ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL CIVIL SERVICE REFORM LEAGUE. PUR NOVEMBER 19 AND 20, 1906. URSUANT to a call, duly issued, the Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League was held at New Haven, Connecticut, the 19th and 20th of November, 1906. Delegates from Civil Service Reform Associations and Auxiliaries in attendance during the several sessions were the following: BUFFALO: Frederic Almy, William A. Douglas, Henry A. Richmond, Ansley Wilcox. CAMBRIDGE: Archibald M. Howe, Morrill Wyman. CONNECTICUT: General William A. Aiken, James Kingsley Blake, John C. Brinsmade, Charles Hopkins Clark, Benjamin R. English, Prof. Henry W. Farnam, George L. Fox, John C. Gallagher, A. R. Kimball, Wilson H. Lee, Burton Mansfield, Charles G. Morris, Norris G. Osborn, Amory S. Rowland, Horace D. Taft. INDIANA: Harry J. Milligan. LUZERNE COUNTY: W. J. Trembath. MARYLAND: Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Dr. Daniel C. Gilman. MASSACHUSETTS: Arthur H. Brooks, Richard Henry Dana, Ashton E. Hemphill, William V. Kellen, Samuel Y. Nash, Charles S. Rackemann, William W. Vaughan. MISSOURI: V. Mott Porter. NEW YORK: Elbert F. Baldwin, R. R. Bowker, Silas W. Burt, Henry G. Chapman, Horace E. Deming, Albert deRoode, A. S. Frissell, Richard Watson Gilder, Elliot H. Goodwin, Henry W. Hardon, A. Jacobi, Hon. Jacob F. Miller, C. B. Orcutt, Rev. Cornelius B. Smith, Hon. Nelson S. Spencer, Hon. Everett P. Wheeler. PENNSYLVANIA: Mrs. Arthur Biddle, Miss Edith F. Biddle, George Burnham, Jr., Hon. Cyrus D. Foss, Jr., Henry R. Hatfield, Robert D. Jenks, Mrs. W. F. Jenks, Henry S. Pancoast, Hon. W. Henry Sutton, William J. Trembath. WISCONSIN John A. Butler. WOMEN'S AUXILIARY OF MARYLAND: Mrs. J. Mark Baldwin, Mrs. D. C. Gilman, Mrs. Albert Sioussat, Mrs. G. H. Williams. WOMEN'S AUXILIARY OF MASSACHUSETTS: Mrs. Francis C. Barlow, Mrs. T. L. Chapman, Miss Harriet E. Clarke, Mrs. Richard H. Dana, Mrs. Glendower Evans, Miss Elizabeth Foster, Mrs. Warren R. Gilman, Miss Frances Hayward, Miss Marian C. Nichols. WOMEN'S AUXILIARY OF NEW YORK: Miss Emilie J. Hutchinson, Miss Anna E. H. Meyer, Mrs. Nelson S. Spencer, Mrs. Everett P. Wheeler. 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 a number of such organizations as follows: CONNECTICUT STATE FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS: Mrs. F. H. Dart, Mrs. A. C. S. Fenner. SATURDAY CLUB OF NEW LONDON: Mrs. George Seth Morgan. TWENTIETH CENTURY CLUB, BOSTON: Richard Henry Dana. INVITED GUESTS: Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, Hon. Henry F. Greene, President Arthur T. Hadley, Hon. William F. Henney, Hon. Samuel E. Sparling, Hon. John P. Studley. GUESTS OF DELEGATES: Joseph Anderson, Mrs. S. Milbank Cauldwell, Alexander Cumming, Mrs. Albert de Roode, Mrs. E. G. Fisk, Mrs. Harry J. Milligan, Edward S. Worcester. THE MEETINGS OF THE LEAGUE. 'HE headquarters of the League during the period of the meeting were at the New Haven Colony Historical Society Building, New Haven, Connecticut. The proceedings at the sessions of the League, commencing on the afternoon of November 19, were as follows: FIRST SESSION. NEW HAVEN COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING, MONDAY AFTERNOON, NOVEMBER 19. THE HE League convened at 2:30 P. M., the President, Dr. Daniel C. Gilman, in the chair. The minutes of the last Annual Meeting having been printed and distributed, the reading of the same was omitted. Hon. John P. Studley, Mayor of New Haven, delivered an address of welcome, to which Dr. Gilman, on behalf of the League, made response. Mr. Richard Henry Dana, Chairman of the Council of the League, read the Annual Report of the Council.' Reports from the Associations composing the League were then read, as follows: Mr. Ansley Wilcox submitted the following report from the Civil Service Reform Association of Buffalo: At the outset I wish to express the regret of our association and of the people of Buffalo that we were unable to secure the annual meeting of the League this year, and were vanquished by New Haven. The time is ripe for another visit of the League to Buffalo after an interval of sixteen years, and we urgently desire that you will come next year. There has been an improvement in our local conditions in the enforcement of the civil service law and rules since my last report. The form of the law and of the local rules has not been changed. These are so good that they hardly admit of any material betterment. But we have had a new mayor since the beginning of the year, who, though not an ardent civil service reformer in theory, is a clear-headed and experienced business man, of approved honesty and firmness. He reorganized the city commission, putting in five new men on the board of seven, which seemed a doubtful experiment; but his appointees have proved themselves earnest and faithful workers for good government and for the enforcement of the merit system, and they have worked harmoniously among themselves and in harmony with the mayor, which previous commissions had not succeeded in doing. They have obtained somewhat larger appropriations for their necessary expenses than ever before, and thus have been enabled to do better work. Our local commissioners have taken an active part in the conferences at Washington and Albany during the year, and I believe have been of assistance in these. In the county service, which is independent of the city commission and is regulated from Albany by the state commission, the conditions have not materially changed. Mr. Archibald Howe submitted the following report from the Civil Service Reform Association of Cambridge: The Cambridge Association has a membership of 106 and reports continued interest in the cause. Members have appeared at this year's hearings in the Legislature on matters affecting the League and measures which have appeared detrimental to civil service reform have been controlled. The Association maintains its full interest and watchfulness and holds itself ready at all times for any work which may be required. I am much interested in the efficiency of the service. I happen to be an humble examiner under the state commission. As shown by the experience tests there are a large number of rolling stones among the candidates. This is a matter of regret. The experience tests are weak and it is a matter of painful reflection that in Cambridge there is not a very large interest in the efficiency of the public service. There is another organization, the Good Government League, which, however, looks after the elective offices. Mr. Charles B. Wilby submitted the following report from the Civil Service Reform Association of Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Association might be said to be somewhat disfigured, but I assure you it is "still in the ring." I say this, not because we have not a good association, but because we have been obliged to report to you, from time to time during the last few years, five defeats, one after another. in our successive endeavors to bring about the passage of the bills which we have introduced, in the hope of providing an efficient civil service law for Ohio. I believe I can safely say that we have an energetic and zealous association. It is one of the earliest. George H. Pendleton was made our first president in appreciation of his courage in introducing the bill which became the existing federal law in 1883, which by reason of the resentment of the machine politicians, caused him to lose that re-election to the Senate, which he so well deserved. Mr. Pendleton was succeeded by Rufus King, who in turn was succeeded by Wm. H. Taft, and when he went to the Philippines, John W. Warrington, who is now our president, was elected in his place. We have in Cincinnati not a corporate boss like the Tammany Society, but rather what might be called a corporation sole, which is, I believe, a somewhat more dangerous form of the evil. When we first introduced a civil service bill, we made it cover the civil service of counties and municipalities, as well as of the state. This the country members refused to vote for, because they did not appreciate the necessity. for the expense entailed, their communities not suffering under boss rule as do the cities. Then we tried a local option bill, providing for the civil service of the larger cities alone, and this was defeated because the country members allowed the city delegations in the Legislature to have their own way in denying its passage. Then we |