ty leader is elected by no one, accountable to no
one, bound by no oath of office, removable by no one."

=The Nation Aroused.=--With the spirit of criticism came also the spirit
of reform. The charges were usually exaggerated; often wholly false; but
there was enough truth in them to warrant renewed vigilance on the part
of American democracy. President Roosevelt doubtless summed up the
sentiment of the great majority of citizens when he demanded the
punishment of wrong-doers in 1907, saying: "It makes not a particle of
difference whether these crimes are committed by a capitalist or by a
laborer, by a leading banker or manufacturer or railroad man or by a
leading representative of a labor union. Swindling in stocks, corrupting
legislatures, making fortunes by the inflation of securities, by
wrecking railroads, by destroying competitors through rebates--these
forms of wrong-doing in the capitalist are far more infamous than any
ordinary form of embezzlement or forgery." The time had come, he added,
to stop "muckraking" and proceed to the constructive work of removing
the abuses that had grown up.

POLITICAL REFORMS

=The Public Service.=--It was a wise comprehension of the needs of
American democracy that led the friends of reform to launch and to
sustain for more than half a century a movement to improve the public
service. On the one side they struck at the spoils system; at the right
of the politicians to use public offices as mere rewards for partisan
work. The federal civil service act of 1883 opened the way to reform by
establishing five vital principles in law: (1) admission to office, not
on the recommendation of party workers, but on the basis of competitive
examinations; (2) promotion for meritorious service of the government
rather than of parties; (3) no assessment of office holders for campaign
funds; (4) permanent tenure during good behavior; and (5) no dismissals
for political reasons. The act itself at first applied to only 14,000
federal offices, but under the constant pressure from the reformers it
was extended until in 1916 it covered nearly 300,000 employees out of an
executive force of approximately 414,000. While gaining steadily at
Washington, civil service reformers carried their agitation into the
states and cities. By 1920 they were able to report ten states with
civil service commissions and the merit system well intrenched in more
than three hundred municipalities.

In excluding spoils