YORK CONFERENCE GOOD CITY GOVERNMENT AND THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL Held April 25, 26, 27 and 28, 1905 CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, EDITOR NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 1905 PREFACE This volume of Proceedings contains the papers completing the work of the Committee on Nomination Reform and of the Committee on Instruction in Municipal Government in American Educational Institutions. Of the importance of these two lines of inquiry there is no question; the value of the discussions and the conclusions and recommendations is to be determined by the future. Already they have served one of the prime purposes of their institution: they have created a wider and more intelligent interest in the subjects on the part of those who are in a position to introduce improvements. The papers prepared for and by the Committee on Nomination Reform are being separately edited with the expectation that they will be shortly published in a volume similar to "The Municipal Program." Those to be found in this volume are specially noteworthy, in that they summarize and comment upon the results of conspicuous and typical experiments. The report of the Committee on Instruction was prepared by trained educators, who have brought to their task not only the results of their own careful observations, but an enlightened public spirit and a deep-seated desire to promote the objects of their appointment. This report has been referred to a new Committee, authorized and to be appointed, which is to have for its object the coördination of the various efforts now making to furnish civic and municipal instruction in the elementary and secondary schools of the country. This new Committee will bear the same general relation to its predecessor as the Committee on the Coördi nation of University and Collegiate Instruction bears to its predecessor, the Committee on Instruction in Municipal Government in American Colleges and Universities, of which the late President Drown was Chairman, and will discharge the same general functions within its sphere of activity. The work of the Committee on Uniform Municipal Accounting approaches completion. Dr. Hartwell's report is an admirable survey of all that has thus far been done by the League and by all others who have labored long and faithfully in this particular field of endeavor. Not the least gratifying and encouraging feature of the Committee's five years of service has been the active coöperation accorded it by those in authority and the promptness with which its recommendations have been accepted. The review and descriptive papers recount the important municipal events of the year. The general papers touch upon the referendum and recall, franchises, municipal ownership and operation and important problems demanding and fortunately receiving the attention of the American municipal public. President Bonaparte's annual address deals with some of the fundamental principles underlying the League's endeavor. Altogether, the New York Proceedings maintain the standard of the League's publications and furnish a thoughtful discussion of the important phases of the municipal problem. While never attaining more than a limited circulation, the Proceedings reach those who read and digest and apply. Thus they have an influence more extended and potent than many more widely circulated books. |