will rise another Russian government.

This is an awful serious proposition. Free silver and the tariff and
imperialism and the Panama Canal are triflin' issues when
compared to it. We could worry along without any of these things,
but civil service is sappin' the foundation of the whole shootin'
match. let me argue it out for you. I ain't up on sillygisms, but I can
give you some arguments that nobody can answer.

First, this great and glorious country was built up by political
parties; second, parties can't hold together if their workers don't get
the offices when they win; third, if the parties go to pieces, the
government they built up must go to pieces, too; fourth, then
there'll be h-to pay.

Could anything be clearer than that? Say, honest now; can you
answer that argument? Of course you won't deny that the
government was built up by the great parties. That's history, and
you can't go back of the returns. As to my second proposition, you
can't deny that either. When parties can't get offices, they'll bust.
They ain't far from the bustin' point now, with all this civil service
business keepin' most of the good things from them. How are you
goin' to keep up patriotism if this thing goes On? You can't do it.
let me tell you that patriotism has been dying out fast for the last
twenty years. Before then when a party won, its workers got
everything in sight. That was somethin' to make a man patriotic.
Now, when a party wins and its men come forward and ask for
their rewards, the reply is, "Nothin' doin', unless you can answer a
list of questions about Egyptian mummies and how many years it
will take for a bird to wear out a mass of iron as big as the earth by