The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-22
R. H. DANA,s ADDRESS.

l Following is a summary of address | by MT. R. H. Dana, of Boston, before /, the Federation of Women's Clubs of 1 Connecticut at New Haven. Conn,
 Thursday. November 21 1901:
 MT. Dana said the main object of the
 reform is the abolition of the boss in
 politics, the betterment of the service | itself important as that it, being rath l CT product. To show how regula- ! ting the methods of appointment to of- l flee can destroy the boss system, he ex plained wherein the power of the 'boss' | lies. The boss works through a large army of followers active in politics. IT controls their fealty by controlling | their bread and butter. and this he does | through his absolute power to appoint ment to- promotion in and dismissal from the public service, which absolute
 power we had so considerably left in his hands. J
 The total civil service of nation, state, county, city and town within the United States consists of our four hundred thousand persons! a huge army; with pay roll of about three hundred million
 dollars a year; stupendous money
 chest from which to bribe voters and
 buy primaries, caucuses, conventions
 and thus to own the nominating ma
 chinery of the parties. Owning the
 nominating machinery the boss dic-
 tates who shall be our governors, may
 ors, judges, police and our representa-
 lives in legislatures and city councils
 and even in congress itself in these dis
 trcts where the boss system prevails.
 ;r of ho
 judicial and legislative departments he
 can make and unmake laws, enforce
 them or not and give or withhold char
 acters, franchises and public contracts.
 He has all the essential powers of an
 absolute monarch. The great corpora
 tions are subservient to him. contribute
 to his campaign funds and give em-
 ployment and gambling pay for the
 "bosss' protection, The contractors
 divide profits with him as the condition
 of obtaining public work, and so the
 power and wealth of the boss is doubly and trebly increased, but all these add ed sources of influence depend on his controlling the government by means of his army of office holders; without these cohorts "there are none so poor to do him reverence"
 It was also pointed out that the spells system is cruel, unfair, un-American, despotic and leads to nepotsm, bribery, sale of office, favoritism and back stairs influence, and builds up a feu- dal system based on corruption. To show that these are not the views of professed reformers only, he quoted the words of Daniel Webster that 'it it" (the spells system) lis not checked l good men will abandon the government | to the scramble of the bold, the daring | and the desperate;"-of Calhoun that | 1t is ''the best means-to destroy love l of country, to encourage vice and dis | courage virtue and in word to prepare l for the subversion of liberty and the es- tabishment of despotism; ;'-of Henry | Clay that "the tendency of this power is to revive the dark ages of feudalism l and to render every office a feudatory;" of Abraham Lincoln when president, that he wished he were able to attend l to the southern question, pathetlcally, | saying these office seekers demand all my time;"-of Garfield, that 'tit im- pairs the efficiency of legislators, it de- grades the civil service-and finally 1t debauches the public mind; d;"-and of other political leaders in the thirties that the system lis detrimental to the interests, corrupting the morals and to the liberties of the coun- try" and again that it is dangerous to our freedom and corrupting to our free 
 One remedy has been for the public to arise in it's fury when soaded to des- by intolerable evils and abol- sh some particular boss. We remove the man but keep the conditions, We | turn out Tweed and in comes q Cro- i ked. The only permanent improve nent however, is to remove that which reates the boss-namely his power over appointive offices, or in other words to -ake them out of politics. The only method yet invented for this purpose S selection by means if cimpetition ests of fitness open to all candidates of good character
 This method may not be perfect | Neither are the steam engine nor the telephone perfect. It is, however, bet