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. 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, Richard Watson Gilder, Henry W. Hardon, William G. Low, Edward M. Shepard, 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,1 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, SAMUEL Y. NASH, 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 tions adapted to applicants with a liberal education are essential to strict integrity and a high degree of efficiency in the Philippine civil service. Besides these extensions of the classified service, the President has struck at an ancient evil, first in requiring persons already admitted to the service as laborers but assigned to work in classified positions, to pass competitive examinations as a condition of receiving increased pay (order of March 11, 1905); second, in prohibiting such assignments for the future (letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, March 30, 1905); and third, by the recent extension and careful enforcement of the rules relating to the Federal Labor Bureau. The exemptions of certain positions in the classified service made by ten orders general in their nature appear to have been made for sufficient reasons, having regard solely to the efficiency of the civil service. But the League notes with apprehension the continuance of the practice of making special exemptions in favor of individuals. The League and its officers at various times and particularly in the addresses at the annual meeting at Washington in 1904, and in the annual report of the present year have pointed out the grave danger to the democratic principle of equality of opportunity in appointment as the result of competitive examination which may spring from special exemptions founded on appeals of influence or sympathy. The League greets with satisfaction the recent executive order issued by the President at the suggestion of Mr. Root, the Secretary of State, providing for increase of the efficiency of the Consular Service by extending the methods now employed for ascertaining the qualifications of candidates by suitable examinations, and for transfers and promotions within the service on the basis of merit, and enlarging the scope of the examinations, etc. This order is accompanied by the announcement that like principles will be applied to some positions in the Diplomatic Service. The League recognizes in this action a decided step towards the abolition of the system of spoils and patronage in the foreign service of our country, for which a long struggle has been made, and confidently |