tons to be filled persons qualified by character, training and knowledge, for their respective duties. In a competition conducted in March for the position of supervisor of farm cottages at the State Industrial School, Rochester, no educational test at all was imposed except that embodied in the filling out of the application and information blanks, and the candidates were rated exclusively on these, on their experience and character and that of their wives, who were to be employed jointly with them, as determined by replies to numerous searching inquiries addressed to former employers or others acquainted with their work, and on their personality as ascertained in an interview with the board of examiners. This board was made up of a representative of the board of managers of the institution, its superintendent and the chief examiner of the State Commission. Though the practicability of testing the relative qualifications of candidates for a position for the successful filling of which the personal equation is so important a factor was gravely doubted by the officials of the institution, the result was highly satisfactory to all concerned. Nearly eighty candidates, representing all parts of the State, entered the competition. About one-half of these were eliminated by the preliminary examination by reason of facts shown in their own statements in regard to age, habits, education or previous experience. The personal interview with the remaining candidates elicited information as to character, temperament and family relations which, together with that obtained by examination of answers to the letters of inquiry referred to, enabled the examiners to rate their relative. merit and fitness on a fair and intelligent basis. An eligible list of nineteen resulted and of these twelve received appointments, and two declined appointment on account of change of

and the rules made in pursuance of law. Justice Kenefick, of the Supreme Court, in deciding the case adversely to the commission, held that the duty of a civil service commission in certifying a payroll ends when it finds that the persons named therein are qualified for appointment or employment in the positions assigned to them respectively on said payroll and that they have been duly and regularly appointed to such positions. The responsibility as to the legality of the employment, he held, belongs exclusively to the appointing power. This may be so, but if, as in the case in question, the commission knows that a person is employed at duties not properly described by the title under which he was appointed or employed, it would seem that it can not properly attach its certificate to the payroll. The Civil Service Commission should have, if it does not have, the power to withhold its certificate in any case where the employment is in violation of the Civil Service law.

Practicability of Competition.

The year has seen the practicability of testing merit and fitness for public office, under the rule of competition laid down by the State Constitution, many times demonstrated. Positions of large responsibility, requiring tact and other personal qualifications requisite to the most confidential service as well as extended training and high technical knowledge, and carrying compensation in generous amount, have been filled from the eligible lists established by the Commission and in a manner entirely acceptable to the appointing officers.

The competitions conducted by this Commission are never scholastic, are not always in the shape of written examinations, but are always practical and designed to secure for the posi

tions to be filled persons qualified by character, training and knowledge, for their respective duties. In a compétition conducted in March for the position of supervisor of farm cottages at the State Industrial School, Rochester, no educational test at all was imposed except that embodied in the filling out of the application and information blanks, and the candidates were rated exclusively on these, on their experience and character and that of their wives, who were to be employed jointly with them, as determined by replies to numerous searching inquiries addressed to former employers or others acquainted with their work, and on their personality as ascertained in an interview with the board of examiners. This board was made up of a representative of the board of managers of the institution, its superintendent and the chief examiner of the State Commission. Though the practicability of testing the relative qualifications of candidates for a position for the successful filling of which the personal equation is so important a factor was gravely doubted by the officials of the institution, the result was highly satisfactory to all concerned. Nearly eighty candidates, representing all parts of the State, entered the competition. About one-half of these were eliminated by the preliminary examination by reason of facts shown in their own statements in regard to age, habits, education or previous experience. The personal interview with the remaining candidates elicited information as to character, temperament and family relations which, together with that obtained by examination of answers to the letters of inquiry referred to, enabled the examiners to rate their relative merit and fitness on a fair and intelligent basis. An eligible list of nineteen resulted and of these twelve received appointments, and two declined appointment on account of change of

circumstances. The board of managers highly commend the competition, as having brought into the field as candidates many excellently qualified men of whom they would not otherwise have known, and as having enabled them to make appointments to the position from a large list of candidates whose fitness had been ascertained by a most practical test. A competition for state librarian, law librarian, reference librarian, director of library school, and chief of home education department, was conducted recently without written examination and without requiring the presence of candidates before the examiners. Upon request of the State Commission, two of the most eminent librarians in the country passed upon the relative qualifications of the candidates, and upon their rating eligible lists were established from which the Commissioner of Education was enabled to make most satisfactory appointments. In many cases, as in that of the examination of candidates for the position of meter reader conducted recently by the Rochester municipal commission, and in the case of examination of candidates for positions of elevator men and stenographers, fitness has been determined by actual tests of the candidates' ability to perform the work required, weight being also properly given to experience and education.

The State Commission has consistently held that the head of a department is the best judge of what constitutes the proper tests of the qualifications of candidates for the positions under his control. By resolution adopted in October, 1903, it formally recognized that "it is a proper function of the appointing power to suggest standards of merit and fitness for appointees, and for this Commission to seek and encourage such suggestions, and to frame its examinations for the purpose of testing merit and fit

ness according to such standards so far as they seem practicable." But while the character of the tests to be applied can be best determined by the appointing power, and is so determined so far as that power cooperates with the officers of the Commission, the law properly imposes upon the latter the making of those tests. and so operates to protect the appointing powers from pressure by candidates and their friends.

A Protection to Appointing Officers.

Although in particular instances the heads of State Departments find the limitations of the Civil Service law irksome and embarrassing, they bear willing testimony to the generally good effect of its provisions, and unite in declaring that without the protection it affords them from the importunities of and for office seekers, and the assurance it gives that appointees are qualified for the duties of the positions they are to fill, official life would be unbearable. The more thoroughly they acquaint themselves with the requirements of the law and with the rules enacted under its authority, and the more fully they cooperate with the officials of the Civil Service Commission in observance of the procedure therein prescribed for appointments and promotions of subordinates, the more cordially they approve the system and encourage its extension.

Prospective changes of administration in the counties and cities have deluged the Commission with requests for classification in the competitive class of positions heretofore exempt, made so in some cases upon the urgent and convincing representation of the same appointing officers. Accomplished changes of administration have deluged it with applications for the transfer of positions from the competitive to the exempt class. The first,