234 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
intendent the helm" is really to make him a slave of his political masters.
When leaving I appealed to the president of the board of trustees
to disregard clamor and keep good people at work without regard to political convictions. I argued at some length about the duty involved ; but the
gentleman looked up after I had finished and said : " Mr. , I quite
agree with all you have said. It is beautiful in theory, but the fact is, we Pops are hungry. I believe in the doctrine that ' to the victors belong the spoils,' and we will gather them as fast as possible."
In his further disclosures of experience in a western state, he shows that so long as a superintendent has the power to select subordinates without examination or legal rules of promotion, he at once is liable to attack from members of the board on behalf of personal or political friends. The preliminary free competitive examination is the only device ever invented to protect the responsible administrator from his friends and relations. It brings conduct under the reign of law and eliminates caprice and private interest.
It is apparent that the fundamental principles of the civil-service reform are but dimly apprehended even among honest and capable oflScials educated under the spoils system. The ideas which have become familiar as the alphabet in English and German administration seem to us foreign. This is entirely clear from the cloudy definitions given to the " merit system " by many upright officers who really imagine they have adopted and are living up to the most modern ideals of appointments.
C. R. Henderson.
The University of Chicago.
