Any man who is the head of a big department, if he has any fitness at all, wishes to see that department run well; and a very little practical experience shows him that it cannot be run well if he must make his appointments to please spoilsmongering politicians.

As with almost every reform that I have ever undertaken, most of the opposition took the guise of shrewd slander.

Our opponents relied chiefly on downright misrepresentation of what it was that we were trying to accomplish, and of our methods, acts, and personalities.

I had more than one lively encounter with the authors and sponsors of these misrepresentations, which at the time were full of interest to me.

But it would be a dreary thing now to go over the record of exploded mendacity, or to expose the meanness and malice shown by some men of high official position.