may employ for such purposes and for | il Service Commission was, by act of detail upon additional service under this Congress, made an independent bureau under the title of the United States Bureau of Efficiency. act when not so engaged without reference to the provisions of the civil service ... such persons as he may deem advisable, and from time to time fix, raise or decrease their compensation. lish service records in all the departments, passed the Senate but failed of passage in the Assembly. State Civil Service.-In Massachusetts the legislature, on the recomUnder this provision the Secretary of mendation of Governor McCall, amendLabor could assign such persons as ed the civil-service law giving the might be employed to enforce the con- state commission power to establish tract-labor section to perform duties an efficiency record system in the which ordinarily would be performed state service and extending the jurisby members of the classified civil diction of the commission slightly. service. The Act establishing the In Colorado an initiated constitutionShipping Board contains a provision al amendment to establish the merit which excepts from competitive exam- system was defeated in November. In ination "a secretary, a clerk to each New Jersey the 1916 legislature has commissioner, the attorneys, naval ar- to its credit a number of amendments chitects and special experts and ex- to the civil-service law strengthening aminers as the Board may from time it in minor details. In New York the to time find necessary to employ for Senate Committee on Civil Service the conduct of its work." The Farm made a careful and comprehensive Loan Act contains a provision except- analysis of the state service, and drew ing all "attorneys, experts, assistants, up standards and specifications of clerks, laborers and other employees, employment in all the state departand all registrars and appraisers" em- ments. A bill amending the civilployed by the Farm Loan Board from service law in accordance with a rethe provisions of the civil-service port of the Committee, giving the Civlaw. After having made this sweep-il Service Commission power to estabing exemption, the bill went on to provide that "nothing herein shall prevent the President from placing said employees in the classified service." This provision was identical with one contained in the Act creating the Federal Reserve Board (A. Y. B., 1913, p. 181), and this fact was used as an excuse on the floor of the Senate for including the provision in the Farm Loan Act. The National Civil Service Reform League has asked the Farm Loan Board to refer the entire matter of the selection of its employees to the Civil Service Commission. This action was taken by the Federal Reserve Board when considering the selection of its employees. Another measure which made exemptions from the provisions of the civil-service law was the section of the General Revenue Act creating a Tariff Commission, which contains the following provision: "With the exception of the secretary, clerk to each commissioner and such special experts as the Commission may from time to time find necessary for the conduct of the work, all employees of the Commission shall be a part of the classified service." Municipal Civil Service.-The New York City Commission, having jurisdiction over a force of more than 54,000 employees, drew up and adopted during the year a complete set of physical standards for positions in the city service. By the scientific use of these physical standards the Commission is able to eliminate unfit candidates in a short time and at relatively small cost. The Commission is thoroughly reorganizing its efficiency record system. It proposes at an early date to reclassify the city service with a view to transferring from the exempt to the competitive class many positions for which competition is unquestionably practicable. The bureau of standards of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment has expended a great deal of effort to bring about a constructive reform in the classification, as to duties, of positions in the city service. The administration of the civilservice law in Chicago has continued to be the subject of serious criticism on the part of the Chicago Civil ServThe Bureau of Efficiency of the Civ-ice Reform Association. Under the present administration the Association alleges that the civil-service law has been prostituted to political expediency as never before. It is said that Mayor Wm. H. Thompson's record so far as it pertains to the administration of the Chicago civil-service law, has been the cause of his withdrawal of his candidacy for various political offices in the state and nation, and of his determination not to seek reëlection. New administrations in Philadelphia and Cleveland promptly took up the question of the reorganization of the civil service, with a view to letting down some of the higher bars. In both cities new civil-service commissions have been appointed and they have endeavored so to change the rules as to enable the mayors and heads of departments to have a freer hand in the matter of appointments. The attack in Cleveland seems to have been the more vigorous and successful. In Philadelphia Mayor Smith has definitely retained a number of the Blankenburg appointees, notably the chiefs of the bureaus of water and highways, two extremely important bureaus, and has so far refrained from expelling a number of others who made excellent records in his predecessor's administration. It was unfortunate that Mayor Blankenburg established a precedent of appointing an entirely new civil-service commission at the beginning of his term instead of filling in the commission with new appointees as the terms of the old members expired. The natural sequence was that the present mayor followed the precedent and appointed his own commission. A legal decision of interest to all engineers and of special interest to engineers in Boston was filed in the Dorchester district court on June 27, by Judge Joseph R. Churchill. This decision ordered the reinstatement of the division engineer in charge of the sewer and water service, the superintendent of the permit department of the paving division, and the superintendent of the main drainage system, who, of 17 employees of the Public Works Department discharged in January, contested the action of the mayor in announcing that their positions were abolished. A few days after their discharge a hearing was given to these three men by the commissioner of public works, as provided under the civil-service regulations. The commissioner maintained that he had no complaint as to their efficiency, but that the department had been reorganized and the positions held by the three men abolished, so that there was no further occasion for their services. An extended critical review of municipal civil-service reports by F. W. Coker appeared in the October issue of the National Municipal Review. Organizations.-The ninth annual meeting of the Assembly of Civil Service Commissions was held in Ottawa, Canada, on June 14-16. Committee reports were presented on efficiency records, examination standards and a final report from the committee on standard law. The report of the latter committee resulted in the adoption of the draft of the model law (4. Y. B., 1915, p. 197), but the continuance of the committee was authorized and it was directed that the law include alternative provisions to regulate the appointment of civil-serv ice commissioners. The Assembly also voted to include a statement of fact illustrating the several views on the question of removal of employees. William Foran of Ottawa, Canada, secretary of the Civil Service Commission of Canada, was elected president and John T. Doyle, of the Federal Commission, was reelected secretary. The annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League was held at New Haven, Conn., on Dec. 5-6. Richard Henry Dana and George T. Keyes were reelected president and vice-president, respectively. VI. STATE AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT JOHN M. MATHEWS In the following series of tables the more important facts relative to the forty-eight states which at present constitute the American Union are brought together for convenient ref erence: 1. The first table gives the area and population of the states, together with the dates upon which they severally ratified the Constitution of the United States, or upon which they were admitted to the Union. The population in 1900 and 1910 is given, together with the percentage of increase since 1900, and the rank of the several states in population at the census of 1910. The population of the continental United States at the thirteenth census taken April 15, 1910, was 91,972,266, an increase of 15,977,691 over the population of June 1, 1900, and an increase of 21 per cent., as compared with an increase of 22.7 per cent. in 1900. The states in which the population increased more than 50 per cent. include Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. All these states, it will be noted, are situated in the western half of the United States. Including Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and military persons abroad, the population was 93,402,151. If the population of the Philippine Islands (8,265,348, estimated) is added, with estimates for Guam, Samoa and the Canal, the total population of the United States and possessions on April 15, 1910, was 101,748,269. On July 1, 1916, the population of the continental United States, as estimated by the Bureau of the Census, was 102,017,312. in the year 1910 as given upon the following page. 2. The second table gives for each state, as reported by the Bureau of the Census for the year 1915, the assessed valuation of property and the total tax levy; the bonded debt and the net debt; and the revenue and non-revenue receipts and the governmental cost and other expenditures. In the YEAR BOOK for 1915 (p. 200) were given similar data relating to the years 1912 and 1913 taken from the decennial census of wealth, debt, and taxation. 3. The third table revises and extends the table on pp. 184-9 of the YEAR BOOK for 1910, which gave the facts in regard to the state constitutions; dates of adoption; methods of ratification of present and former constitutions, and the existing methods of amendment authorized by law in each state. 4. The fourth table gives the state governors; their politics; the length of the governor's term in each state; the date of the beginning and ending of his term; and his salary. 5. The fifth table presents the main features regarding the state legislatures, including the political complexion of the legislatures; number of members of each house; length of the term; frequency of session; the limit upon duration of sessions, if any; and the salaries of members of both branches of the legislature. 6. The sixth table indicates the main facts regarding the state judiciary; the name of the courts and number of judges; how chosen; length of term; and salary. 7. The seventh table indicates the number of counties in each state and the general facts as to the county The apportionment of state repre- officers, their titles, which, as a rule, sentatives in Congress (A. Y. B., 1912, indicate their functions, and whether p. 159) is based upon the population | elected or appointed. I. THE STATES OF THE UNION ARBA, POPULATION, DATES OF RATIFICATION AND ORGANIZATION, II. STATE TAXATION, INDEBTEDNESS, REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES (In Thousands of Dollars) The figures in this table are taken from the report of the Bureau of the Census on "Financial Statistics of States," published for the first time in 1916. They relate to the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915, or to the first fiscal period prior thereto. |