self-confident than they were. The reformers have both
scared and bewildered them. They begin to realize that reform has come
to stay, and perhaps even to conquer, while reform itself is beginning
to pay the penalty of success by being threatened with deterioration. It
has had not only its hero in Theodore Roosevelt, but its specter in
William R. Hearst.

In studying the course of the reforming movement during the last
twenty-five years, it appears that, while reform has had a history, this
history is only beginning. Since 1880, or even 1895 or 1900, it has been
transformed in many significant ways. In the beginning it was spasmodic
in its outbursts, innocent in its purposes, and narrow in its outlook.
It sprang up almost spontaneously in a number of different places and in
a number of different detached movements; and its adherents did not look
much beyond a victory at a particular election, or the passage of a few
remedial laws. Gradually, however, it increased in definiteness,
persistence, and comprehensiveness of purpose. The reformers found the
need of permanent organization, of constant work, and even within
limits, of a positive programme. Their success and their influence upon
public opinion increased just in proportion as they began to take their
job seriously. Indeed, they have become extremely self-conscious in
relation to their present standing and their future responsibilities.
They are beginning to predict the most abundant results from the
"uplift" movement, of which they are the leaders. They confidently
anticipate that they are destined to make a much more salient and
significant contribution to the history of their country than has been
made by any group of political leaders since the Civil War.

It is in a sense a misnomer to write of "Reform" as a single thing.
Reform is, as a matter of fact, all sorts of things. The name has been
applied to a number of separate political agitations, which have been
started by different people at different times in different parts of the
country, and these separate movements have secured very different kinds
of support, and have run very different courses. Tariff reform, for
instance, was an early and popular agitation whose peculiarity has
consisted in securing the support of one of the two national parties,
but which in spite of that support has so far made little substantial
progress. Civil service reform, on the other hand, was the first
agitation looking in th