Patronage Monopoly and the Pendleton Bill [pp. 185-207]

THE PRINCE TOV REVIEW.
welfare of the people are equally disregarded. The men most
pushed by the monopolists are very generally, at least, those
who have been most servile, who have done the most question —
able work, who give promise of being most useful in the future
to the great lords of Monopoly. As a rule, under the spoils
system, those only are considered for places who come with the
approval of these monopoly lords:
"I am his highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?"
It is this discrimination in favor of servility, this barrier
against independent thought and manly self-respect, which
have caused so many in the lower offices to be submissive
workers and cringing assessment-payers, and so many in the
higher to be arrogant manipulators and domineering chieftains
If a subordinate place is to be filled in a city government,
where that system prevails, it is not the mayor or head of the
office who can fill it, but some ward politician some lesser
Tweed-a part of whose monopoly it is. If a vacancy exists,
or is to be made, in a custom-house or a department, not the
collector or the head of that department, but a Senator, Representative, or some other patronage potentate, to whose share of
monopoly that place has fallen, or who has won it in the grand
competition of influence, fills it-fills it from his long roll of followers as a feudal lord would give spoils won in battle. It is these
monopolists who are the inveterate and natural enemies of civilservice reform, and especially of competitive examinations,
which would allow them no more prizes. They profess to act
in the interest of their party, but they would be little less hostile to competitive examinations open only to all the members
of their party. The monopolist excludes all but his followers.
With a few exceptions, every subordinate-municipal, State,
and Federal alike, where the spoils system prevails-is apportioned among the great and little chiefs of patronage. Whenever a prize falls to one of them, a fierce competition of intrigue
and influence among his vassals takes place. I can conceive of
nothing behind the curtains of party politics that would be
more interesting than a disclosure of this apportionment with
the long train of growling or whining followers of every great
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