Civil Service Reform 185 



tecting and exposing them, and in demanding their 

 punishment by the head of the office. The offender 

 always, of course, insists that he has been misunder- 

 stood, and in most cases he can prepare quite a 

 specious defence. As he is of the same political 

 faith as the head of the department, and as he is 

 certain to be backed by influential politicians, the 

 head of the department is usually loth to act 

 against him, and, if possible, will let him off with, at 

 most, a warning not to repeat the offence. In some 

 departments this kind of evasion has never been 

 tolerated; and where the Commission has the force 

 under its eye, as in the departments at Washington, 

 the chance of injustice is minimized. Nevertheless, 

 there have been considerable abuses of this kind, 

 notably in the custom-houses and post-offices, 

 throughout the time I have been at Washington. 

 So far as the Post-Office Department was con- 

 cerned, the abuses were more flagrant under Presi- 

 dent Harrison's Postmaster-General, Mr. Wana- 

 maker; but in the Treasury Department they were 

 more flagrant under President Cleveland's Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury, Mr. Carlisle. 



Congress has control of the appropriations for the 

 Commission, and as it can not do its work without 

 an ample appropriation the action of Congress is vital 

 to its welfare. Many, even of the friends of the 

 system in the country at large, are astonishingly ig- 

 norant of who the men are who have battled most 

 effectively for the law and for good government in 

 either the Senate or the Lower House. It is not 



