Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/563

 were peculiarly obnoxious to Mr. Schurz, and hostile to the administrative reforms for which he had so earnestly striven. As president of the State Civil Service Reform Association he kept constantly in touch with the currents of conflict, and labored with unabated zeal for the promotion of his cause. The drafts made upon his time and strength by this single interest were enormous.

The conditions under which the presidential campaign of 1904 were fought were full of comfort to Mr. Schurz. The Republicans were practically committed, by Mr. Root's speech as temporary chairman of the convention, and the Democrats were formally committed by their platform, to ultimate withdrawal from the Philippines. This fact materially qualified Mr. Schurz's anxiety over this aspect of imperialism. Both on account of other prominent issues and on account of the personalities of the candidates, he was bound to prefer Parker to Roosevelt. At seventy-five it was hardly to be expected that Mr. Schurz should take the platform. He did, however, contribute his share to the discussion by a letter to the secretary of the Parker Independent clubs that by its cogency and exhaustiveness proved his mental powers to be still at their maximum. The letter was very widely circulated, and, a month before the election, was declared by Judge Parker himself to be “the most valuable contribution that has thus far been made to the campaign.”

Though the strenuous career of the political orator was now closed to him, Mr. Schurz was still in active demand for other occasions. It was hard for him to refuse some of the calls. In 1904 he spoke on German Day at the St. Louis exposition, and at a conference on international arbitration at Carnegie Hall in New York. In June, 1905, he visited the University of Wisconsin to receive the degree of Doctor of