178 Civil Service Reform 



give "the boys" five dollars apiece all around for 

 their votes, and fifty dollars apiece when they showed 

 themselves sufficiently active in bullying, bribing, 

 and cajoling other voters. Such a sentiment should 

 bar any man from public life, and will bar him when- 

 ever the people grow to realize that the worst ene- 

 mies of the Republic are the demagogue and the 

 corruptionist. The spoils-monger and spoils-seeker 

 invariably breed the bribe-taker and bribe-giver, the 

 embezzler of public funds and the corrupter of 

 voters. Civil Service reform is not merely a move- 

 ment to better the public service. It achieves this 

 end too ; but its main purpose is to raise the tone of 

 public life, and it is in this direction that its effects 

 have been of incalculable good to the whole com- 

 munity. 



For six years, from May, 1889, to May, 1895, I 

 was a member of the National Civil Service Com- 

 mission, and it seems to me to be of interest to show 

 exactly what has been done to advance the law 

 and what to hinder its advancement during these 

 six years, and who have been the more prominent 

 among its friends and foes. I wish to tell "the ad- 

 ventures of Philip on his way through the world," 

 and show who robbed him, who helped him, and who 

 passed him by. It would take too long to give the 

 names of all our friends, and it is not worth while 

 to more than allude to most of our foes and to most 

 of those who were indifferent to us ; but a few of the 

 names should be preserved and some record made of 

 the fights that have been fought and won and of the 



