Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/177

Rh nearly banished from our party contests and cause them to degenerate into ignoble, selfish and disgraceful struggles for the possession of office and public place.

And in his last inaugural address he said:

One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair return of work for the compensation paid to them. To secure the fitness and competency of appointees to office, and to remove from political action the demoralizing madness for spoils, civil service reform has found a place in our public policy and laws. The benefits already gained through this instrumentality, and the further usefulness it promises, entitle it to the hearty support and encouragement of all who desire to see our public service well performed, and who hope for the elevation of political sentiment and the purification of political methods.

These are patriotic and statesmanlike utterances. The man who pronounced them showed that he well understands the nature of the disease, and he would not permit us to doubt his honest determination to apply the remedy. It is true, his words do not distinctly promise this or that specific measure. But he points out so clearly the evil to be redressed and the end to be reached, that the adoption of efficacious means is obviously implied. If “the system which distributes public positions purely as rewards for partisan service,” which “debauches the suffrage and robs political action of its thoughtful and deliberative character,” the system which makes it doubtful whether the Government will survive its continuance, is to be done away with, if “the demoralizing madness for spoils” is to be stemmed for the sake of the better performance of the public service and “the elevation of political sentiment and the purification of political methods,” then, evidently,