Charles Collins, Horace E. Deming, Dr. A. Jacobi, Russell H. Loines, Francis H. Kinnicutt, Philip J. McCook, Felix Frankfurter, C. Whitney Dall, R. R. Bowker, Camillus G. Kidder. PENNSYLVANIA: Robert D. Jenks, Cyrus D. Foss, Jr., George Burnham, Jr., R. Francis Wood, John B. Roberts, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Walter Wood, Henry C. Niles, W. Henry Sutton. MASSACHUSETTS AUXILIARY: Miss Marian C. Nichols, Miss Margaret Norton, MARYLAND AUXILIARY: Mrs. Summerfield Baldwin, Mrs. Eli Strouse, Mrs. Albert Sioussat. NEW YORK AUXILIARY: Miss Jean Disbrow, Mrs. W. H. Schieffelin, Miss A. Schurz, Mrs. R. C. E. Brown, Mrs. St. Clair McKelway, Mrs. Everett P. Wheeler, Mrs. Felix Adler, Mrs Stewart Hartshorn, Mrs. S. Carman Harriot and Mrs. George McAneny. In response to invitations issued by the League to municipal reform associations and to other bodies interested in the reform of the civil service, delegates were present from such organizations as follows: BUFFALO MUNICIPAL LEAGUE: Frederic Almy. UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE RETIREMENT ASSOCIATION: M. F. O'Donoghue, Dr. Llewellyn Jordan. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS: Mrs. Imogen B. Oakley. NATIONAL LEAGUE OF POSTMASTERS OF THE FOURTH CLASS: A. K. Hoag, W. S. Bartholomew, W. O. Bock. BOARD OF TRADE, PASSAIC, N. J. Mason R. Strong. INVITED GUESTS: Hon. E. Dana Durand, John C. Birdseye, Charles F. Milliken, Gardner Colby, Francis Almy, Dr. G. H. Herst, John T. Doyle, William S. Washburn, Frank L. Polk, Frank A. Spencer, George D. Davidson, Joseph C. Mason, F. E. Doty, C. E. Buell, Harry C. Coles, A. K. Hoag. THE MEETINGS OF THE LEAGUE. HE headquarters of the League during the meeting were at the City Club, New York City. The proceedings at the sessions of the League, commencing on the afternoon of December 9th, were as follows: THE FIRST SESSION. City Club, Thursday afternoon, December 9th. 'HE League convened at 3.15 p. m. President Eliot presided. The minutes of the last Annual Meeting having been printed and distributed, their reading was omitted. Hon. Charles H. Strong, President of the City Club, delivered an address of welcome,' to which President Eliot made response. Mr. Richard H. Dana, Chairman of the Council, then read the report of the Council.* Upon motion of Mr. Bonaparte, the report was accepted and ordered published. The following reports from Associations composing the League were then read: Mr. John D. Meyer, submitted the report from the Civil Service Association of Allegheny County: When the civil service act applicable to Pittsburgh was passed in 1907, municipal civil service was practically unknown in this community. The past year has seen a remarkable development in the knowledge of the subject throughout the whole territory. Public opinion now demands a full and fair enforcement of the laws already passed and by the time the next legislative campaign opens we believe that most of the candidates will be compelled to espouse the cause of state civil service. Printed in full at page 62; at page 41. In December 1908 Wm. A. Magee in announcing his candidacy for the office of Mayor declared for the "merit system" in unequivocal terms. The Voter's League, and our Association through its officers and members kept after him, so that in nearly every public address he redeclared himself in favor of the letter and the spirit of the law. Mr. Magee's earnestness convinced a majority of the people of his fitness for the position and he was elected by a substantial majority over the "reform" candidate, an old time civil service advocate. But it was a victory for the better element of the community because every proposed reform was supported by Mr. Magee. Upon his inauguration he appointed a new civil service commission consisting of the political writers of two newspapers and for the minority member one of the members of the old commission. Fortunately, several attempts to act outside of the law have acted as boomerangs to the present administration in that they gave the criticising element of the city a splendid opportunity to accuse the mayor of bad faith. One prominent member of the cabinet has laid himself open to criminal prosecution but no active steps have been taken to prosecute. In the choice of a census supervisor for Allegheny County there has been a great contest. The politicians favored an avowed ringster, a man who at one time declared President Roosevelt was crazy. Mr. Durand chose Prof. A. H. Willett instructor in economics at the Carnegie Technical Schools for the position but his commission has not as yet been issued at the request of Senator Oliver, who is now trying to compel the appointment of a compromise candidate. The chamber of commerce as well as this association, took formal action in favor of Mr. Willett and many business men sent their protests directly to the President, but no decision has as yet been made. The membership of the association is now 1026 and the interest in the work does not seem to be lagging although, of course, being young, the financial support is not all that could be desired. During the year seventeen formal trials have been conducted before the civil service commission by the attor ney for the association and two cases are now pending in the local courts which will determine certain legal questions that are giving trouble. For the coming year a campaign of education throughout western Pennsylvania is planned and arrangements are already perfected for several addresses by officers of the association before civic organizations of the county. Hon. George H. Herst, of the Pittsburgh Civil Service Commission, supplemented the report of the Allegheny County Association as follows: I am happy to state that I bring to this great national gathering of the true friends and chief sponsors of genuine civil service reform, a message of good cheer from the industrial metropolis of the world, Pittsburgh. The civil service act governing the city went into effect on July 1st, 1907. It was not, however, until late in September of that year that the city civil service commission was organized and began its work. The city, at the time, was governed by a reform administration, at the head of which was Mayor George W. Guthrie, nationally known as one of the foremost advocates of civil service reform. The commission, of which I was a member, had a herculean task to perform. It not only had to prescribe the rules and regulations, but had also to deal with a multitude of applicants who, ignorant of the real meaning of the law, thought that it would result in the immediate filling of all the positions in the city by those who passed the necessary examinations. As a matter of fact, all who held office at the time the law went into effect were protected from removal except under its provisions. As a consequence, only such positions were filled in which vacancies occurred by death, resignation, or removal for cause, or by the creation of new positions. Owing, however, to the business depression, which was felt more severely in Pittsburgh than in any other community in the nation, thousands of men were thrown out of employment as laborers, for a number of whom the city undertook to provide work by special appropriation. As a result, the commission received ten thousand applications for employment in one week. The total number received aggregated thirty thousand. The commission, during Mayor Guthrie's administration, held examinations for many positions and created a large number of eligible lists. The number of persons on these eligible lists, exclusive of labor lists, aggregated twenty-seven hundred and seventy. In December, 1907, the city of Allegheny was incorporated with Pittsburgh and the civil service commissions of the two cities were united. This fact largely increased the work of the commission and also complicated the problems with which it had to deal. On April 5, 1909, Mayor Guthrie was succeeded as the chief executive of the city by Hon. William A. Magee. Mr. Magee was the regular Republican candidate and there were those, not a few, including some of the earnest friends of civil service reform, who predicted that his advent would witness a radical change for the worse in the execution of the civil service law. All such forebodings and predictions have, however, been discredited by the actual happenings of the last eight months. Prior to his election, Mr. Magee pledged himself to an honest enforcement of the civil service law, and this pledge has been nobly kept. The personnel of the commission was changed by him, the only member of the old commission remaining being myself. The new commission revised the rules adopted by its predecessors, but only in a few particulars. It increased the exempt list and the non-competitive list in an aggregate of about thirty names, these changes being approved, I may say, by the civil service reform association of our city which, after the work of the commission in amending the rules was concluded, through their attorney, appeared before the commission and made the following statement: "Mr. President, I appear as the Secretary of the Civil Service Association of Allegheny County. Last week I handed a list of the proposed exemptions to the executive committee of the Association and they directed the officers of the Association to attend this meeting and to state that they approved them all, and also to commend the commission on not having enlarged the number of exemptions. We appreciate very much the absolute fairness with which the whole matter has been investigated |