Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/862

842 we can not help it. Our ground of satisfaction is, that a formidable obstacle to the study of science has been got out of the way in an influential university, and that now it will be a good deal easier for other collegiate institutions to do the same thing.

was perhaps not very far wrong when he spoke the other day of the position of comparative isolation which Mr. Spencer occupies, so far as his views on the proper sphere of government are concerned. There is probably no living philosopher, not the mere mouth-piece of a sect or school, whose general philosophical views command as wide assent as those of Mr. Spencer, but multitudes, who are willing to follow him when he discourses of evolution and of the relativity of knowledge, hold back when they are asked to accept the application which he makes of his general principles to practical questions of government. If, however, Mr. Spencer's philosophy rests on a sound foundation, as so many are prepared to admit, and if his views on the conditions of political and social well-being are legitimately deduced from the cardinal principles of that philosophy, then sooner or later the world must accept them or—suffer the consequences of rebellion against the teachings of right reason. Mr. Spencer can afford to wait for his vindication better, perhaps, than the world can afford to wait to adopt the plan of political salvation which he points out.

It may help to clear no the subject a little if we endeavor to show what the actual condition of things is, and what are the difficulties with which government, in the present unduly comprehensive sense of the term, has to contend. We speak in the heading of this article of "the Scylla and Charybdis of administration." By Scylla we wish to signify the "spoils system," that under which the public offices are bartered for party services; by "Charybdis" we understand bureaucracy. Mr. Spencer says, "Steer away from both of these devouring monsters, by reducing the functions of government to a mere fraction of what they now are"; but the advice is not heeded. Our modern statesmen make straight for one or another of these sources of danger, or else try to steer between them—an experiment which generally results in damage from both sides.

The "spoils system" is too well known in this country to need much description. It consists essentially in making the hope of office, or of control in connection with the disposal of office, the mainspring of all political effort. What kind of political class this system tends to breed we know only too well. The type is the same, from the bar-room rowdy who trusts to his usefulness at election-times to secure him immunity from punishment when arraigned for assault or murder, up to the millionaire who buys himself a seat in the Senate, We see representatives of the system hanging round our city halls, waiting for their share of plunder, and meanwhile defiling rooms which ought to represent the decency and order of a great community with their rude and unsavory habits. We see them in the lobbyists and the pension agents, the men who advertise to procure situations for money, and all the other harpies that congregate at our national and State capitals. We see them in those members of Congress, not a few, whose whole idea of statesmanship is to watch, in the interest of their several localities, the progress of appropriation bills. We see them in influential journalists who make no effort to conceal the rage and scorn with which they are inspired by the very idea that office should be bestowed