The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

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ROOSEVELT THE REFORMER
the degradation of our politics. No republic can properly
endure when its politics are corrupt and base; and the spoils
system, the application in political life of the degrading doc-
trine that to the victor belong the spoils, produces corruption
and degradation. The man who is in politics for the offices
might just as well be in politics for the money he can get for
his vote, so far as the general good is concerned. Civil serv-
ice reform is not merely a movement to better the popular
service. It achieves this end, too; but its main purpose is to
raise the tone of public life, and it is in this direction that its
effects have been of incalculable good to the whole commu-
nity.
AN ADVOCATE OF THE MERIT SYSTEM
Mr. Roosevelt was an enthusiastic advocate of the merit
system, and his antagonism to political grafters brought down
a storm of denunciation upon his head. He absolutely
declined to have anything to do with rings, and during his six
years' term of service he and his associates never deviated
from the plan laid out in the beginning. "Our aim," said Mr.
Roosevelt at the time, "was always to procure the extension
of the classified service as rapidly as possible and see that the
law was administered thoroughly and fairly."
HAD MANY OPPONENTS
There were many Republican and Democratic politicians
who were strongly antagonistic to the civil service act, and
there were many members of Congress of both parties who
opposed the commissioners at every step; but Mr. Roosevelt
was undaunted, and whenever the law was evaded, the com-
mission at once made an example of the case.
"The widest publicity was given to wrong-doing," says Mr.
Roosevelt. "Often, even where we were unable to win the