tinued for a long time,—they have only recently been hushed into silence, but the policy of the administration quickly changed as the Democratic party became settled in the gov ernment. The first open attack on the reform was the circular of Mr. Vilas asking for charges of "offensive partisanship" against postmasters, so that he might have an excuse for their removal. No more petty and more miserable sham to effect a mean purpose was ever employed for the sake of seizing the spoils of office. The President, however, was silent, the pæans of the professional civil-service reformers still rose to heaven, and the changes began. It would extend this article unduly to follow out the work in detail.

The following table made up to June 11, 1887, which I borrow, together with many other suggestions, from the very able speech of Senator Hale upon the civil service in January last, shows compactly the work of a little more than two years.

On July 1st of the same year the Civil Service Record of Boston announced that the percentage of removals in the unclassified service of the Interior Department had risen to 90 per cent. This may have been an extreme case at that time, because the head of that department, Mr. Lamar, had been strongly eulogizing Mr. Calhoun for his opposition to the spoils system, but there can be no doubt that in the year which has elapsed since this table was prepared changes have gone on with accelerating rapidity. The best estimates put the number of changes at this time (May, 1888) at 50,000; and when we add the petty officers dependent on these 50,000 thus changed directly by the administration, we have a total of at least 100,000 offices which have been taken as spoils by the new reform government in three years. There are probably not 5000 officers outside the classified service who still hold over from the former administrations.

The present reform administration has carried out the spoils doctrine with a thoroughness that would have satisfied Jackson himself. The law still protects the 15,000 classified offices it was designed to cover, but in some cases it has been evaded, and in others so notoriously disobeyed as to call for an investigation.

The results of this greedy haste in seizing upon the offices are apparent already, although the time which has elapsed since the work began is so short. The Maryland appointments have been so scandalous, and the whole service in that State has been so debauched, that it has attracted the attention of the Nation. In Indiana it has been almost as bad, and in that State the public service in all its branches there has been seriously crippled. In Chicago and Philadelphia scandals in the government service have called for official investigation, and the New York custom-house has greatly deteriorated. Throughout the country and in the diplomatic service there have been appointments which are in the highest degree discreditable, and show that the spoils system when carried out in the name of reform is, like most hypocrisies, much worse than the vice itself practised without disguise. Of the first seven territorial judges selected by Mr. Cleveland, five within a week were publicly de

nounced as "morally and professionally unfit," and three of the five have since been retired for misconduct.

A list of objectionable appointments made during the first half of the Presidential term showed that fifty-nine have been of persons who have been convicted or indicted for various crimes-ten have been concerned in political crimes, three deserters and one expelled from the United States Senate, three disqualified from office for violation of oaths, three, the tools of persons so disreputable that they could not hold office, and six more, of whom three were appointed to enforce the internalrevenue laws, were either themselves liquor-sellers or attorneys of liquor-sellers. To these are to be added sixty-one notorious political hacks.

In a word, the spoils system in its worst form is once more supreme in the patronage offices, and the civil-service law is imperfectly enforced in the classified service. These facts are beyond denial. The Maryland and Indiana civil-service associations with entire honesty and courage denounced the course of the administration more than two years ago. Very recently such extreme Cleveland partisans as Mr. Curtis and Mr. Godkin have admitted in their newspapers that in civil-service reform the administration has failed, and on May 7th, the New York civil-service association declared that “in those positions not covered by the civil-service rules the changes have gone on with such steadiness that the hopes cherished during the early days of the administration of a substantial gain during its term in the general stability of the service have not been justified by the results."

The only offset to all this has been the repeal of the tenure of office act by the 49th Congress through the efforts of Senator Hoar and Governor Long, who introduced and suceessfully advocated bills for that purpose in the House and Senate.

There has been also great injury to the cause of the reform in other and more general ways. Headquarters were opened in Washington and money collected by fifty-cent subscriptions for the benefit of the Democratic campaign in New York last fall. Mr. Cleveland set the example by sending a check to the Democratic State Committee, and by writing a letter in be

half of one of the Democratic candidates. It is the first time, I believe, that a President has so far forgotten the dignity of his great office as to interfere publicly in a local election of a district attorney. This general demoralization grows, of course, by what it feeds upon, and this spring an order has gone out from one of the heads of bureaus in Washington directing each postmaster to return the names and party relations of each voter in his town or city. This converts the whole vast body of postmasters into a great canvassing committee, and makes these public officers a part of the Democratic machine.

The result has been seen in Democratic conventions, both State and National, filled and controlled by Federal office-hold

ers.

Civil-service reform has been grievously injured by Democratic ascendency, and by the insincerity of the Cleveland worshipers in the reform associations. It will survive the blow if the present administration is not re-elected, for the new system rests on the sound business principle of taking the routine offices of the government out of politics. That is the whole of civil-service reform. Competitive examinations are merely the means and not the end of the reform. The purpose is to substitute some fair, impartial, and mechanical test for favoritism and patronage, which are both thoroughly un-American and mere survivals and imitations of the fashions of aristocratic and despotic governments. Progress toward these objects must be made by legislation. An individual in high administrative office can throw his influence for civil-service reform, but it may well be doubted if any President or head of Department can administer patronage offices otherwise than by patronage. If Mr. Cleveland had frankly said that he would administer the patronage offices by patronage wisely and honestly bestowed, and the classified service according to law, it would have been difficult to assail his position. But he made loud and high-sounding pledges and promises as to the civil service generally, and has broken them all without withdrawing one of his pretentious declarations. At the same time he has allowed the law to be weakened and evaded, political assess

ments to be renewed, and civil-service officers to become a controlling faction in the political machine.

The Republican party is pledged to extend the reform. The Democratic National convention passed this great ques tion by in contemptuous silence. The Republican party has again adopted the resolution of 1884 which was drawn by Mr. George William Curtis. Thus the issue is fairly and distinctly made up.

Every solid step thus far taken has been by a Republican Congress or a Republican administration. The only chance for the extension of the principles of the reform lies in the return of the Republican party to power. Whatever its shortcomings, it is the author of all that has been practically accomplished for the new system, and to it we must look for further progress in the future by means of additional legislation.

The following table shows the manner in which the Repub. lican party as compared with the Democratic party collected and disbursed the national revenues.