men are unwilling to accept public office; what they are unwilling
to do is to truckle to bosses, to do all the questionable things that
will keep them in with the ring, or to spend large sums of money in
advertising their claims to the public. So thoroughly have political
machines entrenched themselves that it is often practically useless
for any one to oppose the machine candidate. Appointees receive their
positions for "political services" rendered, or in return for a
"campaign contribution" for which they may hope to recoup themselves
when in office. To destroy utterly this political "graft" will be
impossible until human nature becomes more generally moralized; but
to render it more difficult and less common is the purpose of a number
of measures, of which we may mention the following:

(1) CIVIL SERVICE LAWS. These require appointments to
office, made by officials, to be made on the basis of competitive
examinations which shall test the ability and knowledge of the
applicants. By this means, within a generation, tens of thousands of
positions have been put beyond the reach of spoilsmen, and men of worth
have replaced political henchmen. Instead of a great overturn with
every new political regime, the man who has now fairly won his position
retains it for life, except in case of proved inefficiency. The quality
of the public service has been immeasurably improved, the subservience
of office-holders to political chiefs abolished. [Footnote: See
Atlantic Monthly, vol. 113, p. 270. National Municipal Review, vol.
1, p. 654; vol. 3, p. 316.] But there are still many thousands of offices
that have not been brought within the civil service, and there are
continual attempts on the part of politicians to withdraw from it this
or that class of appointments, that they may have "plums" to offer
their constituents. To the most important positions the civil service
method is, however, inapplicable; imagine a President having to appoint