Commemorative Resolutions.

The National Civil Service Reform League has to record the loss during the year now ending of five of those who have stood in the fore of its work and whose names will stand long in its annals:

DANIEL COIT GILMAN, President of the League from 1900 until 1907, died at Norwich, the town of his birth, on October 13. Dr. Gilman had served the cause of civil service reform in many ways and for many years. Creator of a university, if not of the university as an institution, in America, and busied constantly with the manifold duties of his chosen field, he nevertheless found time for close and unceasing devotion to every work that made for better citizenship and a better national life. His part in the civil service reform movement began in June of 1877, when, shortly following the organization of the first association in New York, he was elected to honorary membership in that body, and participated from time to time in its counsels. He was one of the founders of the Maryland Association, organized in 1881, serving as a member of its Executive Committee until 1885 and as a Vice-President from that date until the time of his death. He was elected President of the National League at the annual meeting of 1900, succeeding George William Curtis and Carl Schurz, and served as such until, a year ago, the pressure of many duties upon advancing years compelled him to retire.

The members of the League will remember long the stimulus of Dr. Gilman's leadership, his masterly control of parliamentary procedure, the sanity and the perfect fairness of his part in debate, the cheerfulness of his presence, and the attractiveness of his personality.

GROVER CLEVELAND, who accepted election as a Vice-President of the League in December, 1900, died at Princeton on June 24. In the world-wide appreciation of Mr. Cleveland's career his achievements in the reform of the civil service appeared invariably among those placed first and highest. The League recognizes gratefully that without his powerful part in the work that has been done, the far-reaching and splendidly developed system of to-day would not have been possible. When Mr. Cleveland came to the Presidency of the United States in March, 1885, the civil service law had been in effect two years. Its operation had proceeded without the trying test of party changes, without, in fact, frictional elements of any serious sort. The supreme test came with Mr. Cleveland's inauguration. How well he met it is a matter of history. The classified service during his term, through natural growth and executive extensions, was increased in numbers from 13,000 to 21,000. Executive orders affecting the political activity of office-holders marked the beginning of a change that has since become revolutionary. During his second term, through a series of orders culminating in that of May, 1896, he added 42,000 new positions to the classified list, leaving the office of President with the stability of the reform assured and his own part in it destined to live in his country's history.

Mr. Cleveland remained an ever ready counselor of those who continued to bear the brunt of the fight. He believed with all the conviction of his vigorous. nature in the justice, the right and the good sense of this cause, in its indispensability, in fact, in any scheme of government that keeps in view the stability of the Republic. He gave a new and clearer meaning to the principle that "Public office is a Public Trust" and succeeded well in the degree to which he compelled the acceptance of that principle by the people.

HENRY CODMAN POTTER, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and a Vice-President of the League since 1892, died at Cooperstown, N. Y., on

July 21. Bishop Potter was a Charter Member of the New York Association, joining its ranks in May, 1877. He was always an active member, lending the power of his voice and argument upon many public occasions and participating frequently in the Association's inner councils. As a churchman he preferred the militant method and, in his own way, fought public and lesser wrongs alike. The words of his memorable call for civil service reform, in St. Paul's Church, New York, on the occasion of the centenary of the Federal Constitution and in the presence of President, Cabinet and delegations of Congress will never be forgotten.

WILLIAM POTTS, Secretary of the League from the date of its organization, in 1881, until 1894, Vice-President until 1900, and member of the Council until the time of his death, died in Philadelphia on July 29. Mr. Potts acted, also, as secretary of the New York Association, from May, 1881, until 1894, and as secretary of the Brooklyn Association until the date of its union with that in New York. The details of the great work of organization throughout these earlier years fell chiefly on his shoulders. To the efficiency of his methods, his faithfulness and his courage much of the League's successful history is due. During the years of illness he so patiently endured, his thought of the League, of his old work and his old associates was unremitting. It may be said that the active period of his life was given almost wholly to the League and to the service for which the League stands, and those who knew him will remember him gratefully and affectionately.

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON died at Cambridge, on October 21. A founder of the Cambridge Association, for several years its President and at the time of his death, Vice-President, Professor Norton stood among the first of those who in Massachusetts led the way for civil service reform. The friend of Curtis and close associate in his work for this cause, he will be remem

bered in many ways as Curtis is and with the same sort of appreciation. Though he lived past eighty years, he continued his active service as an Executive Committeeman almost until the end. His part in debate remained vigorous, his disposition to accept no compromise of principle unchanging, and his faith in the ultimate acceptance by the nation of all of that for which the League stands never shaken.

Civil Service Reform in the National Service.

HON. CHARLES J. BONAPARTE, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

I use the words "civil service reform" in a far broader sense than do many persons who talk or write on this subject. To my mind, these words suggest, not merely or primarily a method of choosing subordinate executive officials with ministerial functions, but a principle of selection which can be and ought to be applied in the choice of all public officers, whatever the nature of their duties and however its practical application may be most conveniently assured. This principle is simply that every public office exists for the sole benefit of the people and cannot be maintained, consistently with the fundamental theory of our government, in any measure or under any circumstances for the benefit of the individual holding such office for the time being, or of any other individual or organization, and, therefore every office ought to be filled with a sole regard to the fitness of the incumbent to so discharge its duties as to fulfill those ends which the people sought when they created it and seek when they pay for its maintenance..

The political opinions of a Senator or a Representative in the Congress constitute an element of his fitness to do the work he is elected to do; therefore, it is entirely in accord with the principles of civil service reform, as I understand them, that a Republican or a Democratic constituency should elect a Republican or a Democrat to exercise that portion of the legislative power of the people which is committed to it by the Constitution; but if a constituency shall elect a dishonest or incompetent or ignorant man because he shares its views as to the tariff, the Philippines or the regulation of injunc