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"The School System of New York."

"The Corruption and Maladministration in the Police Department.”

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Eminent speakers treated these subjects in a manner well calculated to interest and instruct. One great problem which confronted us was how to keep up an active interest in club work, in the absence of the cohesive power of spoils or hope of reward. It was recognized that patriotic devotion to the city must be the foundation, but it was understood that patriotism most easily shows itself under great provocation and after intervals of rest. The plan adopted has been successful, and consists in giving every club specific work and every member something to do, for which they are held responsible, and involves the scrutiny and criticism of every department of municipal government throughout the year. Clubs have, therefore, divided their membership into committees on:

Lectures and Debates, Entertainment, Grievances, Library, Schools, Finance, Campaign, Literature and the Press, Legislation, Membership, Conference, and the like, and every member is assigned to specific work upon one of these committees or sub-committees. And clubs have accepted assignments of special work-one club taking Parks and Police, another Charities and Correction, a third Public Schools, a fourth Dock Department, and so on, until every Department and Bureau of the city is placed under scrutiny.

Another problem was how best to preserve the individuality and independence of the clubs while uniting them in one harmonious whole for work of general and mutual interest. Its solution was found in the organization of a Council of Confederated Clubs formed by delegates annually elected from each club on a numerical basis which gives one representative for each hundred members-no club, however, to have more than six delegates. These delegates meet at regular intervals for action upon all matters which pertain to the city as a whole-the local clubs being free to act in all local matters, and free to bring before the central body, through its delegates, all questions of general interest.

The Council assigns to each club the special work for which it is best fitted, and, upon acceptance of such assignment, the clubs in the system recognize the predominance of each club in the designated field of labor and cooperate only when requested so to do by the club in charge.

The scheme is that each of the thirty-five Assembly Districts shall have a club, which will be expected to learn the name and political affiliations of all the voters and to promote mutual acquaintance and confidence, with a view to co-operation in election campaigns for Good Government, and to enlist and educate the young voter as he comes upon the verge of manhood, and to restore as far as may be the old town meeting principle in each ward or district.

The Committee of Seventy, the City Club and the City Vigilance League are esteemed by all as honorable and useful allies.

The pulpit and the press have alike had their part, and while all unite in praising the wonderful courage, earnestness and perseverance of Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, the Good Government Club men are content with self-effacement to point only to the results in which they find most satisfaction, i. e., the establishment on a firm basis of clubs which are to continue the work long after their founders have passed away.

The men whose brains, hearts and individualities have been worked into the web and woof of this movement for civic reform are not seeking for office or reward; and to place this altruistic principle upon an undoubted basis the Council has adopted resolutions pledging the clubs and their members as such to abstain from making or indorsing applications for office, and have enacted in their Constitution the provision that any delegate who becomes an officeholder, or who accepts a nomination for any public office, thereby ceases to be a member of that body.

In reviewing the work of the clubs we find that two of the great principles they have contended for have been recognized and established in New York, we hope for all time, viz.:

(1.) The separation of municipal elections from State and National elections. The new Constitution provides for such separation.

(2.) A non-partisan administration of municipal government, conducted on business principles. The candidates elected on the Reform ticket, November 6, 1894, were pledged to these things, and to make appointments for fitness and promotions for merit without reference to the political faith of those employed, and to continue in office all who give faithful and efficient service.

Something has also been accomplished for Home Rule in New York in giving greater control of municipal affairs to the electors in each municipality. Probably greater success never crowned the labors of one or two years than has been accorded to the workers in the short, sharp and decisive struggle in this city, and there is every encouragement to believe that the other principles for which the clubs contend, viz.: True ballot reform, diligent and impartial collection of revenue and economy in expenditure, and civil service reform, will be greatly advanced during the coming year throughout the State.

Excellent work has also been accomplished by the clubs through their delegations to Albany, where their legitimate influence has been exerted with as

semblymen and senators in procuring the passage by the Legislature of wise measures for municipal reform. And there is much to be hoped in the future from similar delegations acting under credentials and instructions from their respective clubs.

The acceptance by the public of the declared standard of disinterestedness of these clubs is further illustrated by the invitation given by the Board of Education to the Club Council to furnish lists of eligible citizens from which ward school trustees may be chosen. It is obvious that trustees so chosen and supported by the clubs will be able to effect needed reforms in our antiquated school system.

Another important feature of club work, not yet fully developed, is worthy of mention. It solves, we think, the problem of co-operation with patriotic women in such departments of club work as are suited to their sympathies and tastes. For example, Club One has accepted "The Public Schools" as its specific field of labor. Its committee on schools having been empowered to appoint as associate members of that committee such persons as they might select (not of the club) —it selected seven women, who met with the school committee at their own houses. Their work and their interest in it grew until the seven women associate members, with the concurrence of the committee, organized a "Woman's Association for the Improvement of the Public Schools," with the said seven associate members as the officers of the association. They have assessed themselves three dollars per annum as dues, have hired adequate rooms for their committee and public meetings, and have a paid expert officer who gives his time from 2 to 5 P. M. daily at the association rooms to direct their work, organize their committees, formulate their reports, collect their books and statistics, and in general to conduct the formal and official part of their outside work in this great city. While independent, they are yet in official harmony with the club, and aim to co-operate in effective work. The same plan is in contemplation in respect to clubs having charge of asylums, hospitals, prisons and reformatories.

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There is no ring or management by bosses in this movement. taneity and individuality of members and clubs is encouraged. All friends of Good Government are cordially urged to join the club nearest his residence, and the cost is placed within the means of millionaire and mechanic alike, viz.: one dollar initiation fee, and fifty cents a month as dues.

J. AUGUSTUS JOHNSON.

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GOOD GOVERNMENT CLUB A.

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ARLY in the year 1893 a few men interested in reforming the government of the city of New York, on non-partisan lines, organized the first Good Government Club, to be known as "Club A," to carry into effect by organized effort the principles of the City Club of New York. It was a great experiment, and few could at that time foresee the rapidity. with which the example would be followed by the formation of new clubs in the several Assembly Districts, and the popular indorsement, not two years later, of the principles embodied in the clubs.

Club A was incorporated on February 28, 1893, and elected as its first President Mr. W. F. Crockett. In May the club moved into the luxurious quarters at No. 722 Lexington avenue, corner of Fifty-eighth street, with about two hundred and fifty members. Membership to the club was extended to all who would indorse the principles of the club and qualify by paying the dues, fifty cents per month and one dollar initiation fee. Early in the fall of 1893 attempts were made by the club to secure the nomination for Assembly by the Republican Organization of the Twenty-first Assembly District, of a man of high character and standing in the community and pledged to non-partisan and business-like methods in the administration of city affairs. Machine methods, however, always so detrimental to the best interest of the city, prevailed with the representatives of the Republican party, and the club, in order to uphold their principles and to present a clear issue before the voters of the Twenty-first Assembly District, put in nomination by certificate John Brooks Leavitt, a lawyer well known for his hostility to the methods prevailing in municipal politics.

The campaign was pushed with great vigor and skill under the guidance of the chairman of the Campaign Committee, W. Harris Roome, and F. W. Longfellow as Secretary. Every election district was well captained and most of the voters in the district were personally visited in the interest of the club's candidate.

On election day every polling-place was manned by representatives of the club and the count carefully scrutinized.

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To properly appreciate the significance of this result, it should be borne in mind that each of the national parties had its candidate for the Assembly in the field, with all the prestige and working force that such a candidacy implies, and

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