sessed of ordinary strength and courage. The Board is required from time to time to hold examinations for determining the qualifications and fitness of all applicants for appointment to positions on the force, such examinations to be held in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the Board. The law provides for an eligible list and for promotion from lower to higher grades. The first employment of policemen and police officers is for a probationary term, during which time the Board may in its discretion discharge a man. Following the probationary term, policemen and police officers may be appointed for an additional term of three years. Thereafter, they are subject to removal only for cause upon complaint made and after a hearing by the Board, at which they are entitled to be present and represented by counsel. The Board may, however, at any time discharge policemen or officers when, in the opinion of the Board, the police force is larger than the interests of the public demand, or when in its opinion there are insufficient funds to pay the expenses of maintaining the force as organized. This provision has afforded a convenient method of evading the Civil Service regulations. The Chief of Police may suspend policemen or police officers (except the Secretary of the Board and police surgeon) against whom charges have been made, until a trial can be had before the Board. Members of the force who have performed faithful service are preferred in making new appointments. Officers who have been crippled or grown old in the service may be assigned by the Board to special duty, or other proper provision be made for them. The statute also makes provision for a police relief association and authorizes the Board to make rules providing for the relief and compensation of members of the police force injured in the discharge of their duty, and for the families of officers or men killed in the discharge of such duty.

A number of the foregoing Civil Service provisions have not been enforced by the Commissioners. No examinations, other than physical, are held, and there is no eligible list from which appointments are made.

The political influence of the Police Commissioners can be understood when it is known that they not only have the exclusive power to appoint, promote and remove members of the force, but are also vested with the authority to license saloons, and revoke such licenses. They are thus able not only to control the vote of the police and saloon, but they are also in a position to call upon the brewers, wholesale liquor dealers and public service corporations for liberal contributions to campaign funds.

There are 305 men in the employ of the police department, including officers, detectives and the Secretary of the Board of Police Commissioners. There are 205 patrolmen, being a little less than one to each 1000 of the population. As only one-half of the force is on duty at one time, the average area under the supervision of each patrolman is about 160 acres. The total cost of the department last year was $310,000, or about $1.45 per capita of the population. The Police Commissioners are asking this year for $366,000.

Changes and improvements in the service are being proposed by the Board of Police Commissioners, and also by different civic organizations. The Board has announced that 30 new patrolmen will be added to the force at once. A police signal system has been purchased during the past year at a cost of $77,000; $5000 will be expended this year in improving this system Other improvements

proposed include one new station house, an emergency hospital, and other equipment. On the part of the civic and commercial organizations, there is a strong sentiment in favor of securing a change in the law so that the Commissioners now appointed by the Governor may be chosen by the city itself. It is also proposed that the power to license dramshops be taken out of the hands of the Police Board. An attempt to secure legislation along these lines will be attempted at the next meeting of the Legislature.

At the next general election, the people will vote upon a proposed amendment to the Constitution authorizing the Legislature to provide by law for the pensioning of members of the police department who may become disabled or superannuated and for the relief of the widows and minor children of deceased members of the force.

Grand Rapids.-Police Administration. The police department is joined with the fire department under the control of a Board of Police and Fire Commissioners, which consists of five citizens appointed by the Mayor without confirmation by the Council. The appointments are for five years, one member retiring each year. The Mayor is not a member of the Board and has no authority to remove the Commissioners during their term of office. As the Mayor is elected for two years, he has to be elected a second time before he can change the majority membership of the Board. The charter, while giving the Mayor the usual authority to enforce all laws and ordinances, hands over to the Board the direct supervision of the police force, and the Mayor would have to exert an unusual amount of backbone to dominate the police administration, if the Board was unfriendly to his policy.

At the present time there is little or no complaint of political interference with the police department. The Board has absolute authority to appoint and remove police officers, but in practice appointments have generally been made for merit. The average length of service of active members now on the force has been about nine years. The Superintendent of Police is, according to the custom here, a civilian. The present Superintendent has been in office for eleven years. There is no State control of the police force in any form.

The total area of the city is 17.5 square miles and the number of patrolmen is 73. Some parts of the city are not covered by the regular beats. The Common Council has appropriated funds this year for ten additional patrolmen, as some of the outlying districts have been badly in need of better protection of late. The annual expense of the department is about $85,000, or approximately 90 cents per capita of the population. The service is generally good. The principal complaint here, as in most places, is in regard to the attitude of the police towards the saloons, gambling and vice. The enforcement of the law along these lines is not stringent, and is somewhat spasmodic. It all depends on the attitude of the Police Commissioners and the Mayor. There is no reason to believe that any extensive corruption exists in the force, but it is known that the "sporting" elements have, or try to have, one or more representatives on the Board to take care of their interests. The Board, as now constituted, has a majority of highclass citizens. Though there is some complaint about the division of respon

Communication of Delos F. Wilcox, Esq., Secretary Civic Club, Grand Rapids, Mich.

sibility in the department, there is no expectation of any radical changes in organization in the near future.

Seattle.-Police Administration, 10 The City Charter of Seattle places the power to appoint and remove the Chief of Police in the hands of the Mayor subject to the provision that such appointee shall pass a Civil Service examination. The Civil Service Commission is composed of three members not more than two of whom shall belong to the same political party. The members of this Board hold office for three years, one being appointed each year by the Mayor, who has the discretionary power to remove them; but in case of the removal of a Civil Service Commissioner by the Mayor the vacancy is filled by the City Council.

All subordinate police officers are appointed by the Chief of Police under civil service rules. The police system is entirely under municipal control, although there seems to be nothing in the State Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court to prevent the Legislature from making provision by general legislation for effective State supervision of the police service in cities of the first class.

The City Charter of Seattle provides that the police force shall not exceed one officer to each one thousand of population. On this basis Seattle would now be entitled to a police force of at least 130 men. At the present time, however, the city has only 74 patrolmen. These are supposed to furnish police protection throughout the 28.3 square miles of territory included within the limits of the city. Practically, however, police supervision is limited to the business district. The expense of the police department for the year 1903 was $101,001.04. There is doubtless some ground for the charges of corruption and inefficiency; but, considering the small size of the police force and the difficulties that must be contended with in a city such as Seattle, the system may be regarded as fairly efficient. The police here are not an active factor in municipal politics.

Duluth, Minn.-Police Administration. The control and supervision of the police department of the city of Duluth is vested in the Mayor of the city. The executive head of the department is the Chief of Police. All officials of the department are appointed by the Mayor and are subject to removal at his pleasure, the Chief of Police absolutely, the other members in compliance with the civil service rules of the city. The entire force, except the Chief, is by charter provision under the classified Civil Service of the city. All appointments are made from a list of eligibles furnished by the Board of Civil Service Commissioners; and, in case of removals, the Mayor is required, within twenty-four hours thereafter, to file in his office, open to public inspection, a statement of the cause. No control is exercised by the State authorities over the municipal police.

In Duluth all interference by the police in politics, except as the members thereof "may quietly exercise the right of suffrage as other citizens," is expressly forbidden by regulation. The question of the discipline or efficiency of the force may be and has at times in the past been an issue in Mayoralty elections in so far as the appointment of a chief may influence such conditions; but the pernicious personal activity of the individual member is now a practically

10Communication of Prof. J. Allen Smith, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 11Communication of W. G. Joerns, Esq., Duluth, Minn.

unknown quantity. The general personnel, since the adoption of the new "home rule" charter in 1900, is under the protection as well as restriction of Civil Service regulations, and we have here recently witnessed a partisan change in the Mayoralty with the somewhat unique accompaniment of the undisturbed continuance in office of a faithful and efficient Chief, who is presumably of adverse political persuasion to the new administration.

The total appropriation for police purposes for 1904 was $55,602.28, and this must remain the extent of the expenditure of the department, under charter provision, until the next annual tax levy and appropriation.

The city limits of Duluth encompass 69 square miles of territory and the different sections of the city lie widely scattered over this large area. The city has approximately 70,000 inhabitants, is one of the busiest of lake ports and the center of an important lumbering and mining district. Under the appropriation stated, the department is able to maintain an effective force (including Chief and office and station men) of 57 and no more. This number, it has been urgently represented by the Chief, is insufficient properly to cover a territory so widely scattered and peculiarly subject to conditions demanding careful police surveillance, and he has asked the Budget Committee for provision in next year's levy for 12 additional men. Notwithstanding the apparent handicap,the service has been exceptionally efficient and satisfactory.

There is at the present time no special movement for change or improvement in the service. Within the last three or four years, however, under competent direction, the force has made admirable progress in appearance and discipline. Drills for efficiency, revolver and rifle practice, etc., have been inaugurated and are regularly and rigidly kept up. More latterly the Bertillon system of measurement has been formally adopted and a so-called, thoroughly systematized "rogues gallery" established. The department is also in close touch with the National Bureau of Detection at Washington; and, in the detection and prevention of crime and arrest of criminals, has not only done most effective work on its own acccunt, but has also been of substantial assistance to similar departments in other sections.

II. DEPARTMENT OF PHILANTHROPY, CHARITIES AND

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Report of the British Inter-Department Committee of Physical Deterioration— This Committee was appointed by the Duke of Devonshire, Lord President of the Council, in September, 1903, to make a preliminary inquiry into the allegations concerning the deterioration of certain classes of the population as shown by the large percentage of rejections for physical causes of recruits for the Army. The Terms of Revenue were subsequently enlarged, to determine the steps that should be taken to furnish the Government with periodical data for an accurate comparative estimate of the health and physique of the people; to indicate the causes of physical deterioration in certain classes and to point out the means by which it can be most effectually diminished. The Committee was composed of eight experts, connected with various departments of the government and has performed its duty with the usual British thoroughness and care. At the outset of the enquiry, the Director-General of the Army Medical Staff said that the question was not that there was evidence of progressive physical deterioration of the race, but the fact that from 40 to 60 per cent. of the men who present themselves for enlistment are found to be physically unfit for military service. To this Professor Cunningham of the British Association for the Advancement of Science rejoins that the evidence which is obtained for recruiting statistics is unreliable, "because the class from which the recruits are derived varies from time to time with the conditions of the labor market. When trade is good and employment is plentiful it is only from the lowest stratum of the people that the Army receives its supply of men; when, on the other hand, trade is bad, a better class of recruit is available. Consequently the records of the recruiting department of the Army do not deal with a homogeneous sample of the people taken from one distinct class."

The Army witnesses admitted that the real lesson of the recruiting figures was the failure of the Army to attract a good type of recruit. Most of the men who want to enlist are street loafers-what Charles Booth calls "hereditary casuals;" who hate regular work and crave excitement. The Committee says that this also tends to explain the drain from desertion among those who find themselves disappointed in the hopes of an easy existence. “A close comparison between Admiralty and War Office statistics is hardly possible, as in the first place Naval regulations for medical examinations are more stringent, especially as regards eyesight and teeth, while on the other hand the great bulk of recruits for the Naval Service are probably drawn from a higher social level."

The British Association for the Advancement of Science appointed a committee at its last Congress to organize Anthropometric Investigation, in which connection Professor Cunningham says:

"In spite of the marked variations which are seen in the physique of the different classes of the people of Great Britain, anthropologists believe, with good reason, that there is a mean physical standard, which is the inheritance of the people as a whole and that no matter how far certain sections of the people