submitted to the National Civil Service Commission and. the Secretary of the Navy last August. This report points out marked defects in the present system, and recommends radical changes, particularly the abolition of certain preferences not provided for by statute.

Another committee has made a report on superannution, which was read to the Council at Stockbridge in September. The general conclusions reached were that the amount of superannuation is very small, has not been. growing, and is likely, on the contrary, to decrease; that the loss to the government from old employees is very small; that no special provision is necessary in the way of pensions or superannuation funds of which the United States government is to be made paymaster, as so often proposed; that if anything could be done, the best method suggested is the Australian system of compelling new appointees to take out deferred annuity policies under proper safeguards; and that employees over sixty-five years of age might be graded in salary according to the proportionate amount of work done in comparison to the work accomplished by a thoroughly efficient employee.

A committee on withdrawals and resignations from the service was appointed March 12, 1906, to consider the difficulties arising from the withdrawal and resignation of men from competitive places, owing to various causes, particularly the low pay in the higher positions, the small chance of promotion, and the better appointments in private business.

Another committee was appointed to consider the subject of removals, shortly after President Roosevelt's order modifying the removal rule. A preliminary report was made at the last meeting, and another one at the meeting of the Council at Stockbridge in September, the general purport of which was that the President's order had had no material effect, and was not expected to have any during the present administration; that the modification was believed, however, to be a mistake, which might lead to abuse under another executive. The committee favors the requirement that the cause should be stated, and opportunity given for explanation in writing.

The committee on executive and congressional

action was asked by the Council to consider to what branches the League should recommend the extension of competitive classification. Those particularly under consideration were the deputy collectors of internal revenue, the deputy marshals, the fourth class postmasters and the pension examining surgeons. They will also take up the question of carrying classification to the higher positions not confirmed by the Senate, as, for example, assistant postmasters. Numerous letters have been written, suggestions made, conferences held, advice given, bills drafted, complaints received and their grounds sifted, investigations carried on and reports made by the League, and its associations. These are too numerous to mention in detail, and often, too, the chief credit for the good that has followed, lies with those boards, officials and legislative bodies that have carried them to successful issue.

During the year, the Women's Auxiliaries and the General Federation of Women's Clubs have undertaken on a large scale, education and proselyting work, distribution of pamphlets, the introduction of the study of civil service reform into the schools, and have awarded prizes and medals for essays, have prepared courses of study for the clubs, organized committees, and arranged for numerous addresses on the subject. So much for the League.

As for the President of the United States, by executive order of January 12, the competitive service on the Isthmus was reduced to inside men, as opposed to the field service. The rules now exempt from competition all officers and employees upon the Isthmus except clerks, bookkeepers, stenographers, typewriters, surgeons, physicians, trained nurses and draftsmen. No doubt the classification was carried too far at first, considering the great distance, the difficulty of securing people to work in a bad climate, and the lack of time for proper organization by the Civil Service Commission. Necessity for some amendment to the rules had been clearly shown, but we regret the exception of the entire engineering force, and we hope that, as the Civil Service Commission is better organized for the Isthmus work, the engineers may be restored to the civil service rules.

An order was also issued by the President excepting from competitive examination the mounted inspectors in the customs service on the Mexican border.

On June 21, the President made competitive deputy collectors, store-keepers and guagers in the fifth internal revenue district of North Carolina.

On June 27, following the passage of the Lodge Consular Bill, with all its civil service and promotion features struck out, the President issued regulations for appointments and promotions in the consular service. Those for appointments provide for a limited competition, the President naming a number of candidates, who are then to be subject to an examination and from the successful candidates will be selected the appointees to be sent to the Senate for confirmation. These examinations are under a board which includes the Chief Examiner of the Civil Service Commission, one of the assistant secretaries of state, and the head of the Consular Bureau. For those countries in which consuls have extra territorial powers, the examinations are to include a knowledge of law. This system gives far more hope of permanently taking the consular service out of politics than the mere pass examinations which were instituted some eight or nine years ago.

On February 24, an executive order was issued concerning the laborers in the federal offices outside of Washington. Laborers found to be performing classified duties, subject to the approval of the Commission, were to be regarded as classified, and the further assignment of laborers to perform such work was forbidden. The order was similar in scope to that issued during the previous year in regard to laborers in the departments in Washington. The purpose is to straighten out the complications now existing regarding the classified work of laborers, to prevent further violations, and to select laborers through a labor registration system. The regulations are now in effect in the federal labor service in Boston, New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Allegheny, Pittsburgh, Washington, D. C., Baltimore, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Omaha, St. Louis,

Kansas City, New Orleans, Denver, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. These regulations provide for physical tests of unskilled laborers, and as a result, a fine set of strong young men are coming into the government service, instead of the decrepit old men we have so often seen. So successful has this been that in Massachusetts similar tests are to be used for the municipal service of the city of Boston by the State Commission.

During the year ending October 5, 1906, there were issued by the President, special exemptions to the rules covering sixty-six persons. Four of these, however, were on matters of form, to correct any possible misconstruction, so that there were practically sixty-two. Two of these affected laborers, leaving but sixty as compared with sixty-three reported at the annual meeting a year ago.

Eighteen of the sixty were re-instatements after more than one year of absence; two of these eighteen had originally been removed on evidence which the department subsequently claimed to be false, and at all events, so much false testimony was given in the case, and the righteousness of the dismissal so uncertain, that they were re-instated. Nineteen were transfers to competitive positions after long service in non-competitive. Five were temporary appointments made permanent. Ten were cases of permanent appointments where no eligible list had been secured after six months' effort. One was a case of waiving the citizenship rule, and allowing a foreigner, who had done unclassified work, to enter the competitive examinations. One was a case of irregular promotion, and six appointments only were made wholly from outside. Of these six, one seems to have been an appointment entirely on charitable grounds; but another was a case of appointment of the Director for the experimental leprosy hospital in the Sandwich Islands. Only one person, capable of performing the work, was willing to take this position. He had been assistant instructor in pathology in the Harvard Medical School.

The plan of special exemptions was recommended to the President by United States Civil Service Commissioners Proctor and Foulke, and their opinion must have

great weight with us. But after three years of experience and most careful consideration, it seems to the Council that it would be possible greatly to lessen the number of special exemptions, if not to do away with the need of them altogether, if particular positions were exempted and appropriate amendments to the civil service rules were made, dealing with the various grounds for special action.

It might be well to appoint a special committee to consider this subject. In general, special exemptions have the air of being arbitrary, and savour of imperial government, even when the causes for them are most reasonable. Again, appointments from outside the service on grounds of charity ought not to be allowed at all. Charity appeals take much time from the appointing officers, and will take more and more time as each appeal succeeds, and such appeals are hard to refuse. The President and Cabinet officers ought not to be subjected to them.

By executive order of November 7th, 1906, deputy collectors of internal revenue have been brought within the competitive classification. For this the League has long worked, and the Council congratulates its friends and the country at large upon this important extension. These deputies were put under civil service rules in the second administration of President Cleveland, and the Secretary of the Treasury reported that the system worked well and that increased revenues resulted. By the action of President McKinley, however, these officials were taken out of the civil service rules, one ground being a doubt as to the legality or constitutionality of their classification. The League has prepared various briefs, which have been submitted to both President McKinley and President Roosevelt, on the subject, and resolutions have been passed year after year in favor of the inclusion. There was also evidence amounting to a moral certainty that appointments to the positions of deputy collector were made through the influence of the very interests that were to be inspected. This order of the President brings about eleven hundred important and influential officers, who have hitherto been extremely active in poli