Civil Service Reform 181 



mission throughout my connection with it. I was 

 myself a Republican from the North. Messrs. 

 Thompson and Procter were from the South, and 

 were both Democrats who had served in the Con- 

 federate armies ; and it would be impossible for any 

 one to desire as associates two public men with 

 higher ideals of duty, or more resolute in their ad- 

 herence to those ideals. It is unnecessary to say 

 that in all our dealings there was no single instance 

 wherein the politics of any person or the political 

 significance of any action was so much as taken 

 into account in any case that arose. The force of the 

 Commission itself was all chosen through the com- 

 petitive examinations, and included men of every 

 party and from every section of the country; 

 and I do not believe that in any public or private 

 office of the size it would be possible to find 

 a more honest, efficient, and coherent body of 

 workers. 



From the beginning of the present system each 

 President of the United States has been its friend, 

 but no President has been a radical Civil Service re- 

 former. Presidents Arthur, Harrison, and Cleve- 

 land have all desired to see the service extended, and 

 to see the law well administered. No one of them 

 has felt willing or able to do all that the reformers 

 asked, or to pay much heed to their wishes save as 

 regards that portion of the service to which the law 

 actually applied. Each has been a sincere party man, 

 who has felt strongly on such questions as those of 

 the tariff, of finance, and of our foreign policy, and 



