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MEETING OF THE LEAGUE.

MUSIC HALL, December, 15, 1898.

The President took the chair.

2:30 P. M.

The Secretary made a verbal report, reviewing the work of his office during the year, and the relations of the League with Congress and the Executive, in matters pertaining to the reform of the national civil service. On motion the report was accepted.

The following papers were then read:

"Colonial Administration-A Warning from Spain," by Henry Haywood Glassie, of Washington.*

"Criminal offences among Federal Civil Servants in Maryland under the Spoils and under the Merit System," by John C. Rose, of Baltimore.t

Mr. William Dudley Foulke, of Indiana, as Chairman of the Special Committee on Congressional Action, appointed by the Executive Committee at its meeting of October 4, 1897, presented and read a report on the organization of the Census Bureau. The report showed the virtual failure of the Census of 1890, a result due principally to the selection of the working force for political reasons, and without examinations as to special fitness under the civil service rules. It recommended that immediate action be taken by the League toward inducing Congress to make proper provision for the classification and examination of persons to be employed in the taking of the Twelfth Census, through amendment of the bill to reorganize the Census Bureau now pending in the House.

Some discussion followed, in the course of which Mr. Rose of Baltimore, asked whether in the judgment of the Special

Page 55. + Page 68.

Committee it would be practicable to select supervisors and enumerators through competitive examination. The Secretary, for the Committee, replied that it was not the intention to recommend the selection of enumerators in this manner, but that the appointment of Supervisors for special fitness, and without regard to political considerations seemed to be of the highest importance. As the enumerators are selected by the Supervisors, they too would be chosen as a rule for other than political reasons, if the supervisors themselves were unhampered by political ties. The provision of the pending act that not more than two-thirds of the enumerators should be of the same political party would require an inquisition as to the personal politics of every applicant, and, in the judgment of the Committee, would inevitably produce results of the most pernicious character.

After further discussion Mr. Bonaparte of Baltimore, moved the adoption of the following:

RESOLVED. That the League cordially endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Special Committee on the Census.

RESOLVED. That a new Committee of five members be appointed by the President to take whatever steps they may deem to be advisable to secure the adoption of the merit system in the selection of the force to be employed for the taking of the Twelfth Census, and that such Committee be authorized to print the report here submitted, and to send the same to Members of Congress.

Mr. Bonaparte explained that the original committee would be superseded in its general field by the Investigating Committee created by the Executive Committee at its session of this date, and that a separate Committee to deal exclusively with the matter of the Census seemed desirable. The resolutions were then adopted unanimously.

Mr. Bonaparte announced that the members and visiting delegates would be entertained at luncheon by the ladies of the Arundel and Arundel Good Government Clubs, and the hour of one having been reached, the League then adjourned.

MUSIC HALL, December 16, 1898.

10:30 A. M.

The League re-convened at half-past ten o'clock.

The business in order being the annual election of officers, the President call Mr. Cary of New York to the chair.

Mr. Wood, of Pennsylvania, moved that the Secretary be instructed to cast the vote of the League for the re-election of Hon. Carl Schurz as President for the ensuing year. The motion was seconded by a number of members and carried unanimously. The Secretary cast the ballot, and Mr. Schurz was declared elected. In a brief address the President thanked the League for the renewal of confidence it had expressed, and resumed the chair.

On motion of Mr. Bonaparte the Secretary was instructed to cast one ballot for the re-election for one year of the present Vice-Presidents, as follows: Charles Francis Adams, Boston; Augustus R. MacDonough, New York; Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, New York; J. Hall Pleasants, Baltimore; Henry Hitchcock, St. Louis; Henry C. Lea, Philadelphia; Franklin MacVeagh, Chicago; Rt. Rev. P. H. Ryan, Philadelphia; William Potts, New York.

The Secretary cast the ballot, and the gentlemen named were declared elected.

Mr. Siddons for the Auditing Committee appointed by the Executive Committee, submitted the following report:

To the National Civil Service Reform League :

The undersigned, constituting the Auditing Committee, respectfully report that we have examined the accounts of the Treasurer, and compared them with the vouchers.* We find them correct, and that the amount in the Treasury at this date is $62.57.

Respectfully submitted,

F. L. SIDDONS,
JOHN W. ELA.

The report was received and ordered filed.

The President announced the business next in order to be the reception of reports from representatives of local Associations.

* Page 54.

Reports were then received as follows:

For New York State, Mr. Sherman S. Rogers, of Buffalo

There is little to add to what the President said in his address last evening about the reform in the State of New York. It is making its way there surely but with occasional reverses. We must not expect to have favoring gales always. We shall have our ups and downs. Civil Service Reform will never be securely established till a generation shall have grown up under its teachings and the young men who are now coming into the life of the citizen have taken on the belief that the offices are to be acquired by personal merit and fitness and without regard to political influence and pull as naturally as the generations preceding them took on the opposite ideas. Just now the reform in our State has come into an extraordinary experience of good fortune in the election of a true Civil Service Reformer to the Governor's chair.

This follows something of a very different sort. When Governor Morton's term of office expired he left the law and the general rules and regulations in reasonably good shape, and a Commission, the dominating member of which was that tried and able friend of Civil Service Reform whom we know so well, Col. Silas W. Burt. His associates had been appointed from political life and for political reasons, and were not very active reformers, but our friends throughout the State felt very hopeful. The only element of doubt in the situation was the new Governor, who was an unknown quantity in the matter of Civil Service Reform.

You all know how he developed, and that, too very soon. The story of the Anti-Starch Bill need not be repeated. It was Governor Black's own and was driven through by him. It threw the civil service in the State into confusion, but in the cities its worst effects were averted by the appointing officers refusing to exercise the fifty per cent. power of examination, and turning it over to the local Civil Service Commissioners. But two years have passed and the Starch has disappeared from the Governor, and his bill was amended last winter so as to leave the examinations in the cities where they were before its passage.

And now, following Governor Black, we have as Governor-elect, a man who has been known for years as a Civil Service Reformer of the best type-able, sincere, inteiligent, aggressive, combative. Col. Roosevelt's election may well be regarded as a fact of the highest importance. It has a national interest. He will give to the State of New York, I believe, a commission of his own type. And we are hopeful of the very best results.

For Massachusetts, Mr. Richard Henry Dana, of Boston.

During the year the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform League and the Associations of Boston and Cambridge, have repelled several attacks made in the Legislature by means of attempted amendments to the Civil Service statutes. The associations were taken by surprise, and were unable to present any opposition until after these measures had progressed several stages without their knowledge. The opposition when ogranized, however, was effective. In order to guard against the recur

rence of covert attacks at the coming session, arrangements have been made for the employment of an agent at the State House, a reliable newspaper reporter, who will watch the proceedings of the Legislature and give immediate notice of matters requiring attention.

An effort will shortly be made to extend the operation of the law to the County offices within the State, which were excluded from the scope of the original Act of 1884, as most of the subordinates were then mere contractors with the registers of deeds and probate. By subsequent statutes these persons have been made regular employees of the county.

The Boston Association secured something over $800 for the purposes of the National League, in reply to a circular sent to its members. The Cambridge Association raised for the same purpose about $250, by sending canvassers among its members and other citizens likely to be interested in the same. An especial effort has been made to interest younger men in the purposes and work of the League.

For Connecticut, General William A. Aiken, of Norwich:

The fact that Connecticut contains no large cities, in the modern sense, and that so large a proportion of local administrators are elective rather than appointive, owing to the survival of its ancient town and school district jurisdiction contemporary with, but separate from those arising under its city charters, is adverse to the growth of militant local Civil Service Reform Associations.

While no comprehensive law exists making the open competitive test the basis for municipal appointments throughout the State, reformatory movements are now going on in several localities.

Some of these are of more interest to the League for Municipal Reform than, directly, they would be to ours; yet Civil Service Reformers must note with approval all movements for the general welfare within the cities.

The movement to which I wish especially to call your present attention is that in our largest city, New Haven. Under its new charter of 1897 sweeping provisions were made against corrupt and improper influences in elections or appointments, with the penalty of imprisonment for violation. Thereunder, no appointments can be made for political considerations, no questions can be put to applicants for positions, designed to disclose political or religious views, and applicants are forbidden to make known such views or affiliations to examiners. In scope the system embraces all positions in the city government, including the Police and Fire Departments, excepting elective officers, commissioners, officials appointed by the Mayor, and superintendents, principals and teachers employed by the Board of Education. It should be said, in passing, that the Mayor's appointive powers are very limited as compared with those of the Mayor of Greater New York. The charter creates a Civil Service Board, which has very broad powers. I am indebted to Prof. Henry W. Farnam, of Yale University, the very able president of this Board, for a summary of its workings, upon which I shall largely draw for what follows,

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