President Charles W. Eliot delivered the President's Annual Address.1 Hon. Walter L. Fisher, of Chicago, delivered an address.2 Hon. Edward M. Shepard, of New York City, delivered an address. THIRD SESSION. City Club, Friday Morning, December 10th. AT II a. m. the League reconvened, President Eliot in the chair. Col. Silas W. Burt presented the report of the Committee on Nominations, as follows: FOR PRESIDENT: Charles W. Eliot, . FOR VICE-PRESIDENTS: Edwin A. Alderman, FOR MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL: William A. Aiken, Frederic Almy, Charles J. Bonaparte, John A. Butler, L. T. Chamberlain, Everett Colby, Charles Collins, William E. Cushing, Cambridge, Mass. Charlottesville, Va. Norwich, Conn. Cleveland, Ohio. Richard H. Dana, . 1 Boston, Mass. Printed in full at page 65; at page 82. Nathanial H. Davis, Henry W. Hardon, Charles D. Willard, Frederick C. Winkler, R. Francis Wood, . Cincinnati, Ohio. New Haven, Conn. Los Angeles, Cal. Milwaukee, Wis. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. Cambridge, Mass. It was moved and seconded that the Secretary be directed to cast one ballot for the election of the gentlemen named. The motion was unanimously carried, the Secretary cast the ballot and announced the election of the ticket as read. Mr. A. S. Frissell, the Treasurer of the League, presented the Treasurer's report, which was upon motion received and ordered filed.1 The Secretary read the memorial resolutions prepared 'Printed in full at page 40. by a special committee in commemoration of Edward O. Graves, Henry C. Lea and Richard Watson Gilder. Upon motion of Mr. Wilcox, the resolutions were unanimously adopted by a rising vote.1 Reports from Civil Service Reform Associations composing the League and from the Auxiliaries were read: Mr. Thomas H. Brown submitted the report from the Civil Service Reform Association of New Jersey: The New Jersey act is practically the same as the New York act and presents no novel features. The one striking feature of it however, is its application to municipalities in that it contains provision for adoption by municipalities by the ordinary form of referendum, also in the extraordinary form of ordinance or by resolution of the governing body. Every municipality that has thus far adopted civil service has obtained it by the latter method. The following cities and counties of New Jersey are at the present time operating under civil service, to-wit: Essex County-Hudson County has not as yet adopted civil service-although the Democrats who are the dominant party have been flirting with it. The Democratic board of freeholders has made many promises to adopt it but has always baiked when the show down came. Newark, Jersey City through the efforts of Hon. H. Otto Wittpen, her mayor, Bayonne, New Brunswick, South Orange and Rahway. At the present time the very existence of the civil service act in New Jersey is threatened by a case now pending in the New Jersey court of errors and appeals in which case the constitutionality of the act is being challenged. Dame rumor says that the court is split over the civil service act, and that the conferences on the same have been prolonged and unusually spirited. The court completed its calendar for the November term on December 7th, 1909, but no opinion was announced. It was announced that the court would not hold any conferences until January 6th, 1910. In the meantime everything in New Jersey will be held in abeyance, and all friends of civil service must hope for the best. 1 Printed in full at page 106. Mr. Albert de Roode submitted the report from the Civil Service Reform Association of New York: It ill becomes a host to discourse at length upon his own deeds, and the report of the New York Association therefore must be brief. Our work is not as heroic as that of the newer associations, battling for the adoption of the merit system. Our struggle is for improvements in an existing system widely accepted and approved by popular opinion, though none the less vigorously opposed by the politicians. Our message to the newer associations is, that when you secure a civil service law, your work has just begun. During the last session of the legislature, the Association opposed some 41 bills, of which but one became a law. As usual, there was a proposal to give to Spanish War veterans a preference in appointment. This was defeated. Compared with previous years, the number of bills opposed by the Association was considerably smaller, due, we believe, to a rather clear understanding on the part of the legislators of Governor Hughes' steadfast support of the merit system. In the service of the city of New York, we have to record several notable improvements-a very considerable reduction in the number of positions exempted from examination, a careful regrading of the city service so as to afford an adequate basis for promotions, and the establishment of a separate promotion bureau, which is doing more in the way of solving the problem of promotions than in any other service, federal, state or municipal. In the state service, there has also been improvement. The services of seven additional counties have been brought under the jurisdiction of the state commission, some reduction in the exempt class has been made and within the past week transfer tax appraisers in the state comptroller's office have been made competitive, a result for which the Association has long worked. We have reason to expect that further important changes in the same direction are soon to be made in the comptroller's office, as the result of the appointment of Hon. Clark Williams as comptroller. At the request of the Asso ciation, an investigation was made during last December by the state commission into the administration of the civil service law in the finance department. By this investigation it was clearly disclosed that the higher and more responsible positions, exempted from examination because of this responsibility, were turned over to the Brooklyn Democratic organization as political spoil, and that in one case 150 experts were appointed without examination because of their alleged expert qualifications, while, in fact, most of them possessed no expert qualifications whatever. The election as borough president of the Borough of Manhattan of Mr. George McAneny, for many years Secretary of the League and of the New York Association, gives promise of a thorough-going application of the Merit System to an office which hitherto has known the Merit System only so far as it was compelled by law. Mr. McAneny's election affords opportunity for a sympathetic test of the applicability of competition to the higher municipal offices. In the liquidation of the insolvent Binghamton Trust Company by the banking department of this state, over a million and a half dollars were collected in five months at a cost of two-thirds of one per cent. Contrasted with the expense of the former methods of winding up insolvent banks, the result is startling, the cost of liquidating state banks under the other methods ranging from 20 to as high as 90 per cent of the assets collected. The cost of winding up national banks in this state has averaged 8.7 per cent. The entire liquidation of the Binghamton Trust Co. was in charge of a bank examiner appointed through competition. Here is a cogent precedent of the successful selection through competition of a person entrusted with work of the most confidential and responsible nature which should serve effectively to refute the claims for exemptions from examination because of "confidential" duties which are so glibly urged by appointing officers. Mr. George Burnham, Jr., submitted the report from the Civil Service Reform Association of Pennsylvania: At annual meetings of the League it has not been infrequent to hear reports from some of its affiliated |