The Governor’s bill is a step backward from the advanced position of the party on the civil-service issue. It is a trick to nullify the merit principle in appointments to public office, and it opens the way for a full restoration of the spoils system. There is not a boss nor a machine politician in the State who does not indorse it. There is not an intelligent supporter of honest civil service who will not denounce it.
The rank and file of the Republican party repudiate the Governor’s bill and disclaim all responsibility for it. Party sentiment has spoken against it in unmistakable terms. The Governor’s reflections upon those who opposed the bill are neither well grounded nor in good taste. They mean nothing save that he is sensitive to the criticism which his ill-advised measure has provoked—criticism which, it may truthfully be said, is abundantly warranted by the character of the bill itself as well as by his own amazing advocacy of the spoils system in the public service.
XII. State Aid to Industries.
Massachusetts has undertaken an interesting experiment in the way of promoting home industries. With the aim of producing in that State the finer grade of goods now produced only in foreign markets, the legislature two years ago appropriated $25,000 for the establishment of a textile school in any town which might make a like appropriation for the same object. This offer has now been accepted by the citizens of Lowell, and the first school of the character proposed is being established. It is hoped that this experiment may lead to results which will in some degree compensate for the industrial losses sustained by New England through the competition of the multiplying cotton mills in the South.
XIII. Reading Matter for Prisoners.
Some time ago, in response to a need brought to its attention by one of the local officers in Texas, the American Institute of Civics offered to superintend the distribution among the prisons of the United States of literature suitable for the use of prisoners. Citizens were asked to coöperate, and much good literature has thus been placed in the hands of those who have found it not only a source of entertainment, but, through its refining and elevating influences, a means of great benefit. This beneficent work can be indefinitely extended with a little cost if citizens who appreciate its importance will give to it their aid by contributions of literature, such as wholesome works of fiction, popular works of history, treatises on the useful arts and industries, popular periodicals, etc., etc.; or by assisting in the payment of the cost of collection and distribution. One of the Institute’s councillors in the State of Washington, President Penrose of Whitman College, has recently made an appeal for such literature for the use of convicts in the Washington penitentiary. Inquiries as to methods of coöperation, or gifts for the prison literature expense fund, may be sent to the American Institute of Civics, 203 Broadway, New York.