THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE FRANCHISE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—The Bill of the Government of New South Wales to disfranchise the Civil Service you describe (Spectator, December 13th) as " amazing," but at least it does not lack high authority. Washington (D.C.) being the executive centre of the United States, the framers of the Constitution appre- hended that the pressure of the Federal employes from a score of Departments might taint the Legislature. Accord- ingly the District of Columbia was segregated, within which District every citizen is disfranchised whether he is a Govern- ment servant or not. In New South Wales the railways are the property of the State, and every porter is a Civil servant ; but in the United States the Populist party has declared for the State ownership of railways, and in order to offset the ob- jection that State railways would hand over to the party in power a huge and dangerous patronage, the Populists have committed their party in its platforms to the disfranchise- ment of all railway employes in the event of State purchase. I think it is admitted that any advance towards State Socialism must necessitate scme such curtailment of the franchise as that which you deprecate in Australia.—I am,
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