The Civil Service Reform movement was one from
above downwards, and the men who took the lead in it were not men who as
a rule possessed a very profound sympathy with or understanding of the
ways of thought and life of their average fellow-citizen. They were not
men who themselves desired to be letter-carriers or clerks or policemen,
or to have their friends appointed to these positions. Having no
temptation themselves in this direction, they were eagerly anxious to
prevent other people getting such appointments as a reward for political
services. In this they were quite right. It would be impossible to run
any big public office to advantage save along the lines of the strictest
application of Civil Service Reform principles; and the system should be
extended throughout our governmental service far more widely than is now
the case.
But there are other and more vital reforms than this. Too many Civil
Service Reformers, when the trial came, proved tepidly indifferent
or actively hostile to reforms that were of profound and far-reaching
social and industrial consequence. Many of them were at best lukewarm
about movements for the improvement of the conditions of toil and
life among men and women who labor under hard surroundings, and were
positively hostile to movements which curbed the power of the great
corporation magnates and directed into useful instead of pernicious
channels the activities of the great corporation lawyers who advised
them.
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