On Saturday, October 8th, the fall meeting, for athletic sports, of the Young America Cricket Club was held at Stenton. Among the participants in the various contests were representatives of the University of Pennsylvania and of Harvard, Princeton and Lafayette Colleges. The University men bore off three of the prizes, R. E. Faries taking first place in both the one mile run and the half-mile run, and the University completely out-pulling the team from the Baltimore Athletic Club in the " tug of war." Mr. Faries made the excellent time of five minutes and seven seconds in the mile, and two minutes eleven and a half seconds in the halfmile run.

The victory of the University men in the "tug of war" was due to the skilful manner in which they pulled the rope, and to their unanimity of action, their opponents throwing away the very decided advantage that they seemed to possess from their greater weight and apparently greater muscular development, by pulling to a marked degree independently of one another. Much interest was manifested in this tug; every fraction of an inch of rope gained by the University was greeted by cheers from the Undergraduates present, and after the ten minutes' pull was over the victors were carried off the field in triumph upon the shoulders of their friends.

The games were witnessed by more than a thousand spectators, and were throughout as interesting and successful as such events always are upon the beautiful grounds and under the careful management at Stenton.

A

BRIEF MENTION.

T the Newport conference of delegates from the Civil Service Reform Associations of the country, which was held on the 11th of last August, the following resolutions (among others,) were unanimously adopted:

I. "Resolved, That the bill introduced in the Senate by Mr. Pendleton of Ohio provides a Constitutional, practicable and effective measure for the remedy of the abuse known as the spoils system,' and that the Associations represented in this conference will use every honorable means, in the press, on the platform, and by petition, to secure its passage by Congress."

V. "Resolved, That the bill introduced in the House of Representatives of the United States, by Mr. Willis of Kentucky, at the last session of Congress, provides practicable and judicious measures for the remedy of the abuse known as political assessments, and that the Associations represented in this conference will use every honorable means, in the press, on the platform, and by petition, to secure its passage by Congress."

As these two bills are not in general circulation, an abstract of their provisions is herewith appended for the purpose of giving a more accurate knowledge to the public of what the reformers of the civil service aim to accomplish.

The preamble to the Pendleton Bill is given in full :

"Whereas, common justice requires that, so far as practicable, all citizens duly qualified shall be allowed equal opportunities, on grounds of personal fitness, for securing appointment, employment and promotion in the subordinate civil service of the United States; and, whereas, justice to the public likewise requires that the Government shall have the largest choice among those likely to answer the requirements of the public service; and, whereas, justice, as well as economy, efficiency and integrity, in the public service will be promoted by substituting open and uniform competitive examinations for the examinations heretofore held in pursuance of the Statutes of 1853 and 1855; therefore," etc.

The provisions of the bill are as follows:

The President is to appoint five persons, not more than three of whom shall be adherents of the same party, as Civil Service Commissioners, and they shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission.

The President may remove any Commissioner for good cause, after allowing him opportunity to make an explanation in answer

to any charges preferred against him; but no removal can be made by reason of opinions or party affiliations; and vacancies are to be filled so as to conform to the original conditions of appointment. The compensation of said Commissioners is provided for.

The duty of said Commission is to

1. Submit rules and suggest appropriate action to the President for making the Act effective.

2. These rules shall provide:

(a.) For open competitive examinations;

(b.) That all offices, etc., to be arranged in certain classes, shall be filled by selections from those graded highest as the results of such examinations;

(c.) That original entrance to the public service aforesaid shall be at the lowest grade;

(d.) That there shall be a period of probation before absolute appointment to such offices;

(e.) That promotions shall be from the lower grades to the higher, on the basis of merit and competition;

(f.) That no person in the public service shall be compelled to contribute to any political fund or to render any political

service, and that he shall not be removed or otherwise prejudiced by refusing to do so;

(g.) That no person in said service has right to use official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body;

(.) That there shall be non-competitive examinations in all proper cases before the Commission when competition may not be found practicable;

(i.) That notice shall be given in writing to said Commission of the persons selected for appointment or employment from among those who have been examined, of the rejection of any such person after probation, and of the date thereof, and a record of the same shall be kept by said Commission;

(.) Any necessary exception from said fundamental provisions of the rules shall be set forth in connection with said rules, and the reasons therefor shall be stated in the annual report of the Commission.

Then follow provisions by which the Commission shall have control of such examinations; shall make an annual report to the President; may employ a chief examiner for the purpose of securing accuracy, uniformity and justice in the proceedings; may secure the carrying out of the details incident to the examinations; and shall be assured of suitable accommodations for conducting the

same.

Further enactments guard against unfairness or corruption in conducting the examinations or reporting thereon, and impose penalties for such unfairness or corruption; specifying, also, various details of arranging various classes of persons employed in the civil service.

Section 7 is as follows.

After the expiration of four months from the passage of this Act, no officer or clerk shall be appointed, and no person shall be employed, to enter or be promoted in either of the said classes now existing or that may be arranged hereunder pursuant to said rules, until he has passed an examination or is shown to be specially exempted from such examination in conformity therewith.

But nothing herein contained shall be construed to take from those honorably discharged from the military and naval service any preference conferred by the seventeen hundred and fifty-fourth section of the Revised Statutes, nor to take from the President any authority not inconsistent with this Act conferred by the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of such Statutes; nor shall any officer not in the executive branch of the Government, nor any person merely employed as a laborer or workman, be required to be classified hereunder; nor, unless by the direction of the Senate, shall any person who has been nominated for confirmation by the Senate be required to be classified or to pass an examination."

Such is the substance of the Pendleton Bill; and it may be added that it is intended that the examinations provided for by it shall be entirely practical, and have a bearing upon nothing else than ascertaining whether the applicant for office knows enough to enable him to perform its duties satisfactorily. The probation, after successfully passing the examination, is intended to find out whether the applicant has business capacity to bring his knowledge to bear practical fruit.

The preamble to the Willis Bill "to prevent extortion from persons in the public service, and bribery and coercion by such persons," states the object of the bill as follows:

Whereas, Persons in the public service of the United States should be as free as other citizens to make or refuse to make contributions for political purposes, but are now, through fear of removal or other prejudice, subjected to heavy taxation under the name of political assessments; and, whereas, no person in the public service has any right to use his official authority or influence in restraint of the free political action of any citizen, but such authority and influence are often so used for partisan and private

ends; and, whereas, the evils of bribery follow the payment of money to secure continuance and promotion in office, as well as the payment of money to secure appointments to office; therefore, be it enacted," etc.

The evils to be abated are above set forth. The enactments of the bill are simply to abate them in the most thorough and practical way, and it is not necessary to specify them here, except to quote Section 7, which is a definition, as follows:

"The phrase political assessment,' as used herein, shall be deemed to include every form of request, payment, loan, advance or other contributions, or promise of money, or any other thing of value for or in aid of any party or political purpose whatever, whether the same be conditional or absolute, whether based on any salary or compensation, or otherwise, and whether the application to such purpose is to be direct or through any method of indirection or disguise."

If these two bills pass, a great stride towards good government will have been made. And why should they not pass? They are based upon justice, equity, and practical business considerations of what is to the interest both of the Government and the people at large. They enlarge the liberty and elevate the sense of manhood of American citizens. They may not give us a perfect civil service, but they will assuredly give us a better civil service than we now have, and will destroy, as nothing else can, the tyranny of the "boss" system of government, which has degraded political life into a base scramble for spoils, with all deplorable results which follow from such an un-American theory of govern

ment.

There was no plank in the last Democratic National Platform which demanded Civil Service Reform; but the promoters of the above cited bills are trusted leaders of the Democratic party. The Republican party did unequivocally commit itself to Civil Service Reform in the following resolution, which was added to the platform of the last Republican National Convention, which placed James A. Garfield in nomination for the office of President, viz. : The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last National Convention, of respect for the Constitutional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform in the civil service shall be thorough, radical and complete. To that end it demands the cooperation of the legislative with the executive departments of the Government, and that Congress shall so legislate, that fitness,