Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/106

 78 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS sembled at The Hague in May, 1899, were most favorably received. The delegation consisted of Andrew D. White, ambassador at Berlin; Stan ford Newel, minister to Holland; Seth Low, presi dent of Columbia university; Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, U. S. navy (retired) ; and Capt. William Crozier, U. S. army. Frederick W. Holls, of New York, was appointed secretary. Of domestic events in the latter months of the first half of 1899 one of the most important was the order of May 29, in which the president with drew a number of places in the civil service of the government from the operation of the system of appointment on the result of examinations con ducted by the civil service commission. The presi dent found a strong supporter and defender in the secretary of the treasury, who contended that the order was a beneficial step for the reform of the civil service; that only those positions had been ex empted that experience had shown could be filled best without examination, and that the change had not been made in the slightest degree at the instance of the spoilsmen. The president and Mrs. Mc- Kinley spent the summers of 1897 and 1899 at a popular resort on Lake Champlain, and in August of the latter year the president made an eloquent address at the Catholic summer school, Cliff Haven, N. Y., in the course of which, referring to the con dition of affairs in the Philippine islands, he said: