Bureau in the Department of Labor, Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture, Steward in the State Hospitals for the Insane, Lecturer in the Education Department. These examinations require a great deal of study of conditions in the various departments and institutions and add materially to the work of the examining force, but they are of great value in the prevention of the rapid advancement of unqualified persons for improper reasons and to the detriment of other eligibles, in the encouragement they offer to persons in the service to make good records and to depend on the demonstration of their own worth for advancement, and, perhaps more than all, in their more remote influence in attracting better qualified persons to compete for the lower grade positions. So far as we can learn, the persons who compete in promotion examinations are as well satisfied with the results as could be expected, and appointing officers are coming more and more to believe in the rule and its administration by the Commission. A relatively heavy weight is given in promotion examinations to the record of efficiency of employees competing as reported by the appointing officer, but in the absence of any uniform system, or any system at all, for that matter, in the keeping of efficiency records in the departments, this element of the rating is open to the objection that too much may depend on the desire of the employer at the time, or on his momentary impression of the competitors' fitness, rather than on a consistent view of their comparative efficiency through years of continuous service. No system of efficiency records that has come to my notice has seemed to meet the requirements better than the present practice, however, and I should hesitate to recommend the adoption of the plans in vogue else where. If a satisfactory system could be devised it would go far toward the perfection of our promotion system. Ratings increased from ineligible to eligible.. 5 1 Number appointed as result of appeal........ 4 1 Expenses The funds for the examination division for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1905, other than those for salaries, are accounted for as follows: Expenses of chief examiner Appropriation and balance October 1, 1904. . . . . $763 20 Disbursements. . 684 02 Balance October 1, 1905.... $79 18 The cost by cities for local examinations, covering room rent, services and expenses of local examiners, was as follows: |