perts selected by and under the civil service commission. At this hearing this reform. was advocated by Mr. Dana, the Chairman of the Council of the League, the Hon. James J. Myers, Ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, President Charles Warren of the Civil Service Commission, and Mr. Brooks, the Secretary of the Massachusetts Civil Service Reform Association. The plan met with the general approval of the Finance Commission, and it so reported, but it has not as yet made a final report, and the committee is unable to say at this writing whether the commission, in its draft of the new charter, will approve of the full competitive plan.

Partly because the public is not yet educated up to the point of accepting so new a plan, and partly for fear of having the charter it may propose defeated, there is danger that its draft will provide for appointment by the mayor, subject to the approval of the civil service commission on some such tests or investigation of career as above set forth.

Such a plan would, to be sure, prevent the appointment to the position, for example, of superintendent of streets, of a man who has had only a public grammar school education and experience only as a bartender and political worker, but it will not prevent either political motives in appointments, or rotation in office, nor will it secure the greatest fitness. As in the case of pass examinations, which this resembles, it only keeps out the most unfit, and the most fit will often decline to accept positions where the tenure is so insecure and the political pressure so great.

It is, of course, understood in all these discussions that the scheme could appropriately include an appointment by the mayor or other supreme executive of persons who act, so to speak, as his cabinet officers, who would represent him and his policy, and who would, of course, not be subject to any civil service examination. These persons would, as Professor Lowell puts it, represent the laymen as distinguished from the expert, and, having no control over the execution of details, would determine themselves only questions of policy.

ΙΙΟ

As to the course to be pursued in the future, we can suggest nothing more specific than constant discussion and agitation, and such clear and forceful presentation of the facts as will make the public heed and comprehend what it is that we propose, and what it will accomplish. There is every reason why such a discussion and agitation should be a part of our accustomed agitation for an extension of the merit system. If it be, the latter will have a broader basis upon which to rest. It is probable, however, that the project will be received with more favor as a part of a general scheme of revision of a charter of a municipality, than as an independent reform. City charters are apt to undergo revision at comparatively short periods, and we think that a special effort should be made on all such occasions to have them provide for the appointment of the heads of offices in the manner which we have indicated. This seems to be the most hopeful field at present for the practical presentation of the idea, although it is not impossible that the result might be brought about by an independent statute. But before this can be accomplished, it is necessary to convince the public that it is not only feasible, but that it is likely to be one, if not the most important, way of meeting the difficulties of municipal administration, which constitute the most serious problem with which we, as a people, have at present to deal.

Respectfully submitted,

NELSON S. SPENCER, Chairman.
SILAS W. BURT.

RICHARD HENRY DANA.

HORACE E. DEMING.

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF.

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