Harrison And The Civil Service

Lucius B. Swift is the best known of the mugwumps of Indiana. He voted for Cleveland. As an officer of the Indiana civil service reform association, he has done splendid work. Whatever he says about Gen. Harrison ought to have great weight with those men who think that civil service reform is the chief question. The following is a letter from Mr. Swift to an eastern gentlemen : Indianapolis, July 12, 1888. My DeaiSir; - Youaek me about General Harrison. As a citizen and as a man, he is held in the highest respect. His ability as a lawyer is beyond question. He íb entirely self-reliant, and comes to a legal contest with a steadiness of nerve and a grasp of the situation that lead to great success. His practice is devoid of cant and buncombe. It isan intellectnal treat to hear him in the management of any stage of an important case. He inasters a subject with great rapidity, and obtains a surprising grasp of details. Previous to entering public life in 1S80, like most lawyers with a large practice, he had been closely confiued to his profession. He has not been disposed to go much in advance of his party on public questions. It bas seeined proper to say this before speaking of General Harrison in relation to civil service reform. He was elected to the Senate in 1880. As an army officer he had tenaciously insisted that his men should share in the best rations, clothing, and all that was due them. So, as a senator, he zealously took up the business of getting as many places as possible for his Indiana Republicans. After one session at Washington, he fiaid at Indianapolis in 1882, "My brief experience at Washington has led me often to utter the wish, with an emphasis I do not often use, that I might be forever relieved of any connection with the distribution of public patronage." In the same speech he said : " I am an advocate of civil service reform. ... I believe the next session will witness the enactment of a law which, if it does not consummate, will, at least auspiciously begin this reform." When the Pendleton Act carne up in the Senate the following January, on its passage he yoted for it. In 1886, he made a speech in the Senate attacking Mr. Cleveland's practice of removal upon secret charges, and of removal for causes of offensive partisanship, which in turn were reconumendationsfor the new appointee. General Harrison was not here setting out his own view of civil service reform, but the following tation is an indication of the bent of his mind : " I do lift up a hearty prayer that we may never have a President who will not either pursue, and compel his cabinet advisers to pursue, the civil service policy pure and simple and upon a just basis, allowing men accused to be heard, and deciding against them only upon competent proof and fairly, -either have that kind cf a civil service, or for God's sake let us have that other frank and bold, if brutal method of turning men and women out simply for politica} opinión." He vas in 188G, and has been ever Bince in nuinerous public utterances, a strong advocate of taking the benevolent institutions of Indiana out of politice, in the attempt to accomplish which the Lower House of our Legislature, in 1887, passed a bilí conimended by the the Civil Service Record as one of the best civil eervice bilis yet drawn. Public opinión has steadily grown in the matter. The criticisms made upon the federal civil service during the last three years have been watched with keen interest. Public expressions which satisfied the public three years ago will not do so now. Ho wever, I do not hesitate to eay with emphasis, that, if General Harrison is elected, the Pendleton Act will be enforcedin letter and spirit. Within the scope of that law, remováis will be made for cause only and with no reference to party. Enemies of the law will have no part in its enforcernent. Evasions and tricks with the law will not be tolerated for an instant.