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THE SECRETARY: I desire to state that I have cast the unanimous ballot for the persons named: (Reading the list of nominees as previously submitted in the report of the Committee on Nominations.)

PRES. BONAPARTE: I declare the several officers for whose election the Secretary has cast one ballot for the Board of Delegates unanimously elected to serve for their respective terms.

The next business in order on the program is an address on "Immigration and the Municipal Problem," by Miss Grace Abbott, Chicago, Director of the League for the Protection of the Immigrant.

For Miss Grace Abbott's paper on "Immigration and the Municipal Problem" see the Appendix.

MR. HARVEY N. SHEPARD, Boston, Mass.: I rise for the purpose of saying a word. I want to express my personal gratitude. It is one of the most truthful and fearless papers to which I have ever listened. It is an inspiration [Applause] to everyone to press forward in the work for good government. I think it will do a world of good. I hope it will have the very widest circulation. [Applause.]

MR. JOSEPH MCC. BELL, Milwaukee, Wis.: With respect to some of the last remarks that Miss Abbott made, many of us in Milwaukee have regretted time and time again that the socialists seem to have a monopoly of that whole Italian work and work amongst that class of people. It does seem a pity that the attitude of the government and the other parties has not been made more plain to those people so that they might understand the true situation better.

MR. A. C. PLEYDELL, New York, N. Y.: It is not only the cities that have that trouble. In New Jersey a large settlement of Italians in a small country township until lately have been the prey of the political leaders, who are just as corrupt as in the city. A gentleman whom I know who is, I believe, of a different political faith, moved out there some years ago and began to take an interest in the local life of the community. He started to clean up the school board, and get decent school houses. There were sixty or seventy Italian children at that little village school. The village has a population of only a few hundred. This man got subscriptions from those poor people, a little help from the outside, and contributed something himself. For two or three years they have had neighborhood meetings without regard to party, which these foreigners attended. One of the finest and most inspiring sights I have ever seen was at the school festival held at that little hall largely filled by these foreigners. Two children, aged nine and ten years did the best of any there, and they were daughters of an Italian laborer who with his wife could only speak very broken English. He dug out the cellar

of that building as his contribution, and he was sending his children to the school and bringing them up under our institutions. These foreigners under the leadership of this one man have formed a good government organization that has spread to neighboring townships. You may have heard something of it. He uses for its motto, "Put the circles on the square," the square being the township, and the circles being little group organizations. They have broken up the political ring in that township to-day by independent voting and nominations. There is not one man in office locally located in that township to-day who is under the thumb of either of the two old parties. As a result of this work in that township the movement has spread into another township which has been more corrupt although inhabited almost altogether by native Americans. At the last election the people in that other township took an inspiration from the work that had been done by the foreign Italian population, and cleaned up their township.

I thank Miss Abbott for telling us the way to do this work. There is just as much democracy in those people as we have, and we do not want to lose sight of the fact that they are human beings just like everybody else. I am the son of an immigrant from another part of Europe. The immigrants from the southern part have just as much ambition as the immigrants from the northern part. What we want is not less democracy but more democracy, as Miss Abbott said.

MR. I. M. WISE, Cincinnati, O..I wish to thank Miss Abbott for her inspiring address which brought out a great fact in regard to the foreigners, emphasizing their independence. We have had Independence of a very fine example of this during the last few years Foreigners in Cincinnati. In this city we had an independent movement started for the purpose of electing a prosecutor, and we found after investigating the returns of the election that the victory was due almost entirely to the foreign vote. But we had another example some years ago when there was a movement to sell the Cincinnati Southern Railway. This measure was defeated by a small majority due entirely to the German citizens who usually show more independence than do the native citizens. I think that Miss Abbott brought this fact out, which is a very important one in the movement for civic righteousness in this country, and having done this, if she had done nothing else, her paper is of great value to us.

PRES. BONAPARTE: If no further discussion on this is desired, we will pass to the next paper on the program, which is on "The Police Problem in Cities;" it will be presented by Prof. Augustus Raymond Hatton, of Cleveland, Professor of Political Science in the Western Reserve University.

PROF. HATTON: I regret that we cannot spend the remainder of a long session in the discussion of the principles advocated by Miss Abbott. I have never heard a paper that seemed to go so nearly to the root of the question in civics as Miss Abbott's discussion has gone. I did not rise to speak when the discussion was called for on Miss Abbott's paper, because I knew I was coming forward soon anyhow. It has been perfectly clear to me in my experience in a number of cities in the United States that the traditional attitude of the usual reform organization toward the foreign element of our population has been a wrong one. The traditional attitude has been that of "America for Americans,” as Miss Abbott has explained, upon the principle that Americans should decide our policies and should hand them down to the people below to be accepted. We have until recently always begun this work for the reform of our city governments at the wrong end. We have tried to work from the top down instead of from the bottom up. One of the most hopeful signs that I have been able to observe in the movement for municipal reform in the United States has been the more recent tendency to come at the problem from the opposite direction.

Prof. Hatton then proceeded with his manuscript. For his paper on "The Police Problem in Cities" see the Appendix.

PRES. BONAPARTE: Ladies and Gentlemen: Before inviting any discussion of this subject I will ask you to listen to another paper, which has been prepared on "Appointments to and Promotions in the Police Force," by Mr. Arthur H. Woods, of New York. Mr. Woods is unable to be present, but the Secretary will read his paper.

THE SECRETARY: This paper was prepared by Mr. Woods, one of Gen. Bingham's assistant commissioners. He is unable to be present on account of having been called to Mexico.

For Mr. Woods' paper on "Appointments to and Promotions in the Police Force" see Appendix.

PRES. BONAPARTE: We have heard two papers now on various phases of this very interesting subject. Our time does not permit of a very exhaustive discussion, but the Chair will be happy to recognize any one who wishes to speak briefly to the point.

MR. RICHARD HENRY DANA, Cambridge, Mass.: It is important that everybody here understands clearly the distinction in that paper between the civil service system as applied to original appointments, and to promotions, because once or twice in the course of the paper the references were made to the civil service system which were intended to apply only to promotions, and might if some of the audience were not careful be

Police and the
Merit System

understood by them as applying to original appointments. I think, however, that the writer makes it clear enough.

MR. PLEYDELL: I take it we here assembled recognize that Mr. Woods has offered no remedy, only a suggestion to be thought over. Prof. Hatton said in his paper, or preceding his paper, that we have been building from the top downward in a great deal of our reform work and that we should begin to build from the bottom up. I think a great deal of our trouble comes from our treating the police force as a military organization, which it is not. Policemen are citizens first, and policemen second. They do not part with their rights as citizens in the same way that the enlisted soldiers do. I suggest that we apply to the police force the same principles of organization so far as they are possible of application as we do with a militia company. The men in an enlisted militia company choose their officers, and these officers choose the men above them. I do not say that the police should elect their officers, but I do think that the commissioner would receive a great many valuable suggestions if he could learn direct from the men as to who were fitted for promotion, and if there were not so many officials in between him and the men. The men on the force know each other. Unless you think that the men would try to build up a machine, I think that you will recognize that there is the same feeling that would exist among lawyers, even a shyster lawyer prefers to try his case before an honest judge; and even a dishonest policeman, unless he can be very well convinced that the dishonest man he suggested would be governed by principles of evenhanded justice would prefer an honest superior to a dishonest one.

MR. ELLIOT H. GOODWIN, of New York, Secretary of the National Civil Service Reform League: Those of us who come from New York know the splendid work that Mr. Arthur Woods did, particularly in reorganizing the detective bureau. I have listened very closely to this paper, in the hope that he would offer some suggestions for improving the promotion system. After condemning the system of competition, he speaks only of the system of unlimited power of promotion in the commissioner, and says that under present conditions that will not work. I regard Mr. Woods' paper as a very strong endorsement of the competitive system as applied to promotion; when you come to think of it, and go back to conditions which prevailed before Mr. Woods came to New York, and his present endorsement of the examination part of it, it is a great step in advance.

In 1901, I was engaged in the investigation of the promotion of a captain in the police department of New York, under a so-called civil service system, which in fact left the entire power to the commissioners. We had a police board at that time composed half of democrats and half of republicans, and we found that the captains were selected in advance, and

that the democratic commissioner was allowed to have twice as many appointments as the republican commissioner, and that the scheme was so cleverly worked that they were able to pick their own men right down the list. Evidence that the same custom as to appointments existed was brought out in the previous Lexow investigation, and that the places were sold, and that a captaincy sold for $15,000.

When we come to a stage where, by Mr. Woods' own testimony, we have been able to eliminate favoritism in the selection of officers, we have certainly made a great step in advance. Mr. Woods calls your attention to the promotion system, and gives great credit to the examination as far as it goes, so I will not speak of that; but there are two other elements, the record and seniority or length of service. I agree with just what he said in regard to those two points. The record is absolutely insufficient. Seniority is never a test which should be applied in the matter of persons you promote. The difficulty there is that it is in our law, and to meet it the weight given to seniority is so small that it will scarcely count for anything unless other qualifications are practically even.

The record is the fault of the police department. We have the record of extra meritorious conduct which is practically confined to the saving of life and personal risk. On the other side we have records of trials, fines and suspensions. Now the civil service commissions can well take account of any permanent proper record of service that the commissioner of the department will keep, and that it seems to me is the line along which we should seek the remedy. It is perfectly possible to keep such a record, particularly in the disciplined uniformed force, and some attempt along that line is being made.

MR. WEIL: The suggestions made by Prof. Hatton with reference to the organization of the state force as distinguished from the force of the city lead me to say that we have also in the State of Pennsylvania what is known as county detectives, as distinguished from the detective force employed by the cities. The county detectives are under the direction of the district attorneys of the respective counties, and it is their province particularly to enforce the state law.

In the cities where we have both county detectives and the city police, we have found that there is a great jealousy and conflict frequently between the two, in consequence of which the police force, or those in charge of the police force, insist that the county detectives are not performing their office, in suppressing certain violations of the law; and the county detectives insist that the police force are neglecting their duties in not suppressing certain violations of the law which come under the city ordinances, thus trying to bring one another into contempt with the citizens of the community.

The suggestion, however, made by Prof. Hatton that the police force in some way should come under the direction of the governor because

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