room for a hungry office-seeker of the successful political party,
was firmly established. Men and women were not appointed to office
because they knew anything about the work they were to do, but
because they were cousins of a Congressman's wife, or political
heelers who had helped to get the Congressman elected. Nobody
thought of the offices as places where, for the good of the whole
country, it was necessary to have the best men. Instead, the
offices were looked on as delicious slices of pie to be grabbed
and devoured by the greediest and strongest person in sight.

The Civil Service Commission, when Mr. Roosevelt became a member,
had been established by Congress, but it was hated and opposed by
Congress and the Commission was still fought, secretly or openly.
Congressmen tried to ridicule it, to hamper it by denials of
money, and to overrule it in every possible way. A powerful
Republican Congressman and a powerful Democratic Senator tried to
browbeat Roosevelt, and were both caught by him in particularly
mean lies. Naturally they did not enjoy the experience.

At the end of his term, President Harrison was defeated by Mr.
Cleveland, who came back again to the Presidency. He re-appointed
Mr. Roosevelt, who thus spent six years in the Commission. When he
retired he had made a good many enemies among the crooked
politicians, and some friends and admirers among well-informed men
who watch the progress of good government. He was still unknown to
the great body of citizens throughout the country, although he had
been fighting their fight for six years.

He went from Washington to accept another thankless and still more
difficult position in New York City. It was one which had been