The sessions of the American Civic Association during this period were given over to conferences on the subject of Work Among the Children in Large Cities, and among the speakers were Mrs. Edwin F. Moulton of Warren, O., Miss Mabel Hill of Lowell, Mass., Prof. Charles F. Kent of Yale University, and several others. Considerable attention was given to the matter of instruction in civics in the public schools and the consensus of opinion was that the association ought to undertake an active propaganda along this particular line.

Members of the two associations joined forces on Thursday evening in a banquet at The Eloise, at which short addresses were made by several of those who had taken a leading part in the regular sessions. The affair was unusually successful as were the other social features of the convention among which were a smoker at the Brown Union and a reception at the home of President W. H. P. Faunce. The whole arrangements for the convention were in the hands of Hon. Clinton Rogers Woodruff, secretary of the National Municipal League, to whom much of the credit for their successful outcome is due. An invitation to hold the next annual gathering of the two associations at Portland, Me., was received from the city authorities and from the board of trade; and it is likely that this place will be chosen. Both associations reëlected their chief officers to serve another term.

Several months ago the mayor of Boston, acting in concurrence with the other organs of city government, asked several of the leading unofficial organizations of the city, among them the chamber of commerce, to select representatives to a finance commission, the duty of which body it should be to make a thorough and impartial investigation into the financial condition of Boston and to report the results of their investigations together with recommendations as to the means whereby the municipal expenditures might be reduced without impairing the efficiency of civic administration. This commission was duly organized, its membership comprising some of the most prominent business men of the city, and the investigation has already covered a number of important civic departments. Some preliminary reports have been made to the mayor and some recommendations offered. On the whole the work of the commission has not disclosed any widespread corruption or glaring inefficiency; at the same time it has brought to light a good deal of minor extravagance, incompetency, and evasion of the law by officials of the civic administration. The commission's disclosures undoubtedly contributed substantially, if not decisively, to the outcome in the

recent mayoralty elections at which the Fitzgerald administration was ousted from office. Mayor John F. Fitzgerald was opposed for reëlection by two candidates, one of whom was supported by the regular republican organization, the other by the Independence League. This division of the forces opposing the mayor's reëlection seemed likely, at one stage, to guarantee his hold on the office; but as the election returns showed, the candidate of the Independence League drew a large vote from the regular democratic ranks, thus ensuring the election of Mr. George A. Hibbard, the republican nominee, by a plurality of slightly over two thousand votes. Mr. Hibbard had the support of most of the substantial business men of the city and his election affords hope that the municipal administration of Boston will be noticeably improved during the ensuing two years.

The Norfolk League of American Municipalities, at its recent convention, singled out the following features as worthy of emphasis in the work of the league for the coming year: (1) the desirability of securing adoption by towns and cities of some system of uniform accounting in order that expenditures may be susceptible of comparison; (2) the need of insisting more rigorously upon the principle of municipal "home rule" and of obtaining for municipalities a larger discretionary power in matters relating to local administration; (3) the advisability of instructing and educating the masses of city voters not in the principles of good citizenship, but in a proper understanding of the powers of municipalities, and the duties of officials thereunder.

President C. W. Eliot of Harvard University has contributed to the October number of The Worlds' Work, an instructive article on city government by commission.

When the general charter law enacted by the legislature of New York State for cities of the "second class" goes into operation on January 1, 1908, there will be seven cities included in this category, namely, Albany, Rochester, Troy, Utica, Schenectady, Syracuse, and Yonkers. Each of these municipalities has a population of more than 50,000 and less than 250,000.

M. Lepine, the efficient prefect of police of Paris, France, has arranged that a certain number of the police of that city shall be taught English, German and Spanish in order that they may the more effectively perform the work of directing strangers about the city. These policemen will be distinguished from their less accomplished comrades by an arm

badge bearing a reproduction of the flag of the country whose language they have mastered. They will be placed on duty at the railway terminals, and in those sections of the city which are most commonly frequented by foreign visitors.

As a result of its investigations the civil service commission of Chicago has decided to establish a "labor bureau" which will have exclusive charge of the civic labor service. Registration of eligible laborers will be conducted according to a geographical classification so that laborers residing in one part of the city will not be certified to work in districts inconvenient to them.

Among the delegates recently elected to the Michigan constitutional convention is Prof. John A. Fairlie of Ann Arbor, professor of administrative law in the University of Michigan, and secretary of the League of Michigan Municipalities. In connection with the work of the convention Professor Fairlie has contributed to a recent number of the Michigan Law Review a timely article, entitled, Some Suggested Changes in the Constitution of Michigan.

In its recent report the public ownership commission of the National Civic Federation expresses the conclusion that no scheme of municipal operation is likely to be highly successful if it does not provide, among other things, for the "exclusion of political influence and personal favoritism from the management of the undertaking." A system of civil service reform is thus given emphasis as a necessary preliminary to satisfactory municipal operation of public utilities.

The Civic League of Albany, N. Y., has established a publication in the interest of municipal reform under the title of The Albany Citizen. A voters' league has been organized in Cincinnati for the purpose of investigating and passing upon the records of all candidates put forward by the party organizations for municipal office. It is established, in general, along the lines followed by the Good Government Association of Boston.

Mayor George W. Guthrie of Pittsburg has appointed the first Pittsburg civil service commission under the new civil service law.

The twenty-seventh annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League was held at Buffalo, N. Y., on November 7, and 8. Hon. Joseph H. Choate was elected president to succeed Dr. Daniel C. Gilman who declined reëlection. A number of the papers dealt with

the question of civil service reform in cities, a phase of the whole question to which the league is now giving a large share of its attention.

Some years ago the National Municipal League published, through the Macmillan Company, a volume entitled A Municipal Program. This book is now out of print and in view of the favorable reception accorded it and its important influence in connection with the framing of charters in several States, the league has arranged for a new and revised edition. The work of revision is in the hands of a committee headed by Mr. Horace E. Deming of New York.

The League of American Municipalities has become sponsor for a compilation of data relating to a large number of American cities which has been published under the title An Authentic Summary of Civic Progress and Achievements. The work includes much interesting information concerning the activities of sixty-seven cities of varying size.

The voters of Toronto, Canada, in November last, approved a proposition to borrow a sum of over three-quarters of a million dollars for an extension of the waterworks system. Out of a registered vote of over 32,000 only 1224 ballots were cast; nevertheless the proposal was declared to have been carried. The situation does not appear to emphasize the success of the practice of holding a referendum on all questions relating to civic borrowing, a requirement imposed upon the cities of Ontario by the provincial legislature.

The general assembly of Missouri in its special session in the spring of 1907 passed an "enabling act" authorizing all cities of the State to regulate by ordinance the charges for gas, telephone, street-railway, and other public services and to establish commissions with power to investigate the books of companies operating such utilities; summon witnesses and recommend rates to the council; the right of the companies to obtain judicial determination as to the reasonableness of the rates fixed by ordinance is secured. St. Joseph is so far the only city which has taken a definite step towards the exercise of the authority conferred by the statute; her council on December 9 passed an ordinance providing for a public utilities commission to be composed of the mayor, the presiIdent of the council, and three members of the council selected by the president of the council.

The movement in Kansas City for the creation of such a commission has so far been unsuccessful because of the failure of the two houses of

the council to concur upon a plan for the constitution of the commission. The measure which is championed by Mayor Beardsley and which has passed the upper house provides for a bi-partisan commission of six members appointed by the mayor subject to confirmation by the upper house. The lower house has refused to ratify this measure and proposes instead a commission of three members, each house to appoint one of its own number upon the commission, the third member to be an outside expert nominated by the mayor and confirmed by both houses.

Several bills to establish a public utilities commission have been introduced in the St. Louis assembly and have been referred to a committee which is directed to recommend a plan for the constitution of such a commission.

The project for the construction in St Louis of a free municipal bridge across the Mississippi river seems now, after nearly a two years' campaign through the newspapers and mass meetings, well on its way to realization. At a special election in June, 1906, a municipal ordinance, providing for the issue of bonds to the amount of $3,500,000 for the purpose of building the bridge, was approved by a popular vote of 51,000 to 6000. In that month, also, the city obtained from congress the franchise to use the Illinois bank of the river for the eastern terminal of the bridge. Then after a year's delay-in the course of which time the supreme court had confirmed the validity of the bond issue-a bill fixing the site of the bridge passed the upper house of the municipal assembly— June, 1907. The bill remained in the lower house five months; several citizens' meetings were held demanding immediate action, and the bill was finally, on November 8, passed by a large majority. Mayor Wells vetoed it on the following grounds: that the location was unsuitable with regard to its availability for steam railway, street car, wagon, and pedestrian traffic; that the plans outlined in the bill would require an expenditure of $5,000,000 instead of $3,000,000, that the annual cost. of maintenance as compared with the probable usefulness would be too great; and that there were serious technical defects in the general design projected in the bill. The bill was immediately repassed over the veto by a practically unanimous vote in both houses. Subsequently an ordinance was passed providing for the sale of $1,000 000 worth of bonds, and authorizing the board of public improvements to secure the consent of the government to the site selected. When this is obtained the comptroller will proceed to the issue and sale of the bridge bonds, and plans for the bridge will be prepared under the super