Ordinarily they sought by cunning to evade the law.

The Civil Service Reformers, on the other hand, were in most cases not much used to practical politics, and were often well-nigh helpless when pitted against veteran professional politicians.

In consequence I found at the beginning of my experiences that there were many offices in which the execution of the law was a sham.

This was very damaging, because it encouraged the politicians to assault the law everywhere, and, on the other hand, made good people feel that the law was not worth while defending.
The first effort of myself and my colleagues was to secure the genuine enforcement of the law.

In this we succeeded after a number of lively fights.