6 Biographical Sketch 



retaining that office until the spring of 1895. A 

 thorough believer in the principle of merit instead 

 of favor in selecting and promoting appointees for 

 the thousands of minor offices in the public service, 

 he entered with his usual combativeness upon the 

 task of enforcing the law for carrying this principle 

 into effect. For six years, under his guidance, 

 this was a fighting commission, not hesitating to 

 grapple with any Cabinet officer or member of 

 Congress, irrespective of their party affiliations, who 

 tried to nullify or repeal the law. The result was 

 the extension of the Civil Service rules to more than 

 50,000 government employees who were not pro- 

 tected by them in 1889. 



In 1894 there was a union of all parties in New 

 York City who were opposed to Tammany Hall, 

 and W. L. Strong was elected Mayor. He invited 

 Roosevelt to join his administration as head of one 

 of the departments ; first, as i head of the Street- 

 Cleaning Department, which he declined for lack 

 of special knowledge; and second, as head of the 

 Police Department, which he accepted. Some of his 

 friends in Washington urged him not to accept the 

 place on the ground that it was beneath his dignity ; 

 others urged him with even more vehemence to 

 accept it, partly because of the good work he could 

 do for New York in putting this department on an 

 honest basis, and partly because of the opportunity 

 it would afford him of getting on the firing-line in 

 the contest for good government in cities. He held 

 this office for two years, and though subjected to 



