minimum. By subsequent presidential action,
however, on the 29th of May 1899, the excepted class was again greatly
extended.[5]

A further obstacle to the complete success of the merit system, and one
which prevents the carrying forward of the reform to the extent to which
it has been carried in Great Britain, is inherent in the Civil Service
Act itself. All postmasters who receive compensation of $1000 or more
per annum, and all collectors of customs and collectors of internal
revenue, are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and
are therefore, by express provision of the act, not "required to be
classified." The universal practice of treating these offices as
political agencies instead of as administrative business offices is
therefore not limited by the act. Such officers are active in political
work throughout the country, and their official position adds greatly to
their power to affect the political prospects of the leaders in their
districts. Accordingly the Senate, from being, as originally intended,
merely a confirming body as to these officers, has become in a large
measure, actually if not formally, a nominating body, and holds with
tenacity to the power thus acquired by the individual senators. Thorough
civil service reform requires that these positions also, and all those
of fourth-class postmasters (partly classified by order of 1st Dec.
1908), be made subject to the merit system, for in them is the real
remaining stronghold of the spoils system. Even though all their
subordinates be appointed through examination, it will be impossible to
carry the reform to ultimate and complete success so long as the
officers in charge are appointed mainly for political reasons and are
changed with every change of administration.

The purpose of the act to protect the individual employees in the
service from the rapacity of the "political barons" has been measurably,
if not completely, successful. The power given the Civil Service
Commission, to investigate and report upon violations of the law, has
been used to bring to light such abuses as the levying of political
contributions, and to set the machinery of the law in motion against
them. While comparatively few actual prosecutions have been brought
about, and although the penalties imposed by the act for this offence
have been but seldom inflicted, still the publicity given to all such
cases by the commission's investigations has had a wholesome de