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Emery, Jr.; Albert S. Faught, Cyrus D. Foss, Jr.; James G. Francis, Vivian Frank Gable, T. Walter Gilkyson, Emil Guenther, Clarence L. Harper, Oscar B. Hawes, Arthur E. Hutchinson, Robert D. Jenks, Joseph F. Johnson, W. W. Montgomery, Jr.; Henry C. Niles, Mrs. Imogen B. Oakley, H. S. Richardson, Charles Richardson, Stanley W. Root, Haseltine Smith, Robert J. Sterrett, Ira W. Stratton, William J. Trembath, Fullerton L. Waldo, Roy Smith Wallace, T. Henry Walnut, A. Leo Weil, Herbert Welsh, R. Francis Wood, Clinton Rogers Woodruff.

WISCONSIN: John A. Butler, Glenway Maxon.

WASHINGTON: John Joy Edson, Charles Noble

Gregory.

In response to invitations issued by the League to municipal reform associations and other bodies interested in the reform of the civil service, delegates were present as follows:

BUFFALO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Ansley Wilcox. CANADIAN CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Colonel M. G. LaRochelle, Commissioner; Wiliam Foran, Secretary. UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Charles M. Galloway, Commissioner; Herman W. Craven, Commissioner; Stewart Wilson, District Secretary.

CONNECTICUT CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Charles G. Morris, President; Edward Wright, Secretary.

COOK COUNTY CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Ralph L. Peck, Commissioner.

NEW JERSEY CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Edward H. Wright, Jr., Commissioner; Alexander R. Fordyce, Commissioner; Gardner Colby, Secretary.

NEW YORK STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Samuel H. Ordway, President; William Gorham Rice, Commissioner; Harold N. Saxton, Chief Examiner.

NEW YORK CITY CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Henry Moskowitz, President; Miss May B. Upshaw, Assistant Chief Examiner; Burns Gillam, Examiner.

PHILADELPHIA CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION: Frank M. Riter, President; Peter Bolger, Secretary; Lewis H.

Van Dusen, Commissioner, Wilson A. Deiley, Chief Examiner.

PHILADELPHIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE : Clinton Rogers Woodruff.

PHILADELPHIA BUREAU OF MUNICIPAL RESEARCH: Robert E. Tracy and Wiliam C. Beyer.

CIVIC CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA: Mrs. Imogen B. Oakley, Miss Ella Robb, Mrs. Thomas S. Kirkbride and Mrs. Edward W. Biddle.

NEW CENTURY CLUB: Mrs. Joseph Hill Brinton and Miss Burnham.

NATIONAL PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION:

Lyons.

Edward M.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PIANO MERCHANTS: Florence J. Heppe.

INDIAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION: Herbert Welsh.

LEAGUE OF VIRGINIA MUNICIPALITIES: LieutenantCommander C. P. Shaw.

MINNEAPOLIS CIVIC AND COMMERCE ASSOCIATION: Howard Strong.

Other persons attending the various sessions of the League were Joseph H. Johnson, Gertrude W. Pennington, Elizabeth McCartney, A. J. Arkin, C. G. Hoag, Nicholas I. Hourwick and Ralph B. Clayberger.

THE

MEETINGS OF THE LEAGUE.

HE headquarters of the League during the meeting were at the Hotel Adelphia, corner of Thirteenth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, and all sessions were held in the Hotel.

ΤΗ

FIRST SESSION-10:30 A. M.

HE League convened at 10:30 a. m., President Dana presiding.

An address of welcome was given by Hon. Rudolph Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia. The Mayor's remarks were, in part, as follows:

On behalf of the City of Philadelphia, I extend to you a most hearty and sincere welcome. It is unnecessary for me to extol the virtues of our city or to refer to its unique position among all the municipalities of our land. We are naturally proud of the "City of Brotherly Love" as the cradle of the Republic. Philadelphia not only gave birth to the Declaration of Independence, but here also was framed the Constitution of our country, a document that stands today as a bulwark of our liberties, as it has done from the beginning. It is a monument to the wisdom of the patriotic fathers of our grand union that will forever endure.

We have made wonderful progress in many ways. since the foundation of our government, and one of the most momentous, it seems to me, is that accomplished by the National Civil Service Reform League during the past thirty-five years. The cry: "To the victors belong the spoils" has been largely eliminated, for the principles of the merit system have taken deep root and have been followed to a greater extent than ever before.

When I had the honor of addressing the League four years ago, shortly after my induction into office, I said, among other things:

"I have preached for nearly thirty years-now I mean

to practice. * * * The spoilsman will have to take a back seat-I care not under what label he is traveling, whether he is labeled Republican, Democrat, Keystoner, Prohibitionist, Socialist, or what not. It seems almost incredible that it should have taken so many years to convince the intelligent people of our great country, the intelligent people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the intelligent people of the City of Philadelphia, that it pays to have real civil service and practice it. The statement was made by me during the campaign, and it has been emphasized since our great victory, that the merit system will hold sway in Philadelphia while I am Mayor."

It has been my every effort to live up to this declaration in letter and spirit and I believe that no city in the country can boast of stricter enforcement of the law than Philadelphia, with a gratifying result that speaks for itself.

Instead of wholesale dismissals of employees of the city as sham reform spoilsmen expected, I have adhered to my determination, publicly expressed, not to discharge any city employee on account of political affiliations but to keep them in the city employ as long as they rendered faithful and satisfactory service. For this I have been lashed, persecuted, cursed and anathematized until official life sometimes seemed unbearable, but, knowing that I was right, nothing has swerved me from the path of duty as I saw it.

Reading in the Good Book the other day, I came across a passage in Proverbs-"The way of the transgressor is hard." If King Solomon had had a civil service system and civil service rules during his reign, thousands of years ago, he would probably have added another proverb; something to this effect: "The path of a civil service reformer is not strewn with roses."

The strange part is that the opposition to keeping faith and adhering to the civil service laws came largely from so-called "reformers" who had supported me during the campaign. They were simply furious when I declared to them that merit, and nothing but merit. would decide the administration in making appointments to office, and many of them became the most vitriolic

enemies I have had to contend with during my term of office.

I had a pleasant call yesterday from the Mayor-elect, Hon. Thomas B. Smith. Our talk embraced many subjects, and was quite satisfactory to me in developing the fact that Mr. Smith expressed rather high ideals of how a municipality should be run. He seems to have certain convictions regarding the merit system, and I hope will not follow the vicious precedent of some of my predecessors, but will permit city employees to retain their places as long as they give good service. He has my best. wishes, as he has those of all good citizens, for a successful administration.

In the successful execution of the merit system I have had the intelligent and cordial support of the Civil Service Commission appointed by me, and I herewith express my high appreciation of their fine work and the high plane on which that important office has been administered by the Civil Service Commissioners-Mr. Frank M. Riter, Mr. Lewis H. Van Dusen and Mr. Peter Bolger.

As I have today to welcome four or five conventions and assemblages, I know you will excuse me from further attendance at your annual meeting.

Again extending to you a warm welcome, I leave you, with the heartiest wishes for renewed activities and even greater results in your important work in the future than in the past.

President Dana responded to the Mayor's welcome as follows:

In response, Mr. Mayor, to your warm words of welcome to the National Civil Service Reform League, let me say that it is a great pleasure for us to visit Philadelphia again. We have visited Philadelphia in the past about once in four years, and we have always found these visits stimulating. They were usually stimulating as reactions against the spoils system, which we found in full force in your city of Brotherly Love. At our last meeting four years ago, following an administration exhibiting nullification of the civil service laws, to our surprise

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