Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/95

 Rh commissioners to classify all the offices and employments in the city with reference to the examinations provided for in the bill, excepting officers elected by the people, or those whose appointment is subject to confirmation by the city council; excepting, also, judges and clerks of election, members of the board of education, the superintendent and the teachers of schools, the heads of the principal city departments, the members of the law department, and one private secretary of the mayor. Competitive examinations, practical in character, and fairly testing the relative capacity of applicants for the discharge of the duties of the position sought, are made compulsory, with the provision that no question shall relate to religious or political opinions. Promotion must also be made upon competitive examinations.

The character of the other legislation proposed by the municipal committee is indicated by the following titles: (1) a primary election law, (2) a corrupt practices act, (3) a revenue law, (4) a city charter, (5) a bill regulating special assessments.

Reference will be made later under another head to investigations carried on by sub-sections of the municipal committee; and we may here refer in addition only to the following forms of action which the committee conducted. In the case of the three so-called "boodle ordinances," known as the Ogden Gas Ordinance, the Cosmopolitan Electric Ordinance, and the Light, Heat and Power Ordinance, the committee retained one of the ablest attorneys in the city, and as the result of its presentation of the case, the ordinances were declared not only voidable, but void, because of irregularities in their passage. A committee was appointed to wait upon Mayor Swift and ask him to revoke the license issued by the preceding administration to each of the companies claiming a franchise under these ordinances. The order revoking the licenses was at once issued. In addition to this the committee procured the suspension by the recently elected city council of a large number of contracts for sewer building and other improvements, which had been awarded without due process