TILTS WITH CONGRESS

first demonstration would usually be made to pique Mr. Roosevelt, who had once occupied a seat in the gallery when the committee debate was in progress; their second would be for the benefit of those of their constituents who were educated and intelligent enough to read the Congressional Record and the newspapers.

Once the opponents of the merit system in Congress carried their horse-play a little too far, and, though not striking out the total grant, refused to give the commission all the money it needed for the expense of conducting examinations. A meek man would have bowed to this snub. Not so Mr. Roosevelt. He sent for the schedule of examination routes as laid out, and prepared a revised version, chopping off with one blow the districts represented by the men who had refused to vote the necessary money. He then informed the leading newspaper correspondents of what had been done, so as to have it well advertised. He coupled with the news an explanation that, as long as the list must be cut down to keep it within the amount appropriated for expenses, and some districts had to be sacrificed, it was only common justice that those members who had voted against the necessary grant should be given the

full benefit of the restriction they had themselves imposed. There was loud chatter about "impeachment" and "removal," and what-not, when this news reached the ears of the victims, but the bold stroke carried the day, and the commission got its money after that.

When a member of either chamber persisted in criticizing the commission unfairly after an invitation to inspect its methods and satisfy himself, he was apt to hear from Mr. Roosevelt in another way; and it made no difference what the offender's party affiliations or personal importance might be. Mr. Gorman, of Maryland, attacking the merit system one day in the Senate, told a story of "a bright young man in the city of Baltimore, an applicant for the position of letter-carrier," who was required on his examination to tell "the most direct route from Baltimore to Japan," and on his failure to answer this and some other equally unpractical questions was rejected. On the day the speech was published Mr. Roosevelt sent the Senator a polite written request for the date and place of the examination, and also an invitation to inspect all the examination papers for letter-carriers and find the obnoxious question if it had ever been asked. In this instance,

AN ARCADIAN SENATOR

Mr. Gorman explained afterward to his colleagues in the Senate, "I did what I do in the case of all interferences by impudent people who without warrant ask me about the discharge of my duty: I took no notice of it." That brought out from Mr. Roosevelt a public letter, closing in this characteristic style:

"High-minded, sensitive Mr. Gorman! Clinging, trustful Mr. Gorman! Nothing could shake his belief in that 'bright young man.' Apparently, he did not even yet try to find out his name-if he had a name; in fact, his name, like everything else about him, remains to this day wrapped in the Stygian mantle of an abysmal mystery. Still less has Mr. Gorman tried to verify the statements made to him. It is enough for him that they were made. No harsh suspicion, no stern demand for evidence or proof, appeals to his artless and unspoiled soul. He believes whatever he is told, even when he has forgotten the name of the teller, or never knew it. It would indeed be difficult to find an instance of a more abiding confidence in human nature-even in anonymous human nature. And this is the end of the tale of Arcadian Mr. Gorman and his elusive friend, the bright young man without a name!"

James S. Clarkson, the present surveyor of the Port of New York, was formerly an Assistant Postmaster-General, having for one of his duties the appointment and dismissal of fourthclass postmasters. As joint members of the administration under President Harrison, he and Mr. Roosevelt had several clashes while this connection lasted, having been trained in diverse schools of ethics as regarded the civil service. Mr. Clarkson, when he had retired from office, contributed an article to the North American Review charging the commission with being more unfriendly to the Republican party under Harrison than it had been under Cleveland, denouncing the mugwumps as being insincere and merely Democrats in disguise, and insisting on the right of the Republicans when in power to fill the offices with persons of their own political faith. Mr. Roosevelt, in a speech delivered at St. Louis soon after the article appeared, met these complaints in a fashion all his own.

"Mr. Clarkson," said he, "is suffering under a confusion of ideas. He is mixing himself and his friends with the Republican party. The Civil-Service Commission is most undoubtedly hostile to Mr. Clarkson and the idea

REBUKING A SPOILSMAN

which Mr. Clarkson represents. We should fail in our duty if we were not. We can no more retain the good-will of the spoilsmen than a policeman who does his duty can retain the good-will of the lawbreaker.

"Mr. Clarkson says that the Democratic party purchased the mugwump edifice. I do not believe Mr. Clarkson means that. It is just as foolish to make that statement as it would be to make the statement that the Democratic party purchased Mr. Clarkson to write his article, which is more fitted to do damage to the Republican party than any possible mugwump editorial.

"He represents civil-service reformers as saying that office-holding does not concern the people. On the contrary, we say that it does concern the people, and we take issue with Mr. Clarkson and his friends, who insist that it merely concerns the one small and not very clean caste of office-seekers and office-holders.

"He says that he and his friends believe in Republican officers under Republican administrations. If this is not right, he says, then all political parties in America ought to disband. In other words, he and his friends believe that if they can not get the offices the party