The power of the machine can never be broken without a complete reform of our local administrative systems; and the discussion of that reform is more helpful in relation to the state than in relation to the central government.
Civil service reform was the very first movement of the kind to make any headway in American politics.

Within a few years after the close of the War it had waxed into an issue which the politicians could not ignore; and while its first substantial triumph was postponed until late in the seventies, it has, on the whole, been more completely accepted than any important reforming idea.

It has secured the energetic support of every President during the last twenty-five years; it has received at all events the verbal homage of the two national parties; and it can point to affirmative legislation in the great majority of the states.

It meets at the present time with practically no open and influential opposition.
Nevertheless, the "merit system" has not met the expectations of its most enthusiastic supporters.

Abuses have been abolished wherever the reform has been introduced, but the abolition of abuses has not made for any marked increase of efficiency.