d a Democratic
administration.

To some of my young readers the term Civil Service, as applied here, may
be a bit perplexing. For the benefit of such let me state that civil
service here applies to the thousands of persons who work for the
government, such as post-office clerks, letter carriers, clerks in the
various departments at Washington, like the Treasury, the Congressional
Library, the Government Printing Office, the War Department, and the
hundred and one other branches in which Uncle Sam needs assistance.

For seventy or eighty years these various positions had been under what
is commonly called the "spoils system." "To the victor belong the
spoils," had been the old motto, which generally meant that the party
happening to be in power could do as it pleased about dealing out
employment to those under it. A worker might have been ever so faithful
in the discharge of his duties, but if the administration was changed,
he ran the risk of losing his position without any notice.

Statesmen of both great political parties had long seen the injustice of
the spoils system, but few cared to take the matter up for fear of
offending their political friends. But as matters grew worse, those who
were honest said they would stand such a system no longer, and they
began to advocate the merit plan, whereby each worker for our
government should stand on his merit, so that he could not be removed
from his position without just cause. This merit system is in operation
to-day and is a most excellent thing, only becoming dangerous when
extended too far.

There were two other commissioners besides Mr. Roosevelt on the
Commission, but all worked together in harmony, although in many moves
taken Mr. Roosevelt was the leader. About this work he has written a
notable essay called "Six Years of Civil Service Reform," in which he
reviews much of the work done. In this essay, among many other things,
he says:--

"No republic can permanently endure when its politics are corrupt and
base; and the spoils system,--the application in political life of the
degrading doctrine that to the victor belong the spoils,--produces
corruption and degradation. The man who is in politics for the offices
might just as well be in politics for the money he can get for his vote,
so far as the general good is concerned." Certainly wise words and well
worth remembering.

The work of the Commission was by no means easy, and the members were
often accused of