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anything is to be done to keep our political life down to the level of a scramble for the loaves and fishes and to protect it against the invasion of the higher aspirations of a truly patriotic citizenship.
It is there that civil service reform steps in to do its most important task. I am certainly not sanguine enough to pretend that civil service reform will be a panacea for all the ills that beset our political life. Nor do I indulge myself in the expectation that the full fruits of civil service reform will be reaped before the merit system covers all the non-political places and fully supplants the spoils system in the political habits of the country. Until then there will be arduous and incessant struggle. But surely, with every office rescued from spoils-politics, the political huckster will have so much less of merchandise to trade in, the boss and the machine will have so much less of bribe to offer with every branch of the public service brought under the merit system—which makes proved fitness instead of political favor the test of eligibility for office—the public plunder which holds together the bands of political mercenaries will be so much curtailed and the field for the independent and legitimate ambition of the truly meritorious will be so much enlarged. And with every advance made by the cause of civil service reform in the favor of the public opinion of the country, that demoralizing and debasing agency in our political life which appeals to, and stimulates, mean selfishness, and, by the tyranny of organization, seeks to subjugate conscience, will be so much weakened, and the men of ability, high character, a fine sense of honor and the highest aspirations of true patriotism will so much more be encouraged to devote themselves to the service of the republic.
And this is the feature of civil service reform which I would commend for the especially earnest consideration to our young men. They must look forward to the day when their duties as citizens will call them to the field of public activity. It must be their desire, as it certainly is their interest, that they should enter that field under conditions encouraging a pure and high-minded devotion to the public good; conditions permitting them to rise without imposing any tax upon their self-respect; conditions giving everybody a fair chance to rely upon his ability, character and usefulness for his place;
