SECOND SESSION. Α1 HOTEL PFISTER, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 14. T 8.30 P. M. the League reconvened at the Hotel Pfister. On invitation, Captain Irving M. Bean, the President of the State Civil Service Reform Association of Wisconsin, took the chair. The Secretary read the following letters, received from Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, President of the League; Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy; and Hon. John Weaver, Mayor of Philadelphia: Will you be so good as to present to my colleagues and friends in the National Civil Service Reform League the assurance of my regret that it will not be possible for me to attend the meeting in Milwaukee. Early that week I shall be very much engaged in the affairs of the Carnegie Institution, which holds its annual meeting on Tuesday, the twelfth, and marks out the work for the coming year. We have every reason to congratulate ourselves on the progress of the principles and ideas which underlie our Association. Now it is desirable that these principles and ideas should be understood and accepted in every part of the country, and for that reason I am very glad that the next meeting is to be held in the State of Wisconsin which has been a leader in education and in many other important public services. I hope that other meetings will be held in other States of the interior and of the west. From my point of view it is most desirable that the principles which we recognize should be discussed and, as far as possible, adopted in many other associations than those which pertain to national affairs. Not only political action, but also the action of boards of education and of charities is now, to some extent at least, badly influenced by the endeavor to secure in appointments personal and friendly support, rather than the recognition of ability, character and fitness for the office in question. The more widely the principles of the merit system are known and respected, the better will it be for the country. I ought to add that it seems to me quite time for the League to select another President, and I beg you to say to the Nominating Committee that I shall be gratified to have them choose as President of the League some one of the many gentlemen in the Council who are well qualified for the post and who are younger than I am. Very truly yours, D. C. GILMAN. I hoped until the last moment to be able to go to Milwaukee, but I have in some way caught a cold which threatens to settle in my throat. I am afraid if I expose myself that I shall become so much indisposed that it will seriously interfere with my official duties. I particularly regret not to be able to go to Milwaukee, and I sincerely trust that all will appreciate that my interest in the cause has in no wise diminished. Very truly yours, CHARLES J. BONAPARTE. I have your letter of the 27th and in reply thereto would say that while I appreciate the honor of the invitation and my heart is with you in the work that you are doing, it will be impossible for me to be absent from the city the length of time necessary to go to Milwaukee. Wishing you great success at your meeting, I remain, Yours very truly, JOHN WEAVER. Mr. Richard Henry Dana, Chairman of the Council, then read the annual report of the Council.1 General Frederick C. Winckler, of Milwaukee, then made an address. Printed in full at page 56. THIRD SESSION. HOTEL PFISTER, THE FRIDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 15. 'HE League reconvened at 10.30 A. M., Mr. Dana in the chair. Mr. John A. Butler presented and read the report of the Committee on Nominations, as follows: FOR PRESIDENT: Daniel C. Gilman, FOR VICE PRESIDENTS: Joseph H. Choate, Franklin MacVeagh, FOR MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. Arthur H. Brooks, Charles Collins, Horace E. Deming, Richard Watson Gilder, Henry W. Hardon, William G. Low, George McAneny, Samuel H. Ordway, Everett P. Wheeler, It was moved and seconded that the Secretary be directed to cast one ballot for the election of the gentlemen named. The chair ruled that this could be done only by unanimous consent. No one objecting, the motion was put and was unanimously carried, the Secretary cast the ballot and announced the election of the ticket as read. The Secretary read the annual report of the Treasurer, which was received and ordered filed. The report of the Auditing Committee was then read, as follows: December 14, 1905. We have examined the within account with its vouchers for all payments and found it correct and correctly vouched, showing balance on hand of $173.23. W. W. VAUGHAN, Auditing Committee. Mr. Henry W. Hardon then presented and read the report of the Committee on Resolutions. On motion, the Printed in full at page 55. resolutions were re-read and discussed, clause by clause. Amendments offered by Mr. Merritt Starr, of Chicago, Mr. Ansley Wilcox, of Buffalo, and Mr. Richard Henry Dana, of Massachusetts, were adopted and, on motion, the following resolutions were then approved as the resolutions of the League: Resolutions of the League. In reviewing the events of the last year, the National Civil Service Reform League finds cause for much public satisfaction. In the Federal service a series of executive orders has brought into the classified service various classes of public servants hitherto appointed without competitive examination. The order of March 30, 1905, extending the merit system to cashiers and finance clerks in the Post Office Department is especially noteworthy. The principle involved in the classification of such public servants is one of general application for which the League has long striven. The League has of late years been strongly of the view that the enforcement of the merit system was not only attended by superior efficiency of the service, but that it furnished the best guarantee of the honesty of civil employees. At the annual meeting at Baltimore in 1903, it recorded the striking fact that of thirteen employees in the Post Office Department then under indictment, all were personal or political appointees and none had entered the service as the result of a competitive. examination. Its view upon this subject is again confirmed by the statement in the last report of the Philippine Civil Service Board, as follows: The board stated in its last report that nearly all officials who had been removed since the establishment of civil government in the Islands, entered the service without examination and certification by the board. Of the thirty-four subordinate officials, some of whom were defaulters, separated from the service without a good record during the nine months ended June 30, 1904, only one entered the service as a result of examination and certification by the board. As a result of observation and experience the board has reached the conclusion that rigid and comprehensive examina |