It is in a sense a misnomer to write of "Reform" as a single thing.
Reform is, as a matter of fact, all sorts of things. The name has been
applied to a number of separate political agitations, which have been
started by different people at different times in different parts of the
country, and these separate movements have secured very different kinds
of support, and have run very different courses. Tariff reform, for
instance, was an early and popular agitation whose peculiarity has
consisted in securing the support of one of the two national parties,
but which in spite of that support has so far made little substantial
progress. Civil service reform, on the other hand, was the first
agitation looking in the direction of political purification. The early
reformers believed that the eradication of the spoils system would deal
a deadly blow at political corruption and professional politics. But
although they have been fairly successful in establishing the "merit"
system in the various public offices, the results of the reform have not
equaled the promises of its advocates.
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