chief clerk and chief deputy also favored the Merit System. The Republican candidate for chief bailiff was the only one who declared against the Merit System, and, as he was elected, it is probable that the deputies will not be appointed under civil service regulations.

Taken altogether the outlook is very favorable, both in the State and the county, for an extension of the Merit System, and in general the City Act is working very satisfactorily.

We trust that the next report will show that our hopes have become realities.

The Amendment adopted by the Committee of the Chicago Charter Convention changes section XII., of the City Civil Service Act, so as to make it read as follows:

"Section XII. Removals and Reductions. Removals from the classified service or reduction in grade or compensation, or both, may be made in any department of the service by the head of such department for any cause which will promote the efficiency of the service, but only on written specifications by the officer making the removal or reduction, and the person sought to be removed or reduced shall have notice and shall be served with a copy of the specifications and be allowed reasonable time for answering the same in writing, and a copy of the notice, specifications, answer, and of the order of removal or reduction, shall be filed with the Civil Service Commission. Said commission, or some officer or board appointed by said commission, for the purpose, shall investigate any removal or reduction which said commission has reason to believe has not been made in accordance with the provisions of this section, and said commission may in any case investigate any removal or reduction or cause the same to be investigated by some officer or board the officer or board so appointed to conduct said investigation, and then in accordance with the findings of said commission or the officer or board so appointed to conduct said investigation, approve or disapprove the same. The finding and decision of such commission or investigating officer or board, when approved by said commission, shall in every case be final and shall be certified to the appointing officer and shall be forthwith enforced by such officer. A copy of said papers in each case shall be made a part of the record of the division of the service in which the removal or reduction is made. Nothing in this act shall limit the power of an officer to suspend a subordinate for a reasonable period, not exceeding thirty days. In the course

of an investigation of charges, each member of the commission and of any board so appointed by it, and any officer so appointed, shall have the power to administer oaths and shall have the power to secure by its subpoena both the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of books and papers relevant to such investigation. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require such charges or investigation in case of laborers or persons having the custody of public money for the safe keeping of which another person has given bonds."

The law as it now exists, in regard to removals, is as follows:

"Section 12. Removals. No officer or employe in the classified Civil Service of any city who shall have been appointed under said rules and after said examination, shall be removed or discharged except for cause, upon written charges and after an opportunity to be heard in his own defense. Such charges shall be investigated by or before said Civil Service Commission, or by or before some officer or board appointed by said Commission, to conduct such investigation. The finding and decision of such Commission or investigating officer or board, when approved by said Commission, shall be certified to the appointing officer, and shall be forthwith enforced by such officer. Nothing in this act shall limit the power of any officer to suspend a subordinate for a reasonable period, not exceeding thirty days. In the course of an investigation of charges each member of the Commission, and of any board so appointed by it, and any officer so appointed shall have the power to administer oaths and shall have power to secure by its subpoena both the attendance and testimony of witnesses, and the production of books and papers relevant to such investigation. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require such charges or investigation in cases of laborers or persons having the custody of public money, for the safe keeping of which another person has given bonds."

From the Maryland Civil Service Reform Association:

Our Association has been watchful to take advantage of any opportunity that might offer for furthering the principles of Civil Service Reform and prevent any abuse of existing laws on the subject.

No better or more satisfactory report as to the condition of the reform in Maryland and the work of the Maryland Association can be made than by following the lines of the report of our Executive Committee to the Association at its last annual meeting, on May 21st, last, and adopting in part its language.

Early in December last the Executive Committee appointed a special committee of five to consider and report to it what legislation, if any, in the interest of Civil Service Reform it would be advisable to apply for to the General Assembly of the State then about to meet, and also to consider incidentally the expediency of agitating for the passage of a general Civil Service Law for the State.

The Committee having fully considered the matter soon reached a unanimous conclusion that while the spirit of reform was undoubtedly in the air in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and other localities, there were no signs of its having as yet permeated the atmosphere of Annapolis to such an extent as would afford any adequate encouragement for the success of any effort for the general introduction of the merit system of appointment to the minor administrative offices in Maryland at the coming session.

They did however believe that the time had come to make another effort to secure the passage of an act to regulate the method of nominations by the Board of Police Examiners of Baltimore to fill vacancies on the police force in the city. Accordingly a bill was prepared for the purpose and introduced into the State Senate which referred it to the Senators from Baltimore City.

The circumstances which gave rise to the demand for this bill were briefly these. In 1900 the Board of Police Examiners was created and they were required to subject all applicants for appointment to, or promotion in the force, to competitive examinations, to prepare graded lists of all who passed the examinations and from these lists to make nominations, in the order in which the names stood upon them, for all appointments or promotions to be made by the Police Commissioners. Within a year thereafter the Board of Examiners submitted the whole list of two hundred and sixty eligibles at one time to the Commissioners, thus giving the latter a long list to pick and choose from, there being nothing in the act creating the Board of Examiners expressly prohibiting such action. This practically converted what were declared to be competitive examinations into non-compet

itive or mere pass examinations, as some of those whose names stood near the foot of the list were among the first to get appointments.

The bill submitted on behalf of this Association followed closely the provisions of the Federal Civil Service Law, requiring the Examiners to nominate for each vacancy only the three persons whose names stood highest on the graded lists and that the appointment must be made from one of these. And it further provided that after any person's name had been sent in three times without his being appointed, it should be dropped from the list. The bill was unfavorably reported by the City Senators after they had heard the Committee, and their report was adopted by the Senate."

The main objection advanced against it was that since the present Board of Commissioners is honestly endeavoring to keep the force as efficient and as non-partisan as possible, any interference with them or any restriction upon their action would be far more apt to diminish than to increase this efficiency. But, admitting everything thus claimed for the present Board of Commissioners to be as stated, it must still be remembered that their term of office is not indefinite, for, in fact, the names of two of them, when re-nominated by the Governor, were "held up" by the Senate until late in the session. It would seem therefore that such an important matter as the nonpartisanship and efficiency of the police department should be safeguarded by the stringent provisions of a permanent statute, rather than be suffered to depend, as a matter of grace, merely upon the disposition of the individual members of the Board having control of that department for the time being.

It may be added that the agitation caused by the introduction of the above bill and the publication of the above mentioned annual report has proved beneficial and that the present Board of Police Examiners has lately been nominating, whenever a vacancy occurs, only the three names graded highest on the eligible list to fill it. With the law as it stands, however, a new board might change all this and return to the former system.

From the Women's Civil Service Reform Association of Buffalo:

The Women's Civil Service Reform Association of Buffalo began its work in the early spring of 1905, taking as its first object the arousing of interest in Civil Service Reform and the diffusion of intelligent ideas as to its meaning. To this end we undertook to distribute its literature among men, women and juniors. Chief among our readers have been the pupils of the High Schools, an impulse having been given by the offering of a medal, by our president, for the best essay on Civil Service Reform by a High School scholar.

Believing that hero worship is good we considered ourselves fortunate to have George William Curtis to remember and extol and have chosen his birthday as the occasion for bringing together our active and reading members, winners of the medal and teachers, to be addressed by men prominent in the work of good govern

ment.

Such a meeting was held on February 26, 1906, when there were speeches by Mr. Ansley Wilcox, Mr. T. Guilford Smith, Messrs. Henry W. Sprague, J. B. Olmsted. The members met socially and civil service took on a new aspect to many of our members. Our Association sent letters to the Assemblymen and Senators of New York, urging that the Probation Officers should be put under civil service rules.

We have begun putting the "Primers" of Civil Service Reform with the higher grades of the Grammar Schools. We purpose to continue the work of the first year and add to it the study of Civil Service Reform in its relation to Municipalities.

SECOND SESSION.

WOOLSEY HALL,

MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 19.

AT 8:00 o'clock P. M. the League reconvened at

Woolsey Hall. The meeting was presided over by President Arthur T. Hadley of Yale University, who spoke as follows.

"It is a great pleasure to welcome the National Civil