Civil Service Reform 189 



were appointed prior to the time when the law 

 went into effect, took advantage of the delay to 

 make clean sweeps of their offices. In one of these 

 offices, where the men were changed in a body, the 

 new appointees hired the men whom they replaced, 

 at $35 a month apiece, to teach them their duties; in 

 itself a sufficient comment on the folly of the spoils 

 system. 



Mr. Bynum's bill provided for the reinstatement 

 of the Democrats who were turned out by the Re- 

 publicans just before the classification of the rail- 

 way mail service. Of course such a bill was a mere 

 partisan measure. There was no more reason for 

 reinstating the Democrats thus turned out than for 

 reinstating the Republicans who had been previous- 

 ly turned out that these same Democrats might get 

 in, or for reinstating the Republicans in the free- 

 delivery offices who had been turned out just be- 

 fore these offices were classified. If the bill had 

 been enacted into law it would have been a most 

 serious blow to the whole system, for it would have 

 put a premium upon legislation of the kind; and 

 after every change of parties we should have seen 

 the passing of laws to reinstate masses of Republi- 

 cans or Democrats, as the case might be. This would 

 have meant a return to the old system under a new 

 form of procedure. Nevertheless, Mr. Bynum's bill 

 received the solid support of his party. Not a Dem- 

 ocratic vote was cast against it in the House, none 

 even of the Massachusetts Democrats being re- 

 corded against it. In the Senate it was pushed by 



