Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/249

Rh humbug. But after a while fortune turns against them, the fraudulent circumventions of the law are exposed, the proper remedies are applied and the reformed system not only regains its foothold but advances step by step. Of this, too, present experience furnishes us an object-lesson in New York where civil service reform lay in a torpid state during the glacial period of the Hill régime, but is now thawed out again by a recent change in the weather and makes itself decidedly disagreeable to many of the scoffers and evil-doers. It has evidently come not only to stay but to grow. Of course, to make it bear its full fruit in municipal government the vigilance of an enlightened public opinion and the active and constant participation of public-spirited citizens in municipal affairs can never be dispensed with.

Neither do I mean to detract from the importance of other measures of municipal reform, such as the proper definition of responsibility and its conspicuous lodgment in officials who can be held to account; or legislation to prevent election frauds, or to facilitate the nomination and effective support of independent candidates, or to separate municipal from State and National elections, and the like. The great value of such reformatory measures I fully appreciate. I believe, however, that the widest possible application of civil service reform principles to all the departments of municipal government is not merely a desirable, but an indispensable complement of all the other reforms, for it touches the most of the evil; that as appointments to office cease to be made by way of favoritism and for political ends, and as they are bestowed solely according to merit, and in the higher grades upon men of professional skill and standing, not only the service will be improved in point of character, efficiency and economy, but the means for attracting, feeding and organizing the mercenary element will be curtailed, and the influence of