The general correspondence of the Auxiliary is increasing steadily. We are constantly being called upon by the Civil Service Reform Committees of the various State Federations and branches of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, especially those in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan, for suggestions about work and for pamphlets. The Auxiliary can therefore report with pleasure to the League a steady and in many ways a marked progress in its share of the educational work for civil service reform.

Reports from the Civil Service Reform Associations composing the League were then read, as follows:

Mr. Ansley Wilcox, for the Buffalo Association:

The quite full report which we presented last year at the League meeting still represents the condition of things existing in Buffalo and Erie County. There is not much to add to it. Our local condition, both in the city and county service, is theoretically one of achieved success in working out and applying the merit system. The rules and classifications are in the main good. They certainly represent an enormous advance from the old condition of things when the spoils system was rampant. There has been no substantial change during the past year.

Yet there are practical difficulties and problems constantly arising, and failures to carry out the spirit of the merit system in matters of detail, which give our association much to think about and plenty of work to do, and sometimes lead to acute differences of opinion inside and outside of our body. It is interesting and encouraging to note that such differences when they arise are almost always based upon adherence to the merit system in theory. They result only from divergent views as to methods of applying its principles. There is no longer in our community any open advocacy of the distribution of public offices as spoils.

Our City Commission has had a series of struggles to keep up with its work, lacking the assistance of a proper force of employees, such as regular and special

examiners. It has been handicapped by frequent changes in its membership, and several new members have come in without previous familiarity with either the principles or the practice of the merit system, but some of them have been gradually educated up to the standard of pretty good civil service reformers. A civil service commission should not be regarded as a school for the education of its members in civil service reform. It should hardly be necessary to point out this fact, but our mayor has been acting upon the theory that any fairly intelligent citizen was capable of becoming a civil service commissioner, and that it was not amiss to have a sprinkling of members who had been spoils-seeking politicians and practical opponents of the merit system to represent their views on this commission, working in harness with others who are earnest and ardent upholders of the merit system. That this has produced friction and sometimes open discord was inevitable. We are coming to the conclusion in Buffalo that as water cannot rise higher than its source, so the civil service of a city, whatever the law and rules may be, cannot be much better than the ideas of the mayor who appoints and removes the commissioners to enforce the law and rules. For the excellence or defects of this branch of the service, the mayor is absolutely responsible under our New York State law.

Further details of our work in Buffalo are not of sufficient importance to be recorded in this short report. Mr. G. V. S. Michaelis, for the Cambridge Association:

The Cambridge Civil Service Association numbers one hundred and six members, and the interest in civil service reform which has always characterized it is still maintained. It has followed the different bills of each year in the Legislature which affected civil service laws. It assisted in preventing the passage of a number of bills, during the last session, detrimental to civil service reform, its members having appeared at all hearings on bills bearing on the civil service law. It has recognized its oppor

tunity to interest the students of Harvard University and has made efforts to enroll as many young men as possible.

It appreciates the value of the co-operation of the Women's Auxiliary to the Massachusetts Association in promoting the work of civil service reform. The Massachusetts Women's Auxiliary was formed in 1901 and numbers 1,047 members, with branches in Cambridge, Salem, Lynn, Worcester, Lowell and Brookline.

The Association is in a prosperous and healthy state, and can be relied on for effective work when opportunity and necessity arise.

Mr. Max B. May, for the Cincinnati Association:

The work of the Cincinnati Association can be considered in two aspects, first that relating to the Federal law; second, the effort in behalf of a State and Municipal civil service law. The Association has watched carefully the administration of the Federal offices at Cincinnati, and has frequently called the attention of the proper authorities to violations; it will continue its vigilance in this respect. The Association during the year expects to renew its effort to secure the adoption of a State law and an amendment of the municipal code, extending the civil service provisions which apply to the firemen and policemen to other departments.

Professor Henry W. Farnam, for the Connecticut Association:

Our year began with a dinner which was successful in stimulating interest in the Association, and gave us the benefit of a valuable address by Mr. Everett P. Wheeler of New York. The dinner also brought out a carefully prepared speech from Mr. Sullivan, the Mayor of Hartford, which was significant in that it presented a strong argument for civil service reform from the point of view of the trade unionist and an advocate of municipal ownership, a point of view not often emphasized at our meetings.

The general calm and quiet of our Association has been ruffled during the year by a controversy with the Civil Service Board and Mayor of New Haven. This

Board, which was established under the charter of 1897 and began its work in 1898, had down to the present year performed its duties in conformity with the spirit of a somewhat easy going law, and with considerable success. Upon the expiration of the term of office of Mr. George B. Martin, the chairman of the Board, a new member was appointed by the Mayor and a new chairman chosen by the Board. The office of secretary, which was at the time filled by a member of the Board, becoming vacant through the expiration of the term, the new member of the Board moved to appoint as secretary a man known as an active ward worker in the Republican party, and an employee of one of the most powerful local leaders. The executive committee of the Civil Service Reform Association of Connecticut at once called the attention of the Board to what seemed to be a violation of the charter in appointing a secretary without conducting a civil service examination. Though the Board did not agree with this view they were forced to comply with it by an opinion which they secured from the corporation counsel. An examination was tardily held, and, being very easy, was passed by the entire number of applicants, five in all. Of these the politician received the lowest rating, but was, nevertheless, permanently appointed secretary of the Board.

Our Association then brought the matter to the attention of the Mayor, and were able to prove not only disregard of the letter of the charter and of the rules on the part of the Board, but also illiteracy and incompetency on the part of the secretary, and a laxity amounting to gross unfairness in the conduct of the examinations. On one occasion, when an examination was held to fill the position of police matron, those who applied at the time specified in the advertisement were told that the examination would be postponed for a week, the reason being that the woman who was slated by the politicians for the post -and who ultimately received it could not attend on that day.

The evils of the laxity which has prevailed in the execution of the civil service provisions were brought forci

bly to the attention of the New Haven people during the spring and summer. A series of assaults upon women having taken place in New Haven, and little effective work having been done by the police department in following up the cases, public opinion became so aroused that the Mayor was forced to appoint an impartial committee of citizens to investigate the affairs of the department. This committee held many meetings and examined many witnesses, and in the report signed by a majority of them showed clearly that the police commissioners, while conforming to the letter of the law in appointing only those to positions on the force who had passed an examination, in point of fact violated its spirit by paying no attention to their relative grades, and treated the examination simply as a pass examination, though the charter describes it as competitive, and they did not hesitate to strongly recommend a change in this practice.

Although our committee has addressed several communications to the Mayor in the course of the summer and fall on this subject, none of its charges have been disproved or even called in question, and the Mayor is evidently under the impression that the easiest way to deal with the whole subject is to ignore it, and trust to the political machine, which is a strong one, to see him through.

The increased interest in the merit system is shown by the fact that the committee of the Hartford common council, which was engaged during the summer in drafting a new charter for that city, invited the president of our Association to appear before them in advocacy of a civil service section, and actually added such a section to their draft of a charter. The rejection of the charter by a light popular vote this fall seems to indicate a general apathy regarding civic affairs in Hartford, rather than any objection to the merit system. Other cities, such as Waterbury and Norwich, have been considering the merit system, and, while the movement is slow, we believe from these indications that it is progressing..

Mr. William Reynolds, for the Maryland Association: The Maryland Association for several years past has