ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE REFORM LEAGUE. PURSU DECEMBER 16, AND 17, 1897 URSUANT to call duly issued, the seventeenth annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League was held at Cincinnati, O., on the 16th and 17th of December, 1897. Among the delegates in attendance during the several sessions were the following: BALTIMORE: Charles J. Bonaparte. BOSTON: Charles Warren, Samuel Y. Nash. BUFFALO: Sherman S. Rogers, Henry A. Richmond. CHICAGO: John W. Ela, Edwin Burritt Smith, Ralph M. Easley, Adolph Nathan, John A. Roach, W. K. Acker man. CINCINNATI: Nathaniel Henchman Davis, John W. Warrington, Leopold Kleybolte, Rufus B. Smith, Herman Goepper, C. B. Wilby, Max B. May, L. C. Black, Henry C. Urner, William C. Herron, Larz Anderson, J. G. Schmidlapp. CLEVELAND: William E. Cushing, James R. Garfield. DAYTON: Lewis B. Gunckel, L. H. Patterson. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: John Joy Edson, Frederick L, Siddons, Adolf G. Wolff, A. J. Glassie. FORT WAYNE, IND.: Henry N. Williams. INDIANAPOLIS: Lucius B. Swift, Noble C. Butler, Frederick W. Dewhurst, J. H. Halliday. ruff. INDIANA UNIVERSITY: Samuel B. Harding. NEW YORK: Carl Schurz, George McAneny. PHILADELPHIA: Herbert Welsh, Clinton Rogers Wood RICHMOND, IND.: William Dudley Foulke, Jesse Reeves, Stanley C. Hughes. ST. LOUIS: Henry Hitchcock, A. L. Berry, A. R. Verdier. In response to invitations issued by the League to Municipal Reform Associations, and other bodies having the reform of the civil service among their objects, delegates were present from a number of such organizations, as follows: ANN ARBOR:-University of Michigan Good Government Club: F. V. Byam. BOSTON :-Massachusetts Reform Club: Charles Warren, Samuel Y. Nash. CHICAGO:-Municipal Voters' League: Smith. Edward Burritt CHICAGO:-Civic Federation:-Adolph Nathan, R. M. Easley. ing. CLEVELAND:-Chamber of Commerce: William E. Cush LOUISVILLE :-Good City Government Club: F. N. Hartwell, Lafon Allen. PITTSBURG:-Citizen's Civic League: Edward D. Froh man. ST. LOUIS-Civic Federation: A. L. Berry, Henry Hitchcock, A. R. Verdier. VINELAND, N. J.-Citizens' Committee: R. B. Moore. WASHINGTON :-Board of Trade: John Joy Edson. The morning session of the 16th, commencing at 10.30 o'clock, was occupied by a joint meeting of the General and Executive Committees, held at the Burnet House. At 2.30 o'clock in the afternoon an open meeting of the League was held at the College Hall.* The annual address of the President, Hon. Carl Schurz, was delivered at the Odeon at 8 o'clock on the evening of the 16th. It is as follows: * Page 35. THE DEMOCRACY OF THE MERIT SYSTEM. An Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League, at Cincinnati, Ohio, December 16, 1897. AT BY CARL SCHURZ. T our last annual meeting I had occasion to congratulate the country upon the extraordinary advance the cause of civil service reform had made during the preceding year. President Cleveland's executive order of May 6, 1896, had not only added many thousands of positions to the classified service, but it had also established the general principle that it is the normal condition of public servants under the executive departments of the national government to be under the civil service rules, and that they should be considered and treated as being there, unless excepted by special regulation -a gain of incalculable consequence. I was also able to report signal progress of the reform in various States and in the municipal service of various cities. At the same time I expressed the apprehension that the advocates of the spoils system would not cease their hostile efforts and that, although the final result could not be doubtful, we might still have a period of arduous struggle before us. This apprehension has proved to be well founded. The American people have hardly ever beheld a rush for the spoils of office more tumultuous than that which followed President McKinley's accession to power. Nor have we ever heard a more furious, and, I may add, a more disgraceful clamor from party men for the breach of party faith than that of Republican politicians demanding the repeal, or at least the disembowelment, of the civil service law by a President and a majority in Congress solemnly pledged to its maintenance and extension. Recall to your memory some of the almost incredible scenes we have had to witness. The Republican national convention in St. Louis had put these words in its platform: "The civil service law was placed on the Statute book by the Republican party, which has always sustained it, and we renew our repeated declaration that it shall be thoroughly and honestly enforced, and extended wherever practicable." When the Republican national convention adopted that pledge, President- Cleveland's executive order of May 6th had been in operation for several weeks. It had not gone into force unobserved. The friends of good government had praised it, the spoilsmen of both parties, Republicans and Democrats, had denounced it. It was thus with full knowledge of its being an integral part of the civil service system then existing, that the Republican party in national convention assembled made its pledge. Neither could anybody pretend that it was a mere haphazard promise made inadvertently; for one national Republican platform after another had repeated the same declaration for many years. Nor could there be any doubt as to the meaning of the pledge. Nothing could be plainer. It was to enforce, honestly and thoroughly, the civil service law wherever it was then in operation, and to extend, wherever practicable, the operation of the law beyond the limits within which it operated at the time when the pledge was made. And then Mr. McKinley, the Republican candidate for the presidency, made the pledge of the party his own in the letter of acceptance by which he asked for the votes of the people. He accused the opposition party of "decrying this reform "; of being willing "to abandon all the advantages gained after so many years of agitation and effort"; of encouraging a return to methods of party favoritism which both parties have denounced, which experience has condemned, and which the people have repeatedly disapproved"; and he assured the country that "the Republican party earnestly opposes this reactionary and entirely unjustifiable policy"; and that "it will take no backward step upon this question, but will seek to improve but never degrade the public service." And when introduced in his office as President, Mr. McKinley reiterated the vow in his inaugural address. If there ever was a party pledge clear, unequivocal, and specific-if there ever was one sanctioned as a definite party policy by constant reiteration, it was this. And yet no sooner |