Amendments to the civil service rules were approved for the following cities:

Certain resolutions submitted by the commissions of Albany and New York were returned without approval.

NEARLY A HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLIONS IN MUNICIPAL SALARIES

Accompanying this report will be found a table showing in detail figures of the civil service in each of the cities of the State. Totals are as follows:

STATE, COUNTY, AND VILLAGE CLASSIFIED SERVICE, PAYROLLS CERTIFIED BY

NO INCREASE IN THE EXEMPT CLASS

The State service, proper, shows a decrease of 181 in the number of exempt positions. This decrease is accounted for by the abolition of the following agencies: Department of Excise, Superintendent of Elections, Health Officer of the Port of New York, Military Training Commission, and Department of Narcotic Drug Control. Excluding consideration of the agencies abolished, there is no change in the number of exempt positions in the State service.

The county service shows an increase of ten in the number of exempt positions; the village service shows no change.

To fill vacancies caused by retirements.
To fill vacancies caused by deaths...

115

48

To fill vacancies caused by transfers or creation of new positions

125

Total

1303

Of the appointments made in the competitive class, 975 were to the lowest grade positions.

Statistics of the above character have not been compiled for the unclassified service.

XIII

EXTENT OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT IN NEW YORK The figures following are presented as showing with fair accuracy and as nearly as may be with the facilities at the command of the Commission, the number and compensation of all persons in the State, city, county, village and Federal service within the State of New York. The magnitude of public employment as a whole is thus apparent. Intended to be included in the table are teachers, election officials, laborers directly employed by Federal, State, county, city, and village authorities, except trustees, and all other public officials, elected or appointed, and

employees whatever their nature except those wholly compensated by fees. Persons employed on public contract work are not included.

It has been difficult to secure exact reports from some civil divisions. A co-operation with the effort of the Commission in this field of inquiry has increased and it is believed the method now in use for obtaining these statistics constantly will give more accurate results:

PERSONS OF NEW YORK STATE IN PUBLIC SERVICE AND THEIR COMPENSATION

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

Multiplication of the totals in the preceding section by ten gives the basis for a general estimate of the extent of public employment in the United States. Such a multiplication indicates that if all Federal, State, county, city and village employees in the United States were marshalled in one great body, it would in numbers considerably more than equal the entire military force of the United States serving abroad in the late war.

XV

RESPONSIBILITY FOR INEFFICIENCY

Every officer in the State, on assuming his duties, pledges himself to support that mandatory provision of the Constitution which declares that appointments and promotions in the civil service of the State are to be made according to merit and fitness, to be ascertained by examination. A Civil Service Commissioner takes the same oath. The obligation of the one does not differ from that of the other, except that a Commissioner is bound to devote himself to the active administration and enforcement of the Civil Service Law and should know details of the procedure required thereunder.

In questions affecting the merit system of public employment, a situation, however, often develops in which it is evidently thought by an appointing official that the Commission will hold firmly in favor of competitive examination that that is its obligation and duty while the appointing official will deem it his function to hold a contrary opinion. The atmosphere created by this condition is different from that which the Commission seeks to have prevail.

The spirit of approach to the basic idea of merit and fitness should be similar for every public officer. While a like conception of details is not always to be expected, antagonism in the application of the principle certainly ought not to exist. A cooperative attitude on the part of all officials would do much to eliminate obstacles to the wider application of the Civil Service Law, and would make the work of the Commission of much greater value to the State. (See Reports: 1919, section XIV; 1920, section XI.)

XVI

QUESTIONS WHICH ARE FUNDAMENTAL

The purpose of the Commission is constructive. The end sought by it is to aid every government agency to fulfill its functions more effectively. The aim of the Civil Service Commission is to make every examination and every rule embody the principle, first, that every citizen of the State shall have opportunity to show fitness to enter public employ, and, second, that the State is entitled to obtain those best qualified to enter and advance in its service.

The constitutional merit and fitness competitive employment system has, after searching discussion for many years, been confirmed and reiterated by its continued specific incorporation in the basic law of the State. Should not that method of appointment and promotion now be co-operatively accepted and applied in every field of State work? Should it not now become the active belief and practice of every public official?