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why the whole public service—National, State and Municipal—should not be organized upon the simple and self-evident principle which in our Navy has proved so brilliantly successful? Can there be any excuse that would really satisfy the conscience and the common sense of any patriotic citizen, for not conducting the management of our Revenue service, our Consular Service, our Postal Service, our Land and Forestry Service, our Indian Service, the taking of the Census, and every other branch of our administrative machinery, on the basis of the same simple principle? Should not, in the face of these palpable and convincing experiences, the President, and every head of department, and every Senator and Representative in Congress, make haste to break through the vicious notions and habits with which the traditions of spoils politics have surrounded them, and to recognize not only in theory, but by corresponding action, the self-evident truth that as mere skill or unscrupulousness in carrying a caucus, or mere zeal and dexterity in electioneering, or mere liberality in contributing to a party campaign chest, or mere energy in bringing out the voters, would not by any sane person be considered sufficient qualification for the command of a ship, or even for the humble position of a gunner or boatswain on a man-of-war, so it should not be considered a sufficient qualification for a consulship, or a post-office, or a revenue place, or an Indian agency, or even the humblest clerkship; but that wherever any work is to be done for the public, the people are entitled to the best work, and that the work should be given only to those who by the best available method prove themselves best fitted for that work?
There is much talk about the new obligations which the results of the recent war have thrust upon us. This is indeed not the place for discussing the question whether it is desirable or not for this Republic to possess colonial dependencies. But it is certainly pertinent to say that if this Republic should charge itself with such dependencies, the question of their government will be to us one of the gravest problems of the future. Now, however opinions may differ on other points, will anybody deny that if such colonial governments were run on the spoils principle, they would inevitably bring upon us not only disastrous failures, but unbearable disgrace? I think I am not going too far in saying that the intelligence
