PRICE TEN CENTS. PIERRE C. DUGAN & NEPHEW, 16 E. LEXINGTON ST., Agents for Purchase and Sale of Real Estate. RENTS AND CLAIMS COLLECTED. FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, M. K. BURCH, Secretary. INSURANCE Capital Represented, Over One Hundred Millions of Dollars. GENERAL AGENT AND BROKER, 20 Years' Experience. 5 Chamber of Commerce, Baltimore, Md. A Kindergarten, a Primary School, an Academy, and Collegiate BALTIMORE. 18 Professional Teachers employed; specialist in each department. Twenty-fifth year began Ninth Month (September) 6, 1887. For Circulars apply at Bookstores, at Schoolrooms, or address ELI M. LAMB, Principal, or F. EMERSON LAMB, Assistant Principal. BARGAINS IN BOOKS AND STATIONERY. We offer for sale, at very Low Prices, the most varied, largest and best assorted stock of BOOKS AND STATIONERY ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, BOOKS IN FINE BINDINGS, MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS, CHILDREN'S BOOKS, BIBLES, PRAYER BOOKS AND HYMNALS, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC STATIONERY, ETC., SUITABLE FOR HOLIDAY PRESENTS. A call is asked from all in want, feeling satisfied that we have the best assortment of Goods in our line, and which we offer for sale at lowest prices to be had in any city in the country. CUSHINGS & BAILEY, 34 W. Baltimore St., opp. Hanover St., BALTIMORE, MD. Ist. To accept and execute trusts by will or otherwise. 2d. To act as executor or administrator. 3d. To act by order of court as receiver, assignee, administrator, guardian of minors, or committee of a lunatic. 4th. To act as trustee under mortgage for railroads and other corporations. 5th. To become the legal depository for executors, trustees, receivers, etc., and of money in suit by order of court. 6th. It will also undertake the care of property and collection of income of ladies and others. 7th. Safes for the safe-keeping of securities, etc., from $10 to $150. Storage for valuables of all kinds, in trunks, boxes and packages, for any length of time, on moderate terms. Boxes for deeds and papers $2.50 to $5 per annum. COMPANY'S NEW SAFE DEPOSIT BUILDING, N. E. Cor. Calvert and German Sts. ESTABLISHED 1811. ALEXANDER BROWN & SONS, BALTIMORE, MD. TRANSACT A GENERAL BENJAMIN PRICE, President. EDGAR G. MILLER, Vice-President. JACOB I. COHEN, Secretary and Treasurer. EDGAR G. MILLER, JACOB I. COHEN, C. RIDGELY GOODWIN, JOHN T. MASON, R, BOARD OF DIRECTORS: BENJAMIN PRICE, GEO. WHITELOCK, RICHARD K. CROSS, CHAS. W. SLAGLE, THOMAS HILL. This Company examines Titles to Real Estate or Leasehold Property for purchasers and mortgagees, and issues a Policy insuring them absolutely against all loss by reason of any possible defect of title. The charge for Insurance (which includes all expenses of Examination) is On sums of $1500 or less, $15.00. On sums of $1500 to $3000, one per cent. On sums of $3000 and upwards, $30 on the first $3000, and one-half of one per cent. on the excess over $3000. If, on Examination, the risk is declined by the Company, no charge whatever is made. FOREIGN & DOMESTIC BANKING BUSINESS. Embracing Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and District of Columbia, OF THE Royal (Fire) Insurance Co. OF LIVERPOOL, No. 15 SOUTH STREET, BALTIMORE, MD. The Royal Insurance Company has the largest net surplus possessed by any Fire Insurance Company in the world. Losses paid as soon as ascertained, without the usual discount for cash payment. ALL CLAIMS ADJUSTED AND PAID AT This DepartMENT. For the protection of its policyholders the Royal Insurance Company has A CAPITAL OF TEN MILLION DOLLARS, A NET SURPLUS OF Over ten MILLION DOLLARS, CASH ASSETS OF OVER THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS. And in addition to the security offered by these vast resources, all of the stockholders of the Royal Insurance Company are individually responsible to the full extent of their fortunes for its liabilities. TELEPHONE No. 918. VOL. IV.- No. 10. THE MONTH. BALTIMORE, OCTOBER, 1888. N the present state of public feeling in Baltimore, the nomination by the Democratic party of a reasonably fit candidate for the new seat on the Supreme Bench is equivalent to an election. At the same time it is well for the managers of that party to remember that there is no subject on which the indignation of our citizens can be so easily aroused as an attempt to abase the judiciary, and that the part of wisdom for them is to choose as their candidate a man of unblemished life, of undeniable learning, and of sufficient practical experience. A failure to come up to all these requirements might cost them much. These remarks apply equally to their choice for the chief judgeship, to which the Governor has the right to appoint for the coming year. In this case, also, a proper regard for public opinion would be good party policy. The appointee of the Governor comes before the people for confirmation in 1889, and no one of a character unworthy to compare with Judge Brown's spotless reputation can be safely placed in the position which that public-spirited and incorruptible man has filled with such distinguished honor. Nevertheless, and in spite of the public feeling in favor of a non-partisan bench so strongly shown in 1882, Governor Jackson has been quoted as declaring that in this case, just as in purely political appointments, he will appoint no one but a "regular." This is a test which, if adopted also as to the nomination, will exclude from either position a large majority of our reputable lawyers. As to some of the applicants who come up to the "regular" standard, it is not too much to say that they are not distinguished for their legal learning. Probably in that very large part of the law with which they are unacquainted is included the provision of the Constitution declaring that the judges shall be selected from among those members of the bar who are "most distinguished for integrity, wisdom, and sound legal knowledge." THE selection of Mr. Oberly for the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs is worthy of commendation. Mr. Oberly bears the reputation of an earnest and conscientious friend of the Indians, and in his new office he will have a most enviable opportunity to redress the well-founded grievances of those unfortunate people. His experience of the beneficial results following the introduction of the merit system into other departments ought to be sufficient to induce him to urge upon the President its extension to his own subordinates. The difficulties of such a step are not small, but the need of it is great enough to justify any labor. As Mr. Herbert Welsh said in this journal two months ago: "It is manifest that the great army of spoilsmen, the political boss, the ward 'rounder-up' and 'heeler,' the impecunious, illiterate, hungry relative or hanger-on of Representative or Senator, is not as a rule suitable material with which to effect the education and civilization of the Indian." But experience has shown only too clearly that so long as there is no barrier between the clamorous friends of such people and the appointing officer, they swarm into the public service; and the only effective barrier yet devised is the merit system. PRICE TEN CENTS. PERHAPS the greatest obstacle in the way of civil service reform is the determined opposition of the old school of politicians, whether of the silent, intriguing Gorman type, or the ranting, blustering Blackburn variety. We shall have to wait patiently for the certain extinction of a species which is as much out of place in a progressive country as a megatherium would be in Mt. Vernon Place. But meantime there are signs of better times approaching. Mr. Blackburn can still venture to say in New York: "Grover Cleveland has purified the civil service of this country. He is a civil service advocate, and so am I, but this is a love-feast of Democrats and we can afford to tell the truth. I am not the same sort of a civil service man that he is. I believe in civil service profoundly, but the civil service that I cherish is more like that which is held to and practiced by your own great Governor of your State to-day. I believe in that sort of a civil service which will hold the party in power to the strictest accountability for its management of public affairs. I believe in that sort of civil service that would put out of office every bad Republican, because he is bad, and then I would put out every good one, if there is such a one. I would put him out too, because I believe that an equally competent Democrat is infinitely better. But about the same time Senator Vest, himself by no means fully accustomed to the new conditions of public life, took a great step forward when he said in the Senate, referring to the charges of conniving at the levying of assessments in the Chicago postoffice: "If the postmaster at the city of Chicago, an appointee of this Administration, has prostituted his office, violated his oath, trampled upon the rules of the civil service by collusion with his law partner; if he has, through his law partner, emulated the example which the Republican party set to the country for so many years, and if he has indirectly sought to evade a plain statute, then that official should be put out of office, and should receive the condemnation of every honest man." And it is most encouraging too to note that in Massachusetts, where the younger generation of politicians seem to have got a strong hold upon the party machinery, the nominee of the Democratic party for Governor is a man who has distinguished himself by his faithful administration of the reform law when mayor of Cambridge. Perhaps equally suggestive is the fact that in the fifth congressional district of the same State that party has nominated for Congress Col. Thos. W. Higginson, whose name is a synonym for devotion to progress. We note also with pleasure this declaration on the part of the Republicans of Indiana, it being part of their platform: "The sworn revelations of corruption, scoundrelism and outrage in the conduct of the penal and benevolent institutions of the State, made before investigating committees of the last Legislature, and confessed by the action of a Democratic Governor and Democratic legislators, enforce the demand of an enlightened public sentiment that these great and sacred trusts be forever removed from partisan control. We favor placing all public institutions under a wisely conceived and honestly administered civil service law." WHATEVER may be its explanation, the ejectment of Mr. Judd from the Chicago postmastership is a matter for congratulation. On the one hand it is said that he was displaced because of his defeat in a faction squabble, and on the other while not enjoying any very considerable emoluments directly from their offices, yet by reason of increased patronage to their business, through association with the postoffice, brings them in large and valuable returns, and a large number of them are more able to contribute to this cause than are many of our Presidential office holders. that he disgusted the President with his grotesque administration of an office of the first importance. In this latter respect he seems to have enlarged upon the example of our equally unfortunate Mr. Veazey, and to have striven to become a great power in politics by setting the civil service Again, further, I wish you would furnish me the names and location reform law at defiance. His last and crowning work was in in the State of the gentlemen who are in the United States Railway sending his law partner around the postoffice collecting polit- Postal Service. Quite a number of these gentlemen have spoken to ical assessments from the clerks. This action was made pubme and are desirous to contribute financially to the National Comlic, and caused a heated debate in the Senate upon the sub-mittee, and are only waiting information as to the methods to be Yours respectfully, ject of his performances, and very soon thereafter his light was extinguished. We trust that other Federal officers who may feel disposed to do like him may restrain themselves from indulgence in such tricks, lest their latter end should be like his. THE recent report of the Grand Jury, of which that staunch friend of good government, Mr. Thos. McCosker, was foreman, called public attention once more to the complete breakdown of our machinery for suppressing the Sunday liquor traffic. The Grand Jury suggests that: An amendment to the Sunday liquor law, prescribing the powers of the police in the premises, and, if necessary, extending them might be attended with beneficial results, but we think it would be far better to enact a high license law, requiring undoubted proof of good character from those applying for permission to sell, together with the recommendation of those living in the neighborhood where the applicant proposes to locate. This would exclude the disreputable element from the business, and would make useful auxiliaries of the respectable ones remaining, who, in self-defense, would assist the authorities in enforcing the law. This high license system is already in successful operation in our neighboring city of Philadelphia, where it has apparently accomplished much good. A bill providing for its introduction into this city was one of the excellent measures killed by our last ring-ruled Legislature. adopted to that end. JOHN M. GALLOWAY, Chairman. The means by which this document was obtained for publication were very probably dishonorable, but that does not detract from its importance, and the fact that no denial of its authenticity has yet been made seems to prove that it is genuine. Being so, there can be no doubt that President Cleveland should put a stop to a practice which all his professions should cause him to condemn. In his letter accepting the nomination for the presidency Mr. Cleveland says that among the "numerous objects of domestic concern" which "deserve much watchfulness and care" are "a strict and steadfast adherence to the principles of civil service reform and a thorough execution of the laws passed for their enforcement, thus permitting to our people the advantages of business methods in the operation of their government." It was hardly worth his while to say more than this, for Mr. Cleveland's standing as a civil service reformer must now be determined not by his words, but by his record in Maryland and Massachusetts, in New York and Indiana. It is different with the Republican candidate, however, who still has his reputation in the treatment of administrative questions to make. But unfortunately, that portion of General Harrison's letter which is devoted to an expression of his views on the civil service is far more vague than it should be. The passage runs as follows: The law regulating appointments to the classified civil service received my support in the Senate, in the belief that it opened the way to a much-needed reform. I still think so, and therefore cor THE circular asking for funds recently issued by the National Democratic Campaign Committee contained a paragraph in reference to political assessments which seemed intended to create the impression that no effort would be made in this canvass, under the authority of the committee,dially approve the clear and forcible expression of the convention upon this subject. The law should have the aid of a friendly interto bleed the Federal officials. But almost irrefragable evi-pretation and be faithfully and vigorously enforced. All appointdence to the contrary has been produced by the New York Tribune by the publication of the following letter: HEADQUARTERS DEMOCRATIC STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF 605 KANSAS AVENUE, TOPEKA, August 27, 1888. To GENERAL A. E. STEVENSON, First Assistant Postmaster-General, My Dear Sir:-I am just in receipt of a notification through the proper channels with reference to the plans of the National Committee in getting contributions for that committee from Federal officeholders, and that this matter for the different States is made to devolve upon the respective State Committees. In pursuance of my plan to carry out the wishes of the National Committee, in this respect, you will please aid me by having furnished me at your earliest convenience a list of the names of all postmasters in this State, with the exception of the Presidential appointees. Please have this list furnished in duplicate, and by counties, one copy of which I will retain in my office for reference and to check against, and the other copy I will cut up into the respective counties and refer to my committee men and Presidential postmasters for information in the respective counties as to the position and financial situation and politics of the separate postmasters, and their ability to respond to such requests as I may make upon them. The fact is, as I know very well, that there are hundreds and hundreds of these fourth-class postmasters, country storekeepers, who, ments under it should be absolutely free from partisan considerations and influence. Some extensions of the classified list are practicable and desirable, and further legislation extending the reform to other branches of the service, to which it is applicable, would receive my approval. In appointments to every grade and department, fitness, and not party service, should be the essential and discriminating test, and fidelity and efficiency the only sure tenure of office. Only the interests of the public service should suggest removals from office. I know the practical difficulties attending the attempt to apply the spirit of the civil service rules to all appointments and removals. It will, however, be my sincere purpose, if elected, to advance the reform. It is not nearly so important to be told how the law should be enforced and how appointments should be made, as it is to receive an explicit pledge that in the event of Mr. Harrison's election removals will not be made for partisan purposes, nor patronage handed over to the Blaines, Quays, and News in payment of campaign debts. Mr. Harrison could have drawn more civil service reformers to his side if he had promised to withhold his hand from a clean sweep. On the twelfth of September we were vouchsafed the sight of a "chief with his tail on." We refer to the singular ceremony with which the postmaster, Mr. Brown, was received by his letter-carriers on his return from Europe. This potentate had declined all the duties of his office excepting the receipt of his salary, while he enjoyed a summer vacation abroad. Upon his arrival here at home it seems to have become the duty of his faithful vassals to go forth to greet him, in accordance with the old feudal custom; and in order to get time for this pageant, the delivery of mail in Baltimore ceased at 11.30 A. M. Then, while the business community, with characteristic unreasonableness, fumed and growled because they had to do without their letters for one day, the faithful carriers were marched by a circuitous route of forty-five blocks to Union Station, to welcome their chieftain. Singularly enough, the first stage of their journey was from the armory of the Fifth Regiment down town to the City Hall. Arrived at that shrine of the faithful, Mr. Latrobe poetically addressed them as follows: "I congratulate you on your martial appearance, the excellence of your drill, and especially the efficiency of the service to which you belong. The postmen are public necessities. They are always 'on the go.' No weather stops their march. In storm or sunshine, rain or snow, you tramp your daily rounds. There are no laggards in your ranks. Your step is always ‘double quick,' for those for whom you cater will not wait. No postman idles as he walks. Like soldiers, you carry haversacks, not filled with cartridges or rations, but bearing communications on business, good or bad tidings from absent friends, or soft and tender words from those we love. How anxiously are your visits waited for! How many hearts beat quicker at the familiar sound of your bell-ring! But what means this martial array? Surely you do not go to get the mail. One would suppose it was St. Valentine's day, and all these gray-clad messengers were called out for duty in Cupid's cause. But where are your haversacks? You are in light marching order. You go, I hear, to meet and greet the mail-master-our postmaster, our fellow-citizenFrank Brown, who comes across the sea back to his post of duty in Baltimore. You must not go empty-handed. What better can you appreciate the fact that a public office is a public trust. I never forgot in my travels that I had left five hundred trustworthy men under the assistant postmaster, who reported to me always that all was well with you. As to the countries I have visited, let me repeat as my sentiments the sage remark of my little boy, who said on the steamer, "Foreign countries are good enough to be born in, but America is the place to live." I thank you all heartily. For the sake of the postmaster we are glad to hear that the cost of this ridiculous performance came out of his own pocket, and not out of the carriers'. THE Sun recently printed a disgraceful article intended to pave the way for the pardon of three election officers convicted of gross frauds in the municipal election of 1886. As will appear from a perusal of the Reform League's protest against a pardon, printed elsewhere, no crime was ever more deliberately committed, more clearly proved, or more justly punished; and in a community where such crimes were not an habitual practice of an influential class of the population, no newspaper would venture to take the attitude of the Sun. Even in the Sun, such a course can only be explained on the theory that it is directed by a power to which a powerful journal must defer. With such a case to establish, the arguments used must needs be extraordinary; but we were hardly prepared to find the State's Attorney urge Executive clemency because the criminals refused to turn State's evidence; nor were we less than astonished to learn that he admitted in unmistakable terms the charge so often made in this fournal and upon the hustings, that these crimes were the result of a concerted plan, devised by persons more important than the criminals themselves. Yet no other meaning than we have given them can be attached to these words of Mr. Kerr's: "Al carry than your country's flag? You will bear it proudly, and he, though I have never heretofore endorsed any application for returning from a foreign land, will greet it kindly when you meet. Let me have the honor of presenting it to you, with the best wishes of Baltimore's people for the prosperity and happiness of our lettercarriers." Perhaps somewhat overcome by this flood of eloquence, the procession meandered deviously to Union Depot, where, as that courtly journal, the Sun, informs us, "formed in double line, with presented canes, they received Postmaster Brown with cheers upon his arrival at 4.45 o'clock." That dignitary was then conveyed in a carriage with four horses, and in company with "Jack" Fenton, down town to the postoffice; while the carriers marched behind, rather wearily, we fear. When the whole imposing array had reached the postoffice, Carrier J. D. Scully delivered himself thus: Mr. Postmaster :-On the part of the carriers permit me to welcome you home. We are gratified at your physical improvement, gained through travel in foreign lands, and in your renewed American love of country, which must have been strengthened by your observations of the effete monarchies of the Old World. We are gratified that your observation has shown the marked advancement of American postal affairs over those of Europe, and permit me, sir, to say that my comrades are determined by their conduct to uphold our American superiority in postal affairs, so far at least as we are concerned. Without stopping to inquire into the remarkable feat of telepathy which Carrier Scully had performed in thus reading the thoughts of his chieftain, Postmaster Brown replied as follows: It is with pride that I receive your pleasant welcome. I thank you as I have done in the past for the sincerity with which you have performed all your tasks, for which the beautiful colors presented to you through our chief magistrate, the Mayor, is a graceful tribute. I congratulate you upon your appearance in parade, and as to your faithful performance of duty I can best express myself by saying that you the pardon of those convicted of election frauds, I am led now to regard the case, under all the circumstances, as justly appealing to clemency. . . I have always believed that these prisoners could themselves have revealed facts which would have shown, and without a knowledge of which no jury could determine, exactly who were responsible for an indisputable fraud. No one of them would tell upon the other or disclose anything that might lead to the discovery of the originators of the nefarious schemes.” A VINDICATION OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT* In reviewing Mr. Andrew Carnegie's "Triumphant Democracy," a friendly critic pronounced it well suited to cure any one inclined to despond regarding the future of American institutions. We have seldom had occasion to dissent more heartily from any sentiment than from this; we know of no more dreary reading than the work thus eulogized for one rendered thoughtful by, for example, Sir Henry Maine's comments on Popular Government. A democracy content to take Mr. Carnegie as its champion would have lost the hope of improvement with the knowledge that improvematerialism and presumptuous sciolism that it could not ment was needed. It would be so permeated with vulgar either desire or understand nobler things. Its answer to its critics would forcibly illustrate and amply justify their cen sure. The Working of the American Democracy. An address delivered before the Fraternity BK of Harvard University, June 28, 1888, by Charles W. Eliot. Pamphlet. |