George William Curtis, Citizen [pp. 549-552]

. George William Curtis, Citizen.
It is hard to imagine oneof his polished
manners and education taking part in
ward politics. Yet for many years he
was chairman of the Republican county
committee of his county, and gave to
local politics much time and attention.
For such a man as he there was no hope
of fame or reward in filling such a position. He wanted no office, but he
wanted to do his duty as a citizen. He
declined the appointment of Minister
to England and to Germany, but because
he thought it his duty labored for years
for clean politics in the county of his
home.
O that we had a few such men in
San Francisco and Oakland! But could
they deliver us from the hands of the
saloon-keeper and the political boss?
Or are we so accustomed to our slavery
that we would rather endure the lash
applied to our backs by our municipal
rulers, than give such attention to local
matters as would place our city affairs
in the hands of honest and efficient
men?
Not the least beneficial work for the
public performed by Mr. Curtis was the
constant urging, in season and out of
season, of the creation of an international reservation at Niagara, until success finally crowned the efforts of himself
and his coadjutors. Every one visiting
that wonderful work of nature now, who
knew the place twenty years ago, must
bless the memory of a man who never
tired in a work he conceived to be for
the public good.
But the work to which he devoted
most time, zeal, and intelligent effort,
was the work of reforming the civil service. He saw clearly that our present
methods placed it in the power of unscrupulous men to control elections, and
fatten off the tax-payers and industrious
workers.
Given the proposition that in political
matters to the victors belong the spoils,
and what is the inevitable result? At
every election there are a large number
of offices to be filled, with the accompanying deputyships and clerical force.
In addition, and what is still more tempting to the unscrupulous, the public moneys are controlled by the victors at the
polls. Now here is inducement to men
to make combinations, to give their
entire time and attention to such manipulations as will enable them to control
the expenditure of the public money
and the distribution of the public patronage. But such men would be shorn
of their power of combination, if they
had not the means to reward those who
stand in with them by giving them clerkships or other employment at public
expense. There is where the blow must
be struck. We must take away the
power to reward the workers at the
polls or the primaries. As it is now, a
large body of men in every municipality
follow no calling save that of politics.
Of course the busy citizens, engrossed
with their own affairs, have no time to
make combinations to beat these fellows; and if they had the time, they
would quickly find that training tells
here, as in every other contest in life,
and that these men who make a business of politics, and have the assistance
of the saloon and its patrons, can get
away with the good citizens at the polls.
Here is where the work of Mr. Curtis
is destined to be of incalculable benefit
to his countrymen. He addressed himself like a knight of old to crushing this
monster of political patronage that is
sucking the blood from out the body
politic.
By voice, by pen, by sarcasm, by genial wit, and by eloquent denunciation,
by appeals to men's reason, judgm -nt,
and observation, by organizing his followers, by giving them courage and
supplying them with arguments, he carried forward a work from which great
results were obtained in his lifetime, and
which must go on to complete fruition,
if a government by the people and for
the people is to be maintained in the
1892.]
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