MR. BONAPARTE'S LECTURE.

Last evening in Sanders Theatre, Mr. Charles J. Bonaparte '71, delivered a lecture under the auspices of the Civil Service Reform Club on "A Danger to Honest Government." He was in troduced by F. H. Kinnicutt '97, the president of the Civil Service Reform Club.

In opening, Mr. Bonaparte pointed out that the task of civil service reform is the same as it has been for the last thirty years. The same evils are to be fought whether they are found under the name of Republican or Democrat. The particular danger is the same as it has been, that of patronage in its influence on legislation.

We must not forget that the President is a legislative officer. His means of legitimate influence consist in his power to make treaties through which he can override laws; in his right of veto, which makes him a standing conference committee for all men who wish to pass bills; and in his power of expressing through messages to Congress his views on all matters of legislation. If with these powers he does not succeed, he is out of touch with the people or is unfit for his office. No greater powers are needed.

He needs a large number of public servants to help him in his duties. These he is in duty bound to use solely for that purpose. He has no more right to give a place to a congressman in return for a vote than he has to give him a piano out of the public treasury. Such a policy is dangerous as well as odious. If he confines his influence on legislation to its proper sphere he can lead the people but he can never drive them. Corrupt conditions of spoils may seem for a time to cause prosperity, but the prosperity is always artificial as in the case of England when Walpole was premier.

Against this evil influence of patronage, there have been constitutional checks but they have been superficial. Such provisions as that no member of Congress shall hold office and that of the advice and consent of the Senate on all appointments mean nothing. Our real safeguard is in the sturdy sense of the American people. To seek some object first and then to seek the means to gain it, is illogical. To get good legislation, we first need to get good public men. To do that civil service is needed. In, say, a question of tariff legislation, keen strife between groups of producers is inevitable. If we commit such a task to men who peddle votes for places or a President who peddles places for votes, poor results are a foregone conclusion. So it is in all forms of legislation. The first thing needed is to reform the character of the men. To talk about attending first to the tariff or other public questions so that we may get time for the question of men, is to begin at the wrong end. We must first get our good men and then we will have good legislation as a matter of course.

We are such a busy people, with such diversified interests that we are inclined to regard our political evils as petty failings that will soon pass away. But there is danger of too great confidence. Corruption creeps slowly. Either Americans must improve their government or it will debase them.

In concluding, he said: "We have lived to see the merit system applied to nearly all departments of our civil service and I firmly believe that if it continues true to its traditions and principles, it will live to see those principles recognized in legislation and observed in practice throughout the Union."