One mode of the misappropriation of public funds is avoided when
appointments to office, instead of being the rewards of partisan
activity, are awarded to those whose efficiency promises a fair
return of work for the compensation paid to them. To secure the
fitness and competency of appointees to office and remove from
political action the demoralizing madness for spoils, civil-
service reform has found a place in our public policy and laws.
The benefits already gained through this instrumentality and the
further usefulness it promises entitle it to the hearty support
and encouragement of all who desire to see our public service well
performed or who hope for the elevation of political sentiment and
the purification of political methods.
The existence of immense aggregations of kindred enterprises and
combinations of business interests formed for the purpose of
limiting production and fixing prices is inconsistent with the
fair field which ought to be open to every independent activity.
Legitimate strife in business should not be superseded by an
enforced concession to the demands of combinations that have the
power to destroy, nor should the people to be served lose the
benefit of cheapness which usually results from wholesome
competition. These aggregations and combinations frequently
constitute conspiracies against the interests of the people, and
in all their phases they are unnatural and opposed to our American
sense of fairness.
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