The civil service is still very far from being in a satisfactory condition either in the central, state, or municipal offices.

Moreover, the passage of reform laws has not had any appreciable effect upon the vitality or the power of the professional politician.

The machine has, on the whole, increased rather than diminished in power, during the past twenty-five years.

Civil service reform is no longer as vigorously opposed as it used to be, because it is no longer feared.

The politicians have found that in its ordinary shape it really does not do them any essential harm.