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 obtained. Under President McKinley's administration the rules were suspended for such purpose three times, and two of those suspensions resulted in the preferment of men who a short time afterwards found themselves under indictment for fraudulent practices in the Post-Office Department. Nor has under President Roosevelt's administration the interest of the service been promoted by a suspension of the rules to secure the appointment as assistant commissioner of immigration of a politician who could not have reached that position through a competitive test, or the appointment under a suspension of the rules of an “inspector of hulls” who subsequently was disgraced as an incompetent by the famous “General Slocum” disaster, and whose previous record had been such that it should have prevented his appointment to so important an office under any circumstance. Those who urged upon President Roosevelt a suspension of the rules in his behalf on account of his exceptional experience, would no doubt have received from the President a very energetic rebuff, had they exhibited that record to him.

Reading the statement of the reasons given for the various suspensions of the rules, my mind received the impression—and I expect this will be the impression received by the average reader—that, while there are a few cases in which extraordinary action may have been called for to secure men of exceptional qualifications for certain official positions, and while the President, in taking such extraordinary action, has been actuated by the best of motives, the whole proceeding bears in some important respects a striking resemblance to the distribution of places under the spoils system. I do not pretend to any special information on that point, but I think I risk little in saying that this practice of granting suspensions of the rules in favor of individuals has already gone farther than President Roosevelt originally intended or foresaw. It is a significant fact that while President McKinley granted only three such suspensions, their number had, under President Roosevelt, according to reports made at the last session of Congress, risen to sixty; and it is