partisan board of four members, and that the bureau of elections should be separated from the department. The views of the City Club as to the time expenditure necessary for a satisfactory revision of the charter, not having been met in the law under which the commission acts, the disposition of the club is to believe that, however industrious and intelligent the commission may be, it can do only very imperfect work under the conditions imposed upon it.

City Officials and the American Ice Company. During May interesting developments took place, tending to show that the mayor and other city officials, as well as leading Tammany men not holding municipal office, were interested largely in the American Ice Company, a corporation doing business with many of the city departments, and depending in large measure upon the favor of the dock department for the necessary facilities for introducing its ice into the city. The attorney-general of the state has instituted proceedings to revoke the certificate of the ice company to do business in this state; and, under a section of the charter of the city, a special inquiry as to the connection of municipal officers with the ice company is in progress before a supreme court judge.

Pennsylvania.-Ballot Reform.-The Union Committee for the Promotion of Ballot Reform and the Merit System in Pennsylvania has been formed by representatives from the Pennsylvania Ballot Reform Association, the Civil Service Reform Association of Pennsylvania and the Municipal League of Philadelphia to undertake the work of appealing to the friends of honest government in the state to organize and conduct a non-partisan educational campaign in behalf of these two objects. Already a large number of petitions have been circulated and signed, and a large quantity of literature has been prepared, setting forth the urgent necessity for the introduction of ballot reform and the merit system in Pennsylvania. A representative of the Committee has been working in various parts of the State, and thus far two auxiliary committees have been organized, one in Pittsburg and one in Scranton. Both of these committees are the outgrowth of the work of the field representative. They represent the business and professional elements of the community. It is the expectation of the Committee that similar work will be done in other parts of the state, so that by the time the Legislature convenes in January, 1901, there will be a chain of auxiliary organizations, all pledged to active co-operation.

One of its leaflets dealing with ballot reform sets out the work which has been done during the past ten years in behalf of the Australian

1 The officers of the Union Committee are Clinton Rogers Woodruff, chairman; Cyrus D. Foss, Jr., secretary; Stuart Wood, treasurer.

system, and recites the various successful attempts of the political machines to thwart these efforts; it also sets forth the necessity for the enactment of an adequate personal registration law and an up-to-date election code.

Convention of Cities of the Third Class. For some years the cities of the third class of the State of Pennsylvania have been endeavoring to secure amendments to the Corporation Act under which they are organized. Under the present system of classification in the State of Pennsylvania all cities with a population between ten thousand and one hundred thousand are included in the third class. The great difficulty has, therefore, been to bring about united action by such cities, owing to the impossibility of reaching an agreement on the needs of cities of such different size. Those cities like Scranton, with a population of eighty thousand or over, require a form of organization far too complex for a small town like York, and conversely, the simplicity of organization adapted to the smaller towns is ill-adapted to meet the needs of the larger. Partly owing to this fact and partly owing to the lack of concentrated action on the part of all the cities of the third class, no legislation has as yet been secured. Some months ago the mayors of several of the larger cities determined to call a convention for the purpose of forming a permanent organization of the cities of the third class in order to secure the necessary legislation. A call was sent for a convention at York to be held on the 15th of May. To this convention each of the twenty-five cities of the third class sent as representatives, the mayor, the city solicitor and two members of each branch of councils. At this convention a permanent organization was effected. The work of the convention was outlined in an address by Professor L. S. Rowe, of the University of Pennsylvania, in which the following recommendations were made for the consideration of the convention:

1. The present system of classification is ill-adapted to the requirements of cities of the third class, in that it links together cities of such diverse needs.

The division should be as follows:

First Class-Cities with a population of over 250,000.

Second Class-Cities with a population of from 50,000 to

250,000.

Third class-Cities with a population of less than 50,000. 2. The divided local representative assembly while justified in the national and state governments, has no place in the municipality. There should be but one branch of councils, onehalf of the members elected on the district system, the other half at large.

3. The appointments of the mayor should not be subject to the advice and consent of select councils. This is necessary to enforce political responsibility.

4. Police Department. In cities with a population of fifty thousand (50,000) and over, a department of police with a commissioner appointed by the mayor, should be established, subject to civil service regulations formulated in law. The power of appointing members of the police force should be vested in the commissioner.

5. The power of the city controller should be enlarged.

6. The granting of franchises should be subject to the following conditions:

a. Limitation of term to twenty-five (25) years.

b. Return to the city should be based on gross receipts. c. Accounts should be kept in accordance with forms presented by the city comptroller.

7. There should be some provision for uniformity of accounting of cities of the third class.

These recommendations were made the basis for the discussions of the convention. The outlook for the securing of remedial legislation is most favorable, owing to the concerted action of the cities most interested.

Pennsylvania Sanitary Convention. The eleventh state sanitary convention of Pennsylvania was held at Mechanicsburg, May 23-25. The session was principally devoted to the discussion of the various phases of rural sanitation. The papers agreed that rural sanitation to-day is as unsatisfactory as when the State Board of Health was established. Dairies are unsanitary; school houses are badly located, lighted and ventilated; rivers and wells are constantly polluted, as is testified annually by typhoid in 500 towns; the dead are buried without any record; statistics of births, sickness and mortality are wanting; infection is neither prevented nor controlled. The representatives from Allentown, Norristown, Shenandoah, Phoenixville, Lancaster and McKeesport testified that cases of typhoid, diphtheria and scarlet fever were traced to suburbs and townships without boards of health. All united in declaring that the pressing need to-day is effectual rural sanitation, that the safety of cities is constantly menaced by the existing laxness, and that the present administrative machinery is not capable of enforcing sanitary law in rural districts.

Various suggestions were made looking towards a reorganization of the state sanitary service. In the past, the legislature has attempted to correct evils by creating additional inefficient machinery or by 1 Communication of Dr. Wm. H. Allen, of the University of Pennsylvania.

giving additional power to boards which made no pretense of activity. The state veterinarian urged the necessity of regular inspection of dairies and the publication of results, as is now practiced at Williamsport and Meadville. It was claimed by various health officers that the cities could not afford to inspect all of the dairies; it was also urged that not one town in a hundred would institute such inspection. Therefore the establishment of county or state inspection was demanded.

As a result of the conference the following changes were recommended for the consideration of the committee on legislation. The substitution of state for local authority, and to that end the establishment of a state bureau of health with a superintendent and an advisory board; the districting of the state for inspection and administration, at the expense of the state; displacement of the board system by executive officers; the substitution of compensated service and notification for volunteer service, and notification of infection; the regulation of state aid to hospitals so that the erection of fever hospitals will be encouraged; the substitution of the county for the borough and school district as units of administration, and the establishment of a bureau of vital statistics.

No better proof is needed of the necessity of such fundamental changes as here suggested than the fact that only thirty out of three thousand sanitary administrative units were represented in the convention.

Pittsburg.-Civil Service. At the last session of the Legislature, the Director of the Department of Public Safety obtained the passage of a law enabling him to introduce a system of competitive examinations to govern appointments to the fire department and the police force. The first report of the police bureau since the introduction of the system has been presented to city councils. The superintendent of police says: "We have no hesitation whatever in saying that the system will result in great good to the bureau from the fact that it very largely eliminates politics and places men on merit for appointments. Experience of the year has taught us that fully 50 per cent of applicants fail on physical examination, and of the remaining number, possibly 25 per cent, fail on the mental examination, thereby raising the force to a higher physical and mental standard." It is to be noted that the introduction of this reform was not due to the pressure of outside sentiment, but to the personal initiative of the head of the department who is thus strongly interested in seeing that the system is fairly worked. The success of the system in improving the personnel of the police force tends to promote the extension of it to other departments of the city government.

1Communication of Henry Jones Ford, Esq., Pittsburg, Pa.

The act by which the system of competitive examinations was introduced is a general law applicable to cities of the second class. It, therefore, applies to Allegheny City, which is also a city of the second class, but it has not been put into effect there. Mayor James G. Wyman, of Allegheny City, is now taking steps to establish a civil service commission and put the law into operation. Mayor Wyman and the Director of Public Safety in that city are chiefs of opposing political factions and the mayor's present interest in civil service reform is ascribed by his opponents to his hostility to the director, but this, if true, illustrates the way in which competition of political factions for public favor promotes reform movements.

Party Politics and Governmental Forms. The case of Pittsburg and Allegheny are particularly interesting to students of municipal government from the evidence they afford of the fact that goverumental character is determined, not by charter forms themselves, but by the functional activities developed under them. The two cities are adjacent, separated only by the Allegheny River, and their population is the same in general character. Indeed, the two cities constitute one business and social community. They have the same form of government and yet they differ widely in the general character and tendencies of their government. In both, the heads of departments are elected by the councils, while the mayor is chosen by popular election, but in Allegheny there is a chronic opposition between the mayor and the department chief controlling the police and fire service, while in Pittsburg harmonious co-operation is the rule. During a recent contest over the nomination of legislative candidates in an Allegheny district, the mayor and the department chief were antagonistic faction leaders, each accusing the other of abusing his official authority for partisan purposes. In an altercation upon the city hall steps the mayor was knocked down by a captain of police, who, although temporarily suspended, was exonerated and restored to his duties. In Pittsburg the character of the men chosen to high office and the tone of official propriety which prevails make such an occurrence impossible.

The cause of the remarkable difference which exists is to be found in political usage. In Pittsburg mayors are nominated by conventions of delegates acting under the instruction and advice of party managers, whose influence also guides councils in electing the heads of departments, and in this way administrative unity is obtained. In Allegheny, the mayor is nominated by the direct vote of the people and in the canvass party lines are effaced. The contest excites intense popular interest and brings out such a heavy vote that the total poll exceeds even that at a presidential election. It has been found in practice that no one can be elected except a candidate of the kind the