few days, I put the whole material before the President with a
report. This report has been pigeonholed by the President, and I
have now come to New York to see what can be done to get the
evidence before the public. You will understand that the head of
a department, having made a report to the President, can do
nothing further with the material until the President permits."

Roosevelt went back to Washington with the sage advice to ask the
Civil Service Committee of the House to call upon him to give
evidence in regard to the working of the Civil Service Act. He
could then get into the record his first-hand evidence as well as
a general statement of the bad practices which were going on.
This evidence, when printed as a report of the congressional
committee, could be circulated by the Association. Roosevelt
bettered the advice by asking to have the Postmaster General
called before the committee at the same time as himself. This was
done, but that timid politician replied to the Chairman of the
committee that "he would hold himself at the service of the
Committee for any date on which Mr. Roosevelt was not to be
present." The politicians with uneasy consciences were getting a
little wary about face-to-face encounters with the young fighter.
Nevertheless Roosevelt's testimony was given and circulated
broadcast, as Major Putnam writes, "much to the dissatisfaction
of the Postmaster General and probably of the President."

The six years which Roosevelt spent on the Civil Service
Commission were for him years of splendid training in the methods
and practices of political life. What he learned then stood him
in good stead when he came to the Presidency. Those years of
Roosevelt's gave an impetus to the cause of civil reform which