"PERSONAL SPITE"
"Personal Spite" WHAT personal spite may accomplish with the assistance of "senatorial courtesy" has been emphasized in a well-considered editorial in The New Republic. Commenting upon Senator...
...But what about the majority of the Senate...
...Senators of the United States should be big enough and disinterested enough to make this great body uniformly distinguished for high statemanship...
...They must realize that in the long run they cannot reject nominations because of the personal objections by Senators of another party...
...They have merely applied to an exceptional ease the spirit that lies behind the rule of patronage...
...Rublee, but he was nevertheless supported in his claim by a majority of the Senate...
...He was unable to quote any actually obnoxious words used by Mr...
...On Senator Gallinger's part the protest was dictated by petty personal spite, which in itself sufficiently indicates the calibre of the man...
...Until it does come the country must suffer humiliations such as the Senate's action in the Rublee case...
...This vicious principle is well termed "the most formidable stronghold of the bi-partisan spoils system—the most insuperable obstacle to the attainment of administrative efficiency in the national service...
...Commenting upon Senator Gallinger's shocking abuse of the senatorial courtesy custom in defeating the nomination of George Rublee for the Federal Trade Commission, The New Republic says: "Senator Gallinger claimed the privilege of preventing an exceptionally able and well qualified man from serving the United States government, because this man was personally obnoxious to him...
...They did not intend by their actions to establish a dangerous precedent...
...When that day arrives questions of public interest will not be settled with the tricks and tactics of cheap aldermanic politics...
Vol. 8 • June 1916 • No. 6
