Judge — May 17, 1884 — page 2: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE JUDGE. THE JUDGE. 324, and 328 Pearl St., (Franklio Square.) YOR PUBLISHED ON TERMS TO SUBSCRIBERS. (Usrrep Staves axb Casabay A WEEK. Ove copy, one year, oF § One cop One copy. for “Twn Levens: Losvos, Exouasn, NOTICE. Contribate {put thelr raluatlon upon the articles they send pect to a price we may c they will be regarded as gratuitous. Stamps should be inclosed for retura postage, with name and address, if writers wish to regain their declined articles CORRESPONDENTS. ATS WILL FLEABE TAKE NOTICE THAT THRY Exp Maa To THIS OFFICE AT THEIR OWN Risk. WHERE eTAMP AREESCLOSED WH WILL RETCRN RIJECTED MATTER AN FAR 48 FOS. SIBLE, BUT WE DISTINCTLY REFUDIATE ALL REXTONSIRILITY Pom avCR t EVERY case, WHERR A PRICE 1% SOT AYPIKKD RY THR WRITER, CONTRIRCTIONS WILL BE REOARORD Ad ORATCITOUR AND HO SUBSE. QUEST CLAIM FOR REMUNERATION WILL BE ENTERTAINED, far Connmarosi THE BLAINE BOOM. Prestpent Antuur, if he ever reac! the White Hoase again, will have to perform a feat very much in the nature of a miracle, and the age of miracles is popularly supposed to be past. Every day brings us fresh ev dence of Blaine’s increasing strength. If Arthur expects to reach a nomination on his own strength, or even by a consolidation of the scattering votes of other candidates, he must be considerably more sanguine than is any disinterested observer, The C go Tribune publishes a list of eighteen States, a majority of whose delegates will support Blaine in the Chicago Convention. He leads Arthur in each and all of them: Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jerse: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, California. ‘These States cast 203 electoral votes, and the Chicago Tribune believes that Blaine can carry every one of them, if any Republi- can can do it. They gave Garfield 411,774 majority over Hancock, and their electoral votes are enough to elect a President. In the convention Blaine will receive nearly 300 votes from them to something like 50 for Arthur. But Arthur’s boomers say that Edmunds will have 26 votes from Massachu- setts, 14 from New York, and a dozen to twenty picked up from other States, making, say, 56 in all, which they assert will be transferred to Arthur. ‘They claim that ist. | prophec | munds. wea zi or otherwise | Hawley’s 12 votes from Connecticut will also go to Arthur, and John Sherman’s 16, or whatever the number may be, will change to Arthur. These odds and ends added to the 245 or more bogus votes from the Bour- bon South, they contend, will enable him to seize a nomination against the will of the Republican States. But there isa done b: great deal of ex parte figuring Arthur’s friends to justify thi In the first place they have left Illinois ont of their calculations beyond claim- ing two votes for Arthur and two for Ed- But there remain forty Logan vot ready to flop to Blaine the moment they are fied that Logan’s chances are Logan himself is gone, a Blaine man, and led the tion at Cincinnati for him eight y the *‘ Plumed ight’ to any of the other candidates in the field or ‘‘ dark horses” that ha named. When the forty Illinois Logan votes wheel into line for Blaine there will be The thirty Blaine men in Ohio will suddenly increase to more than forty, and all the other West- ern States which are not a unit for Blaine will quickly solidify, and the end of the struggle will be near at hand. This is the way it looks to the Chicago Tribune, which must surely be credited with knowing something of the temper of its own State at least, and to Tue JupGe the figures adduced seem practical and convincing. The comparative strength of Blaine and Arthur is as that of a giant to that of a pigmy. Blaine has long been prominent. Arthur's prominence is a thing of yesterday, and had not accident seated him in the Presidential air, it is extremely improbable that his name would ever have been mentioned in this contest at all. One by one Blaine is tearing the States from under Arthur's feet, and he will have to do some taller jumping than Tue Jur iders him capable of before he can croxs even the chasm that has already been created. and much prefers been a commotion in the convention. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. Tere is something so beautiful, so ex- quisite, so near perfection in the theory of Civil Service Reform that it goes to Tne Junor’s heart to ridicule it, as ridicule it he must. There is nothing the matter with reform in the abstract ; it is in the execution that the flaws lic. Many a scheme, perfect in theory, explodes and becomes useless when submitted to a practical test, and it looks y much as if Civil Service Reform were one of these. Competitive examination is a theoretically splendid test, and is admirably calculated to put mind ahead of matter; un- fortunately, poor humanity is made up of both mind and matter and both are very cellent and even indispensable in their wa ‘The trouble is that the tendency of compe tive examination is to spread into spheres in which it has no business. ‘That is the diffi- culty with all measures of reform. ‘They | of New Jers never know when to stop; they are never content to let well enough alone. Reformers, from the very nature of their minds, are fanatics, and fanatics, while they may do a great deal of good and correct a great many abuses, are always going a step or two beyond the limits prescribed by common sense, If they had their way civil service competitive examinations would be held for the appoint- ment of railway laborers and hotel porters. The stalwart young workman, who does not know the latitude and longtitude of Osh- kosh, the names of the counties in the State y, and the length of the M would be rejected, while the uld not lift a valise to the level of his knee to save his life, would be awarded the appointment. This is an extreme but it If icrificed Rive sissippi colle crammed student, who c case, of cours serves well enough for an illustration. physical considerations are to be to mental aptitude, every public work in the country will be admirably thought out and poorly executed. Everything will be perfect on paper, and fanlty when completed. Let competitive examinations do theirown work—there is room enough for Reform— but let muscle have a chance where nothing but muscle will serve. THE LAST CHANCE. st is so much excited by the progress of Blaine towards victory and the constantly recurring disappointments of Arthur in the same field, we must not ignore the fact that there are a large body of men who care not a straw for either Blaine or Ar- thur, and who have their own ideas about the Presidency, and the government of the country. Democracy just now may be at a discount, but the Democrats do not think so. They hold that the country is ripe for a change if ever it was, and they live in hopes of giving it just the change it wants. In fact, after having been knocked down in half a dozen of rounds, Democracy is com- ing up to the scratch, demoralized but smil- ing and fully prepared to strike another blow for the last. The appearance of dissension in the Repub- lican ranks, doubtless inspires considerable hope in Democratic breasts, but that ap- pearance is only illusory. However fiercely factions may wrangle before nomination, once a candidate is chos him solidly. While public inte! n they will unite on A President’s is much too im- portant an office torun risks over, and whether the nominee be Blaine or Arthur, or Ed- munds or some hitherto unmentioned “dark horse,” he will be backed by all the weight of votes and wealth of influence of the Re- publican party. The Democrats pin most of their faith to Sam’l J. Tilden, and wisely, for he represents the best elements of their party. He ‘has demonstrated his strength in a closely con- tested election, and if he were a younger man would be the ideal Democratic nominee to- day. Indeed, even with things as they are, comicbooks.com