The preference which individual performers have shown for leading parts is in itself far from being a bad thing, but the lack of "team play" has none the less diminished the efficiency of reform as a practical and prosperous political agitation.
These disagreements are the more significant, because the different "star" reformers are sufficiently united upon their statement of fundamental principles.

They all of them agree to conceive of reform as at bottom a moral protest and awakening, which seeks to enforce the violated laws and to restore the American political and economic system to its pristine purity and vigor.

From their point of view certain abuses have become unwholesomely conspicuous, because the average American citizen has been a little lethargic, and allowed a few of his more energetic and unscrupulous fellow-citizens to exploit for selfish purposes the opportunities of American business and politics.

The function of reform, consequently, is to deprive these parasites of their peculiar opportunities.

Few reformers anticipate now that this task will be easily or quickly accomplished.