tions 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

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.

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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,

it is hard to refrain from suspecting, are often for the purpose of throwing about favorite incumbents the protecting mantle of the Civil Service law; and the second, perhaps, for the purpose of opening the way for the appointment of favorites. The Commission has endeavored to consider each application for a change in classification on its merits and to construe strictly and impartially the law in respect to them. To do otherwise would be to make it the football of politicians and bring discredit upon the whole civil service system of the State.

Promotions.

It is impossible for the Commission to comply with requests, sometimes made by appointing officers, to authorize the promotion of certain individuals in a department, except in cases where the individuals named may be the only ones eligible for the advancement. The Constitution makes competition the rule for promotion as well as for original appointment, and hence the Commission must insist that promotion examinations shall be open to all whose grade and group entitle them to the right to compete. Appointing officers sometimes complain of these examinations and say that they ought to be the best judges of the comparative fitness of their subordinates for promotion. The Commission recognizes the truth of this and would be glad to give due weight to the judgment of superior officers, if they would comply with the law and furnish the Commission adequate data upon which to rate the faithfulness and efficiency of the candidates.

The Civil Service law, carrying out the constitutional mandate, provides that promotion shall be based upon merit and competition and upon the superior qualifications of the person

promoted as shown by his previous service, due weight being given to seniority, and the rules provide that "the test of actual service being the main factor in fitness for promotion there shall be kept in every office continuous and comparative records of the efficiency, punctuality, attention and general good conduct of all persons employed therein" (rule XIV, subdivision 8). The importance of records of this character in making up the final rating of candidates for promotion can not be overestimated, and heads of departments are earnestly requested to afford the Commission the aid that such records constitute.

The Power of Removal.

The Civil Service law of this State does not limit the power of removal outside the counties embraced in Greater New York, except by prohibiting the consideration of political influences, and except by the requirement that veterans of the Civil and Spanish wars, or active or exempt volunteer firemen, shall have a hearing upon due notice upon stated charges. Otherwise the head of a department may remove a subordinate at will, and is empowered to dismiss summarily from the service unfaithful, incompetent or otherwise unacceptable employees. The largest power of removal in no way militates against the rights of capable and faithful subordinates. They are protected in their tenure of office, not only by the shield that honest and efficient service always affords, but by the fact that an appointing officer who might be disposed to use his so-called "patronage" for political or personal ends can not, by creating a vacancy, make place for a favorite. He must make the appointment from the three names at the head of the appropriate eligible list established through competitive examination by the Civil Service Commission.