longer names the beneficiary, but the office goes to him who shows that he has at least some qualifications for the position, aside from the insatiable desire to see his name among the officially elect.

Civil service reform aims to put the best service available at the work to be done. Bossism gives precedence to unscrupulous activity and shameless importunity.

With the boss too you have banished his lieutenants, the ward worker, and the pot-house politician. Why should these men work for a man or for an interest that has no office at disposal? It goes without saying that the job hunter has disappeared with this species of boss. If not entirely extinct, the species has become comparatively rare. The specimens still remaining, thanks to civil service law, are easily managed and disposed of with great promptness.

Even in these days it sometimes happens that an urgent appeal is made for work in the public service without the formality of an examination. Sympathies are invoked on account of the straitened circumstances of the applicant or his family, or we are reminded of valuable services rendered unsparingly and unselfishly to us or to our party, or it is broadly hinted that what influence the candidate has-and we are reminded that he has considerable-will be used in our interest to the full extent of our needs, should we see that this particular name gets a safe place on some pay roll. You naturally infer that so long as the pay is good and sure, the question of fitness does not disturb the applicant. Time was, and not so very long ago, even in Wisconsin, when such appeals were so numerous and so insistent as to be veritable nightmares to the official fortunate, or rather unfortunate enough to have patronage at his disposal. His time and even his strength were given to this annoying work, to the serious detriment of the service for which he was elected or employed.

A perfect, truthful and courteous response can now be made to such pleadings and, being fortified by law, the response is final. In the most polite, businesslike and diplomatic language, the applicant is informed that all such positions as he named are under the merit system,

and that an examination is required by law, and he is referred to the secretary of the civil service commission for information regarding requirements and conditions. What a relief is that to officials compared with conditions only a few years ago. The petty offices that were at the disposal of state officials and legislators were far more burdensome and trying than all the duties properly belonging to the office. The efficiency of the official was seriously impaired by this unnecessary burden and annoyance.

The system that you represent goes far to bring about the ideal condition of the office seeking the man, instead of the man the office. The office seeks the man for his fitness alone. The man too frequently seeks the office for the revenue it yields. The former condition is in the interest of the common good, the latter in the interest of individual gain. One is concerned with the service, the other only with the servant. One fosters dependence and servility, the other independence and freedom.

Civil service law substitutes political decency for wire pulling and nauseating fawning. It makes it possible for an honorable and capable candidate to seek employment without either sacrificing his own manhood or demanding the sacrifice of the manhood of those in power.

Your organization has not only increased the efficiency of public service, but it has also built up higher ideals of official life.

Wisconsin has practically abolished the boss as the personification of the spoils system, and abolished him by depriving him of what sustained him, namely, jobs. When there is no job or reward at the disposal of a political leader, there will be no boss of the type we have considered. Hence, the logical conclusion, let the job be awarded on account of merit alone, and this most offensive type of boss will disappear.

Civil service reform not only selects for public service from merit alone, but it forbids the employee to give his time to political work in the interest of any candidate or cause. Pernicious activity in politics is under ban, and jeopardizes the tenure of office of the offender. It is the aim of civil service requirements not only to procure an

efficient employee, but to place such limits on his activity as will favor the continuance of his efficiency.

The job boss having been deposed, it is no matter of surprise that there came in his place the money boss. The nearest equivalent for a good job with continuous employment is money in hand. So we have seen that even after civil service regulations were quite well in force, there appeared money, used to influence the voter. We do not mean to imply that this evil did not exist before, but of late years it has been reduced to a system, made a sort of a science. The money boss type is limited in membership simply because comparatively few have the money to spare; but there is a compensation for this in the number that may be reached. Distribution of cash is a simpler process than distribution of offices, and probably equally effective. So as a means of heading off the money boss, corrupt practices acts have been passed, stringent in their requirements of publicity and drastic in their punishment for infringement of the law. Such laws are made necessary on account of the change in the leader who rewards his adherents with promises of place to one who draws his check to pay for political services. Which of these two types is the more dangerous to good government is a question on which men may well differ, but both are clearly hostile to efficiency of service, and, therefore, to be mercilessly suppressed. Bosses of other types will no doubt attempt to control our political affairs; but we may rest assured that so soon as they prove hurtful to efficiency, means will be discovered or devised for putting them under control. The combined forces marshaled under the civil service and corrupt practices acts are sufficient, we think, to prevent any serious interference with the efficiency of public service, provided these laws are enforced. In the curbing of bossism and the suppression of its various types, those who profit by its operations, naturally resist a change that threatens their interests or weakens their influence. Hence every effort to curb the evil is by some roundly condemned, and sometimes successfully frustrated, at least for a time. You may find even in Wisconsin men high in authority who deplore the existence on our statute books of civil service laws,

and who argue in favor of the old spoils system, so far as their particular offices are concerned. As to whether they would be ready to grant that same privilege to everyone else is hardly doubtful. These same persons are likely to be among those who plead for no restriction in expenditures of money for political purposes. All reforms, all progressive legislation are attacked in this same way by those who read disaster in every change; but the great body of the people of this country stand for progress in efficiency; they will welcome amendments to laws that will make public office more businesslike, more fruitful of results, but will not tolerate their repeal.

This great movement has come to stay, to be a permanent part of our civic life. Thirty years of trial has fully proved its inestimable value. It may need stimulus. and direction to give it strength for greater work. And this convention has for its chief purpose the revival that comes through interchange of thought among men and women engaged in a great common cause.

We confidently bespeak for your meeting results that will be of value to all of our people. The common good is served by such gatherings as this.

We earnestly hope that you may enjoy your stay in our midst; that your deliberations may not only be profitable, as we know they will be, but that they will also be a pleasure to you when here, and a source of pleasure in your remembrance after you return to your homes again.

I take please in extending to you, in behalf of Governor McGovern and the state of Wisconsin, a most cordial welcome to this our badger state.

Address

GENERAL FREDERICK C. WINKLER

My first advent towards political life, or political action, happened in the great struggle which involved the question of slavery. It was a campaign first of 1856, and chiefly the campaign of 1860. It involved upon the part of the organization which attracted my sympathies, high moral principles. Every argument made, every contention submitted to the people, was based upon these high moral principles. The rights of man, the fundamental rights of manhood were involved, and these constituted the basis of all discussion.

In my youthful enthusiasm, I naturally became filled, as others did, with this conception of public affairs. Our party succeeded. And then came the great upheaval in the South, the danger to the Republic, and with it all there came another spectacle that surprised me and startled me, something that seemed to me utterly inconsistent with the high moral tone of the campaign through which we passed, and that was a tremendous scramble for office. Men whom I had seen work actively and eloquently advocating the rights of freedom, turned their faces to Washington, invaded Washington, looking and seeking for office, and there, of course, the arguments and the contentions used for the purpose of advancing personal interests could not be of the high character that had animated the campaign.

President Lincoln is said to have remarked: "I seem to be a hotel clerk, kept busy day and night, letting rooms in one-half of the house, while the other half is on fire." This fairly characterized the situation.

At every change of political parties this struggle for office seemed to grow in responsibility. After the assassination of President Lincoln, and the accession of President Johnson, when bitter strife developed between the President and Congress, control of office was a great