AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PENNSYLVANIAN
of the National Civil Service Reform Association, endeavored to throw its weight in favor of Cleveland, and against Blaine, he was followed by most of the active members in Philadelphia. I protested and wrote a letter to him which appeared in the New York Tribune, was issued as a campaign document by the Republican National Committee and sent all over the United States. While I have always continued my membership in the association, I have taken no active part in the conduct of its affairs since that time. As we look back with the light shown by subsequent development, we are compelled to recognize that Blaine was the most astute and sagacious statesman of his period, that his method of dealing with other countries on the two continents was based on correct principles and are now generally accepted, and that the American people displayed little wisdom in their treatment of him and by it lost important opportunities to advance their own welfare. By getting out of sympathy with its surroundings, the Philadelphia Association lost much in strength and has never recovered its vitality. When, as Governor, I had the opportunity to put my principles into practice, could point to the fact that no official during my incumbency had been removed for political reasons and had recommended the adoption of Civil Service Reform by the state, the association was too timid to commend, and when Woodrow Wilson, who as a citizen had loudly advocated the system, and as a president at once removed an expert official in the Philadelphia Custom House to make way for a Democrat, overriding the request of the association, it was too timid to condemn.
Into the platform of the National Republican League I had this plank inserted:
“That the worst of the existing evils of our national life being the results of former Democratic rule should be remedied by the restoration, in our local, state, and national governments, of the tenure of routine offices for life or during good behavior, with the establishment of pensions
