ceeded in getting away from the futile pass examination and its Charter now provides for the "rule of three." Some of the records of the civil service board were also made public records. This is a very substantial gain, as under a ruling of a former corporation counsel, all of these records belonged to the board and not to the public, so that a glance at them was a favor and not to be presumed upon. Our Association drafted a bill to introduce the merit system into the State charitable institutions with provisions for extension to other state institutions and departments and to cities also. This bill was reported out of Committee with the recommendation that it be continued to the next legislature and this recommendation was adopted by both houses.

In as conservative a state as is the old Nutmeg State, which needs a nut cracker to open the way for a new method of doing business, much seed must be sowed to reap a fair crop. Our agricultural experiment station finds that the electric light and a careful supply of well chosen plant foods increase the apparent fertility of soil. So we have gathered our members under the electric lights, have fed them as properly as we knew how, and have discovered that the seed well sowed, in such a place, has produced far more than that sowed broadcast over all. We do broadcast, too, but our main crop of intelligent, interested citizens has grown up and gained its strength in our forcing beds.

Mr. H. J. Milligan submitted the report from the Civil Service Reform Association of Indiana:

Mr. Chairman, it is said "that State is happy whose annals are uninteresting." Applying that maxim, Indiana is a happy state. I am almost sorry to say that I can't report that the law has been outrageously violated in Indiana. It would be interesting. We haven't had any sensations in that respect, and as friends of civil service, we are first truthtellers before anything else, and the truth is, the federal law has been enforced. There is no complaint. To the contrary. We have no state general civil service law, although the state is administered, as I have announced here before, on the merit system. We are not standpatters in Indiana. We have generally

held the Democratic administration as a threat over the people to make the Republicans be good. But at the last election the candidate for governor was Congressman Watson on the Republican ticket-the candidate on the Democratic ticket was an up-country lawyer, Mr. Thomas Marshall-and Mr. Marshall was elected. He was the only Democrat on the ticket who was elected, and the rest of the Republican ticket was elected. It was a wise discrimination. It is true that friends of civil service were somewhat alarmed when Mr. Marshall inadvertently, in one of his campaign speeches, announced that "to the victors belong the spoils"; but since he became governor he has administered the state and the institutions of the state so far, on the merit system. That state is not without hope which will elect a Democratic governor and Republicans on the balance of the ticket, or vice versa, and while it is true that we have no general civil service law in Indiana, I am sure that the principles of the civil service merit system are steadily and surely gaining ground, and that the state institutions are governed on that principle.

I could not exactly "a round, unvarnished tale unfold," but I could tell a very distressing story I think, of municipal conditions, but that is another story. I must say that at some times I have felt that the civil service cause was won; that the great living question now is municipal administration, but on mature reflection, I think it is fair to say that we would not have had the interest in that subject that we have to-day, if it were not for the civil service agitation. We must persevere and keep up this organization and extend its influence, not because it is as interesting as it has been, when we were opposing presidents and were criticising the acts of the administration, but because it is still vitally important that we do so. Now, that the administrations are with us, it might appear to some to be a time of peace, but it's no time of peace. As soon as we relax our energies, I am sure that the forces are organized to take possession of the field again.

Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte submitted the report from the Civil Service Reform Association of Maryland:

Mr. President, within the limits of five minutes, I can

scarcely tell you all the iniquities that are perpetrated in Maryland in the name of the spoils system, and therefore I will not attempt to recount any. As a matter of fact, we have had during the present year, a number of very interesting object lessons in the municipal service of the city of Baltimore, and, in one instance, in the Baltimore post office, of the effect of appointing officers to positions of public trust by reason of the motives which are recognized as legitimate in the spoils system. To mention just one: Some time ago, there was a change in the office of the city register, the principal financial officer of the city, a Republican going out, and being succeeded by a Democrat. The Democrat thereupon changed some of the clerks, most if not all, if I remember aright, in his office, and distributed the places among more or less influential politicians, in the sense that they were to designate the particular victors who should enjoy those especial spoils, and one of them designated a prominent young politician who was described, and apparently with entire truth, as being "a dead game sport.' He proved himself so by relieving the city of some $67,000. During the time that he was in there, he held, it should be said, an office of which the annual salary was $900; and spent each year about $15,000 to $20,000; he was entrusted as a part of his duties to make deposits of city money in the various banks and, adopting substantially the principle which was advocated by the unjust steward in the parable, he deposited less money than he was given to deposit, but the balance enured, not to the benefit of the debtor, that is to say, of the bank, but to the benefit of the messenger, namely, himself. This gentleman has been twice tried for his offences. On neither occasion could the State get a jury to convict him, the general impression being that the whole story had not been told with regard to him, and that he was being used, in some measure, as a scapegoat for other offenders. He has returned recently from spending some little time at a mountain resort, and says he is in excellent health, and very anxious to be tried a third time, and I believe he will be gratified.

On the strength of this, and of several other incidents

which I have not time to relate, there was a considerable movement in favor of reform of some sort in the city administration, and one member of one branch of the city council introduced a city ordinance intended to secure some application of the merit system in the selection of officials of the same grade as this worthy individual. That was promptly voted down by the branch of the city council, with an entire obliteration of party lines, except in so far as the one person who introduced it cast one vote in its favor.

There are, as has been, I suppose, already called to the attention of the League, for some time past in the charter of the city of Baltimore, various provisions introducing to a greater or less extent the system of appointment through merit among the teachers of the public schools, the policemen and the firemen. These provisions, and some others of the city charter have been inconvenient to the local statesmen, and there has been a strong demand among those statesmen for a revision of the city charter, and, as a result of that demand, provision was made for the appointment of a charter commission, after a pretty long struggle on the question, apparently one of minor importance, but really a very important one, as to whether the mayor should be obliged to appoint the members of this commission from wards or districts, or should be allowed to appoint them from any part of the city in which persons whom he thought suitable might reside. I am happy to say that the principle of general eligibility of citizens for the appointment prevailed, and the mayor took advantage of the opportunity, for which, it is proper to say, he deserves very great credit, to appoint an exceptionally good commission. Of the nine members seven at least are members of our Maryland Association. Possibly the other two may be also, but I don't remember that fact. And at least five of those seven are members of our executive committee. We have hopes, therefore, that in consequence of judicious suggestion made from various quarters, and among other quarters, from our Association, the commission will embody in the revised charter which it will submit, much larger and more thorough application of the merit system than that contained

in the charter now in force. In fact, I have very little doubt, I may say I have none at all, that they will do that, but the question whether or not the legislature will act favorably upon that part of their recommendation, is one as to which I deem it inexpedient at the present moment to hazard a confident opinion.

In glancing over the proceedings of the League last year at Pittsburg, I noticed that my good friend, Mr. Tuck, who, on that occasion, reported for the Maryland Association, suggested the capital of our state, Annapolis, as a suitable meeting place for the League. It would be, I think, especially if it took place during a session of the legislature, a very suitable place on the principle that a medical congress could be properly held in the seat of a pestilence, but I must admit that it is uncertain whether anything which is marked with the brand of civil service reform, will pass muster at Annapolis. It was generally supposed, I may mention, that the portions of the charter relating to the public schools of Baltimore City, which were for the most part (I think, entirely), prepared by your predecessor, the late President Gilman, were only adopted by the legislature because the members of the legislature were quite incapable of understanding them. It is possible that the present commission may be able to make its recommendations in regard to the extension of the merit system with the same felicitous obscurity, and if it does, there will be the greater chance, I think, of their being adopted by the Solons of the state capitol. All I can say further than that, Mr. President, is that our Association sees before it plenty of work to do, and we welcome assistance from any of its sister associations who find time hanging heavy on their hands, and are looking forth for other worlds to conquer.

SECOND SESSION.

Mendelssohn Hall,

Thursday Evening, December 9th.

T 8.45 p. m. the League reconvened at Mendelssohn Hall. Mr. Samuel H. Ordway, chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York Civil Service Reform Association, presided.