promptly ordered. Whatever they may show, the reason for the bomb explosion is apparent already. It is the inefficiency and corruption of the jail guards.

But stating that truth gets us nowhere. Why are the jail guards inefficient and corrupt? The answer to that is equally clear. Because they are appointed through political pull, on the say-so of some precinct captain or ward leader, and not on the basis of any special qualifications for the job.

They know that with any change of administration out they will go, and naturally enough they try to get what they can while the getting is good. Lately it has been very good. Since the escape of Tommy O'Connor, the jail administration has moved from one scandal to another.

Nobody has forgotten the Druggan-Lake case. The sheriff is just out of jail as a result of that job, and the head jailer is still in jail. But more recent examples are more striking still. The present jailer admits that liquor is freely supplied to prisoners, and that he can't stop it. One guard in charge of a noted prisoner appeared in court the other day so drunk he offered to assault the judge on the bench.

In fact, when the explosion took place on Sunday, the first theory was that one of the prisoner's stills had been blown up. Fancy that as an explanation and see to what depths the routine jail administration has sunk.

In this matter we are not inclined to the familiar explanation of "the higher-ups." We believe that both the sheriff and the jailer would stop this sort of thing if they could. Apparently they can't, but the county can. The remedy is It is to put the jail guards

open. on civil service; to give them the pledge of permanent jobs for efficient service, and accompany the pledge with a wage that will enable the guards to live without graft.

The situation at present is both vicious and ludicrous. Prisoners out on joy-rides; prisoners drunk in their cells; drunken murderers escorted to court by drunken guards; killers provided with nitroglycerin, paraffin, and all other materials for making bombs and blowing up the jail.

Are we going to let this go on? It will go on unless the plain remedy of civil service is adopted. Cook County is being "taken for a ride." If things must be worse before they become better, why not provide each cell inmate with a sawed-off shotgun, and make jail riots unanimous? If things are bad enough now to demand change, why not put the jail under civil service, and make the job of jail guard decent?

Detroit

The council of the city of Detroit has before it certain recommendations which have been submitted by the Governmental Com

mittee of the Detroit Board of Commerce which would create a new civil service chapter of the Detroit city charter providing for a single Civil Service Commissioner selected through competitive examination. The present charter provides for a Civil Service Commission of five members. There has been dissatisfaction on the part of those interested in the administration of the merit system in Detroit in the result attained. Mr. Harrington Place, a member of the staff of the Detroit Bureau of Government Research, spent considerable time in the investigation of the Detroit civil service system and it was largely through his activities that the present action of the Governmental Committee of the Board of Commerce was secured. Various other organizations are also behind the proposed changes and it seems probable that some changes will be made..

The most important feature of the changes recommended is the abolition of the five-membered Commission and the substitution of a single Commissioner, to be selected by a special examining committee. The Committee is to be made up of one member selected by the U. S. Civil Service Commission, one member selected by the mayor of the city, and a third member to be selected by the other two. It is the intention of those chiefly interested in the change that would thus be brought about to provide for the appointment of a person as Civil Service Commissioner who

would have a national reputation as an expert in employment problems. A salary commensurate with the duties involved would have to It is argued that be provided. under the existing situation, with five Commissioners paid nominal salaries, the sum of $8,000 is appropriated annually for salaries and that this sum could be made available to secure one man of outstanding qualifications.

Cincinnati

When the city of Cincinnati in 1924 adopted the council-city manager form of government, the charter provisions which brought about the change did not affect in any way the then existing provisions for a municipal civil service system. The Municipal Civil Service Commission of Cincinnati has operated for the past fourteen years under the provisions of the Ohio state civil service law. The members of the Municipal Commission have served for overlapping terms of six years each. Under the administration of the various mayors who have been elected since the defeat of Mayor Henry T. Hunt in 1912, the administration of the civil service law in the city of Cincinnati has been the subject of constant criticism. This condition seems to have been due to a variety of reasons. The salary schedules provided for the employes have been low and other city conditions not such as to attract the best type of employe. The Civil Service Commissioners had permitted the competi

tive principle to fall into a deplorable state of quiescence.

Under the terms of the city manager charter it was decided that City Manager C. O. Sherrill had the power of appointment of the Civil Service Commissioners. Colonel Sherrill, who had served as Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds in the District of Columbia for a number of years, and who had had long experience as an army officer, indicated a keen desire to improve the conditions of administration in the offices of the Civil Service Commission. On January 1, 1926, upon the expiration of the term of one of the members of the Commission, Colonel Sherrill appointed to the vacancy Mr. Richard Crane, the local representative of R. G. Dun and Company. The other two mem.bers of the commission who were both active adherents of the old Republican political machine, resigned. Colonel Sherrill has appointed Mr. Cecil H. Gamble to one of the vacancies and the other has not yet been filled.

An interesting proposal for an amendment to the city charter, so far as the provisions for the Cincinnati Civil Service Commission

are concerned, is to be voted on by the people of the city in November, 1926. It would change the method of selection of the three members of the Civil Service Commission by providing that one shall be selected by the Board of Education, one by the Mayor, and one member by Directors of the University of Cincinnati. The operation of the civil service system, however, which is

to be in accordance with the provisions of the Ohio state civil service law, is left in the hands of a high paid secretary of the Commission, who is subject to appointment through competitive examination by the City Manager. He is to be known as the personnel officer of the city and paid a salary which will attract a man skilled in employment management. The three members of the Commission are to have only the so-called judicial and legislative functions which such bodies generally exercise. They will make rules and regulations for the guidance of the Secretary and Chief Examiner and hear appeals of employes in cases of removal. The question of compensation of members of the Commission is not fixed in the charter provision.

The 17th Annual Meeting of the Assembly of Civil

Service Commissions

The Assembly of Civil Service Commissions met in its annual convention at Philadelphia during the week of September 13.

The outstanding figure in the Assembly's meetings was Sir Stanley Leathes, the First Commis

sioner* of the Civil Service Commission of Great Britain.

*The British Commission is composed of the First Commissioner, who has absolute authority in all administrative matters, and two Associate Commissioners. The two Associate Commissioners are in charge of certain activities of the Commission as a whole, but their function is purely advisory with the First Commissioner.

At other sessions of the Assembly's meeting addresses were made by Mayor Kendrick of Philadelphia, Charles P. Messick, Chief Examiner and Secretary of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, Fred Telford, Director of the Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, Oliver C. Short, Employment Commissioner of the State of Maryland and President of the Assembly, and various officials of the city government of Philadelphia.

At a meeting of the Assembly held jointly with the Pennsylvania Civil Service Association addresses were made by Dr. Ellery C. Stowell, of Washington, D. C., and Colonel C. O. Sherrill, City Manager of Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Merit System in Gov

ernment

A book of 170 pages describing the results of the efforts of the socalled Conference Committee on the Merit System, composed of representatives of the National Municipal League, the Governmental Re

search Conference, the National Assembly of Civil Service Commissions, and the Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, has been published by the National Municipal League under the title "The Merit System in Government."

Although the persons composing the Conference Committee cannot be said to represent officially the views of the respective organizations with which they are directly affiliated, this report does contain representative views upon questions of principle and method of administration involved in the merit system and will prove of great value to all persons in the country who are interested in the subject. Although the contents of the book came out in preliminary form in the January, 1926, issue of Public Personnel Studies, published by the Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, Washington, D. C., the value of material in book form will be recognized. Besides the long discussion of the various phases of the personnel problem in government, the book contains appendices of statistical tables, an outline of suggested functions of the public personnel agency, and a draft of an act to create a public employment commission.

Copies of the book may be had by application to the National Municipal League, 261 Broadway, New York City, or to the National Civil Service Reform League, 8 West 40th Street, New York City. They are $1.50 each postpaid.