the Legislature had passed laws to carry the terms of the new Constitution into effect. The question being submitted to the present Commission it decided that it could not, under the Constitution, recall the classification which had been proposed. The Superintendent of Public Works appealed to the courts in the form of a suit by one of his appointees, to compel the Comptroller to audit his account which this Commission had refused, under its construction of the law, to certify to as a valid claim against the State. Judge Herrick, of the Supreme Court, rendered a decision in which he sustained the opinion expressed by the Commission. This decision will be found in full in the appendix. The Superintendent of Public Works has carried the case to the Court of Appeals where it is now pending.

Municipal Government.

The Commission has during the past year, held meetings in several cities of the State to examine into the manner in which the law was being there enforced. The first inspection was made in New York, where it found the system in good working order and all departments under its rules. In Brooklyn, it is carried out, and the Commission is satisfied with the work of the local boards of these two largest municipalities in the State. At Syracuse a defective system was found, but a disposition evinced to correct it and bring it into full accord with the law. Such defects were pointed out and remedies suggested. At Buffalo, under the stimulus of a most excellent and efficient Civil Service Reform Association, the public service has come to a point of high excellence and the full requirements of the law are rigidly enforced. The chief examiner was instructed to visit Rochester and report

upon that city and his report will be found in the appendix. In that city little regard, it would appear, had been paid to the Civil Service Law. Reports from smaller cities, nearly all indicate a steady growth in the observance of the law, and in some of them a reasonably full compliance. In these smaller cities the task is a more difficult one owing to the fact that salaries paid are trivial, and there is little incentive for competition in securing the small appointments.

Recommendations.

The most important feature of the Civil Service Law remains yet to be accomplished, and it can only be done by act of Legislature. When the Commission was first organized in 1883, they provided for the grading of clerks and like employes in the State service as follows:

First Grade (B). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of less than $1,000.

Second Grade (B). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of $1,000, or more, but less than $1,200.

Third Grade (B). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of $1,200, or more, but less than $1,500. Fourth grade (E). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of $1,500, or more, but less than $1,800.

Fifth Grade (E). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of $1,800, or more, but less than $2,000.

Sixth Grade (E). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of $2,000, or more, but less than $2,500.

Seventh Grade (E). Clerks and like employes receiving an annual compensation of $2,500, or more.

This grading was made for the purpose of promotion, and

Schedule E was established as forming an eligible list from those examined in one grade for promotion to the higher. It was espe cially commanded by the Civil Service Law, but the proper steps to justly make such grades could not be taken, and, therefore, this classification has, in that respect been inoperative. The competitive system now having been largely extended, it is time that this delayed work should be resumed in order that the full intent of the law for promotions in the public service should be carried out.

The State Commission in Lunacy, under a law of 1895, recently established uniform grades of salaries throughout all its depart

ment.

It has not only resulted in a great saving to the State, but also in greater justice. A similar law, arbitrarily fixing salaries, should be passed, applying to all departments of the State government, and it would not only make a large saving of expense, but correct unjust inequalties of pay and furnish a basis of promotion by which one of the most important demands of the Civil Service Law can be fulfilled.

Under the old system, where appointments were made by favor, it was, of course, a temptation to the appointing officer to give his favorite as large a salary as his appropriation would allow. Further than that, there has been a tendency constantly, to increase salaries in all departments. By reason of this there is a wide discrepancy between the salaries paid to employes doing exactly the same kind of work, and in a large number of cases, as even a brief examination of the roster will show, many employes doing a class of work requiring a greater fitness, longer preparation and higher qualifications, are receiving less recompense than others whose work is merely routine and requires only limited qualifications.

This is not consistent with the idea of the Civil Service Law, whereby examinations are made the more severe in accordance with the qualifications required for the position applied for. The less severe examination often puts the applicant in the position of best pay, and the rigid examination, calling for the best talent, may secure for the applicant a position of the least pay. We would recommend that a law be enacted requiring the Civil Service Commission to revise the salary list of all appointed State officers, whose salary has not already been fixed by law, with a view of establishing a uniform rate for uniform service. When that labor has been performed, it will, with what has already been done, complete what may be known as the formative period of the Civil Service Law.

At a meeting of April 11th, Chief Examiner Carmody, having presented his resignation to take effect on the appointment of his successor, an open competitive examination for this position was ordered. The Commission felt that it was most inconsistent that this position in its own service should be exempt from the requirements which it insisted upon in the appointees of other departments; that it was a position which should not be subject to change of administration, but which to secure good service, should be made continuous through good behavior. It, therefore, ordered that the place should be filled by competitive examination, and Commissioner Burt was delegated to prepare a scheme of examination furnishing a fair test of the qualities required of applicants for the place. Commissioner Burt performed this duty and such examination was held in the Assembly parlor of the Capitol on August 27th, 28th and 29th.

For nine years the position of chief examiner of the Commission had been filled with regard rather to the partisan character of the

appointee than to his intrinsic fitness for his official duties. When the present Commission was organized, Mr. Thomas Carmody, appointed in 1893, was the incumbent, and it was evident that efforts would be made looking to his removal and the substitution of some person in partisan accord with the new State administration. In fact such efforts were begun and threatened a continuance of the method of selection that had previously obtained for several years. It was obvious to the Commission that, while the law had reasonably required that only two of its own members should be adherents of the same political party, and to that extent, in order that the minority might be represented, had recognized partisan considerations, the whole trend of the law is toward an absolute disregard of party affiliations in appointments to the civil service; and, in fact, in regard to the great bulk of the service, appointments because of partisan opinions, affiliations or actions are expressly prohibited. It seemed grotesque that in the very office of the Commission there should be such a conspicuous disregard of the general principle of the Civil Service Law. In this place, also, a stable tenure is of the first importance, as experience and training are among the most valuable qualifications its incumbent can possess. Mr. Carmody coincided in these views of the Commission, and it was agreed that the only practicable and safe means by which the position of chief examiner could be made reasonably stable was through a selection by open competitive examination. This method is also in consonance with the Constitution, the law, and in harmony with the general principles that have governed the Commission.

Great care was exercised in giving broad publicity to the proposed examination, and in devising for it such a scheme and scope