Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/338

318 service reform, who want the real thing and not a mere delusive shadow, to be untiring in their watchfulness, and to unite in an earnest effort, so that the people be not deceived by such a double game, which would be certain to result in the disappointment of our hopes. I say this, not as if I desired to throw doubt upon the intentions of those who devised and initiated the proposed system, but to express my misgivings as to the dangerous efforts which will be made to render genuine reform impossible, and to urge its true friends to come to an intelligent understanding as to the steps to be taken for the promotion of so great an object; for I have long considered the reform of the civil service, the destruction of the corrupting and demoralizing influences of the patron age, the elevation of the moral tone of our political life, as one of the most important problems, second, perhaps, to none among those we have to solve for the success and perpetuation of our republican institutions.

Since we declared ourselves in our platform of 1870 in favor of a revenue system that would do away with unjust discrimination in favor of some industrial interests, and to the detriment of others, National legislation in that respect has undergone no material change, nor does there seem to be an immediate prospect of a change such as we desire. Apparent concessions may be made by the favored interests and the advocates of the policy which benefits them, but the existing system is likely to be maintained for the present in its essential features, unless the people manifest their desire for a thorough reform of that system in so emphatic a manner as to make resistance impossible. And here again it is eminently desirable that those who think alike should make their influence felt by intelligent and energetic cooperation.

It cannot be too often repeated that the Executive usurpations of power which have occurred and the passage