sists at first, but sooner or later yields; and from that moment his fate so far as his ability to do any work of general good is con is sealed, cerned. A still larger number of men are good enough in themselves, but are "owned" by third parties. Usually the latter are politicians who have absolute control of the district machine, or who are, at least, of very great importance in the political affairs of their district. A curious fact is that they are not invariably, though usually, of the same party as the member; for in some places, especially in the lower portions of the great cities, politics become purely a business; and in the squabbles for offices of emolument it becomes important for a local leader to have supporters among all the factions. When one of these supporters is sent to a legislative body, he is allowed to act with the rest of his party on what his chief regards as the unimportant questions of party or public interest, but he has to come in to heel at once when any matter arises touching the said chief's power, pocket, or influence. Other members will be controlled by some wealthy private citizen who is not in politics, but who has business interests likely to be affected by legislation, and who is therefore, willing to subscribe heavily to the campaign expenses of an individual or of an association so as to insure the presence in Albany of some one who will give him information and assistance. There are two classes of cases in which corrupt members get money. One is when a wealthy corporation buys through some measure which will be of great benefit to itself, although, perhaps, an injury to the public at large; the other is when a member introduces a bill hostile to some moneyed interest, with the expectation of being paid to let the matter drop. The latter, technically called a "strike," is much the most common; for, in spite of the outcry against them in legislative matters, corporations are more often sinned against than sinning. It is difficult. . . in either case to convict the offending member, though we have very good laws against bribery. The reform has got to come from the people at large. It will be hard to make any very great improvement in the character of the legislators until respectable people become more fully awake to their duties, and until the newspapers become more truthful and less reckless in their statements. Theodore Roosevelt, Essays on Practical Politics (New York, etc., 1888), 10-23 passim. 199. Civil Service Reform (1894) BY CARL SCHURZ This extract is from an address delivered by Schurz at the annual meeting of the National Civil-Service Reform League.. For Schurz, see No. 143 above. - Bibliog raphy: Bowker and Iles, Reader's Guide in Economic, Social, and Political Science, 110-112; Brookings and Ringwalt, Briefs for Debate, No. xvii. WHA 7HAT Civil Service Reform demands, is simply that the business part of the Government shall be carried on in a sound, businesslike manner. This seems so obviously reasonable that among people of common sense there should be no two opinions about it. And the condition of things to be reformed is so obviously unreasonable, so flagrantly absurd and vicious, that we should not believe it could possibly exist among sensible people, had we not become accustomed to its existence among ourselves. Looking at the financial side of the matter alone - it is certainly bad enough; it is indeed almost incomprehensible how the spoils system could be permitted through scores of years to vitiate our business methods in the conduct of the national revenue service, the postal service, the Indian service, the public-land service, involving us in indescribable administrative blunders, bringing about Indian wars, causing immense losses in the revenue, breeding extravagant and plundering practices in all Departments, costing our people in the course of time untold hundreds of millions of money, and making our Government one of the most wasteful in the world. All this, I say, is bad enough. It might be called discreditable enough to move any self-respecting people to shame. But the spoils system has inflicted upon the American people injuries far greater than these. The spoils system, that practice which turns public offices, high and low, from public trusts into objects of prey and booty for the victorious party, may without extravagance of language be called one of the greatest criminals in our history, if not the greatest. In the whole catalogue of our ills there is none more dangerous to the vitality of our free institutions. It tends to divert our whole political life from its true aims. It teaches men to seek something else in politics than the public good. It puts mercenary selfishness as the motive power for political action in the place of public spirit, and organizes that selfishness into a dominant political force. It attracts to active party politics the worst elements of our population, and with them crowds out the best. It transforms political parties from associations of patriotic citizens, formed to serve a public cause, into bands of mercenaries using a cause to serve them. It perverts party contests from contentions of opinion into scrambles for plunder. By stimulating the mercenary spirit it promotes the corrupt use of money in party contests and in elections. It takes the leadership of political organizations out of the hands of men fit to be leaders of opinion and workers for high aims, and turns it over to the organizers and leaders of bands of political marauders. It creates the boss and the machine, putting the boss into the place of the statesman, and the despotism of the machine in the place of an organized public opinion. It converts the public officeholder, who should be the servant of the people, into the servant of a party or of an influential politician, extorting from him time and work which should belong to the public, and money which he receives from the public for public service. It corrupts his sense of duty by making him understand that his obligation to his party or his political patron is equal if not superior to his obligation to the public interest, and that his continuance in office does not depend on his fidelity to duty. It debauches his honesty by seducing him to use the opportunities of his office to indemnify himself for the burdens forced upon him as a party slave. It undermines in all directions the discipline of the public service. It falsifies our constitutional system. It leads to the usurpation, in a large measure, of the executive power of appointment by members of the legislative branch, substituting their irresponsible views of personal or party interest for the judgment as to the public good and the sense of responsibility of the executive. It subjects those who exercise the appointing power, from the President of the United States down, to the intrusion of hordes of office-hunters and their patrons, who rob them of the time and strength they should devote to the public interest. It has already killed two of our Presidents, one, the first Harrison, by worry, and the other, Garfield, by murder; and more recently it has killed a mayor in Chicago and a judge in Tennessee. It degrades our Senators and Representatives in Congress to the contemptible position of office-brokers, and even of mere agents of officebrokers, making the business of dickering about spoils as weighty to them as their duties as legislators. It introduces the patronage as an agency of corrupt influence between the executive and the legislature. It serves to obscure the criminal character of bribery by treating bribery with offices as a legitimate practice. It thus reconciles the popular mind to practices essentially corrupt, and thereby debauches the popular sense of right and wrong in politics. It keeps in high political places, to the exclusion of better men, persons whose only ability consists in holding a personal following by adroit manipulation of the patronage. It has thus sadly lowered the standard of statesmanship in public position, compared with the high order of ability displayed in all other walks of life. It does more than anything else to turn our large municipalities into sinks of corruption, to render Tammany Halls possible, and to make of the police force here and there a protector of crime and a terror to those whose safety it is to guard. It exposes us, by the scandalous spectacle of its periodical spoils carnivals, to the ridicule and contempt of civilized mankind, promoting among our own people the growth of serious doubts as to the practicability of democratic institutions on a great scale; and in an endless variety of ways it introduces into our political life more elements of demoralization, debasement and decadence than any other agency of evil I know of, aye, perhaps more than all other agencies of evil combined. These are some of the injuries the spoils system has been, and still is, inflicting upon this Republic—some, I say; not all. . . . . . . Every intelligent and unprejudiced citizen, when he candidly inquires into the developments which have brought about the present state of things, will understand that of the evils which have so alarmingly demoralized our political life, and so sadly lowered this Republic in the respect of the world, many, if not most, had their origin, and find their sustenance, in that practice which treats the public offices as the plunder of victorious parties; that as, with the increase of our population, the growth of our wealth, and the multiplication of our public interests, the functions of government expand and become more complicated, those evils will grow and eventually destroy the very vitality of our free institutions, unless their prolific source be stopped; and that this force can be effectually stopped not by mere occasional spasms of indignant virtue, but only by a systematic, thorough and permanent reform. Every patriotic citizen understanding this must be a Civil Service Reformer. National Civil-Service Reform League, Proceedings, 1894 (New York, 1894), 7-37 passim. 200. "The President's Message" (1899) BY FINLEY PETER DUNNE Dunne is a journalist who by the shrewd political comments of his "Mr. Dooley," which made their first appearance in the Chicago Journal and Evening Post, has gained a national reputation as a humorist and political critic. - Bibliography as in No. 198 above. ID ye r-read th' prisidint's message?" asked Mr. Dooley. DID "I did not," said Mr. Hennessy. "Well, ye-re r-right," said the philosopher. "I didn't mesilf. 'Tis manny years since I give up me devotion to that form iv fiction. I don't think anny wan r-reads a message but th' clerk iv th' house iv riprisintatives, an' he has to to hold his job. But I cud tell ye how 'tis written. Th' prisidint summons th' cab'net together an' they set ar-round a long table smokin' seegars excipt th' sicrety iv th' navy, an' he smokes a cigareet. An' th' prisidint he says 'La-ads,' he says, 'tis up to me fr to sind a few wurruds,' he says, 'iv good cheer,' he says, 'to thim rilitives iv th' civil service on th' other side iv town,' he says. I'd a great deal rather set up in th' gall'ry an' hear me frind Grosvenor tell thim,' he says, 'that I'm no poly-gamist like that there David Harem feller that's thryin' to break into congress,' he says. But ivry other prisidint has done it,' he says, 'An' I suppose I've got to,' he says. What shall I say?' he says, an' he sets there writin' 'Ye'ers thruly, Willum McKinley,' an' makin' pitchers iv a house in Canton, Ohio, while th' cab'net thinks. "Fin'lly th' sicrety iv state, he says, 'Ye might start it off, if ye want to make it a pop'lar docymint an' wan that 'll be raymimbered,' he says, 'whin ye ar-re forgotten,' he says, 'be mintioning what has been done be th' state department,' he says. They'se a dhray at th' dure with th' facts,' he says, if ye've f'rgotten thim,' he says. "Thin,' says th' sicrety iv the threeasury, 'ye might glide aisily into a few remarks about th' excellent condition iv th' public fi-nances,' he says. Something like this: "Thanks to th' tireless activity iv th' sicrety iv th' threeasury th' efforts iv those inimies iv pop'lar governmint, th' Wall sthreet bears, has been onable to mark down quotations an' thus roon th' prosperity iv th' nation. All his ol' frinds will be glad to know that this pop'lar an' affable gintleman has his eye on th' ticker again. Lyman is th' boy fr th' money," or "I dinnaw what I cud do without Lyman." Something like that 'd hit thim har-rd.' In passing,' says th' sicrety iv war, 'ye |