in New York and elsewhere, and all, whether they be taxpayers directly or taxpayers by indirection, are now more than ever concerned in these costs. The state constitution in providing for the Merit System, declares that laws shall be passed to carry the system into effect. Under this authority, the law has placed in the classified service employees of the state in its various departments and in all its civil divisions and cities. Likewise, such laws have designated, as in the unclassified service, all legislative officers and employees. This latter designation affects state, county and city legislative bodies; the state senate and assembly, the county boards of supervisors and the city boards of aldermen. All these legislative bodies have, then, by law been removed from the operation of our constitutional competitive plan. Incidentally, I would say that the constitutionality of this removal has been questioned in argument but has never been tried out in the courts. We thus see one large group of civil appointees designated by legislative enactment as outside the constitutional Merit System of appointment, and on the other hand, another large group consisting of substantially all other administrative, regulative, judicial employees, state, city and county positions, designated by the same legislative authority as within the constitutional Merit System. This situation gives an opportunity to place side by side a large number of employees personally appointed and a large number selected under or coming within the Merit System, and to see whether different results are disclosed as to costs of similar amount of work performed. The book of New York state, "Requests for appropriations, filed with the Governor, the Comptroller and the Legislative Budget Committees," makes an important volume of 1057 pages. These public requests show, among other things, the salary of each state position, generally give the name of the incumbent thereof, and in each bureau or agency the total cost of personal service. Great commendation is due to the Budget Committee in particular and, in addition, to all those who have of late years devised this orderly compilation and participated in its publication. The review of costs about to be made is based upon the "existing schedule" of expenditure, i.e., that for 1919, shown in columns 5 and 6 of the compilation above referred to. On the one hand, we take into consideration the number of employees in the unclassified group of clerks, stenographers, doorkeepers, janitors, messengers, pages, etc. (shown in column 2, pages 42-57), the amount paid them for personal service shown in the recapitulations, the length of the legislative session and number of days work rendered before, during and after the session, and the average length of service per day. On the other hand, we take the number of employees, including deputies in various departments, the total hours of service per year, and the amount paid therefor in the various departmental forces. From review of the figures so assembled, it appears clearly that the pay for equal hours of work of the individual in the unclassified group mentioned averages 3 or 4 times that of the average pay of similar employees in the departmental forces, all of which latter group are classified. Business Session The President, Richard Henry Dana, acted as presiding officer. The report of the Resolutions Committee was read by the Secretary, and upon motion, the following resolutions were adopted: I The National Civil Service Reform League is convinced that a great obstacle to efficient and economical service in all departments of federal employment and to popular appreciation and support of the merit system in the civil service is the failure of Congress and the President to attach due importance to the work of the Civil Service Commission. Congress has failed year after year to make adequate appropriations for the work of the Commission, while the President has tolerated the continuation in office of inefficient Commissioners long after their inefficiency was well known; and, when he finally undertook a reorganization of the Commission, he failed to appoint a third Commissioner and a Chief Examiner, and has left these positions vacant. The criticism frequently leveled against the operation of the merit system in the federal service is due in large part to failure of the responsible branches of government to give the system adequate support in men and money. II It is a disappointment to the League to find at the end of the war a marked diminution of the spirit of unselfish devotion to the public interest and to encounter the same old problems of personal and political selfishness. Recent legislation, notably the act to enforce national prohibition, has carried to success an inexcusable drive for spoils of vast extent. Efforts are being made to secure through the pending War Department reorganization bill the exemption of all civil employes of the reserve army. The natural desire to show gratitude to the returned soldiers and sailors has been seized upon by politicians anxious to court the soldier vote as an excuse for veteran preference legislation, in defiance of the teachings of experience and the views of the most public spirited of the veterans. The League has heretofore declared for ample direct reward for the men and women who have served their country in time of war. It believes that full credit for experience developed by war service should be given in rating candidates for civil employment. It opposes, however, all forms of arbitrary preference in appointment or promotion as contrary to the basic principles of democracy and to the tested method of selective service, which the government itself found necessary in the emergency of war. III The League urges the enactment by Congress of legislation to establish joint advisory councils, representing public employes and heads of departments, assisted by employment experts, to consider salaries, grievances, conditions of employment and other service matters. It believes that a reform is imperatively called for in the relations of public employes with those in authority over them. But public service is not an industrial occupation, and the League sees grave dangers to the state in the organization of public employes in affiliation with industrial trade unions, a course which will become increasingly tempting to the employes if other methods for adjusting their grievances are not provided. IV The League recommends the speedy enactment by Congress of legislation to bring the whole foreign service of the government into harmony with the spirit of the merit system, to provide adequate salaries for diplomatic and consular officials and to open the door to promotion through all grades from the lowest to the highest. The development of American foreign trade depends in large measure upon such strengthening of the country's representation abroad. V The general successful operation of the President's order of March 31, 1917, for the examination of first, second and third-class postmasters lays the foundation for legislation making permanent the operation of the merit system in this field. Such legislation should be enacted promptly, together with a law for the classification of collectors of customs, deputy collectors of internal revenue and United States marshals and deputy marshals, and in the application of the merit principles to the selection of all other government employes below the grade of heads of departments who have policy determining functions. VI The League observes with satisfaction the substantial popular movements in Arizona, California, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico and North Dakota for the adoption of civil service laws or constitutional provisions, indicating, as they do, a widespread conviction that only as public administrative work, national, state and local, is placed in the hands of persons chosen solely for their fitness and owing allegiance only to the public can the increasingly complicated problems of government be safely met. The report of the Nominations Committee was read by the Secretary. Upon motion, the Secretary was instructed to cast a single ballot in favor of the officers and Council members reported by the Nominations Committee. All officers and Council members were re-elected, with the addition of three Vice-Presidents and four Council members subject to their acceptance of election. The newly elected Vice-Presidents and Council Members were: Vice-Presidents: Thomas W. Lamont Members of the Council: W. W. Montgomery, Jr. Robert W. Belcher Benedict Crowell (A complete list of the officers and membership of the Council is printed elsewhere in this volume.) Evening Session Kenyon L. Butterfield, President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, acted as presiding officer, and introduced the speakers. Richard Henry Dana, President of the League, delivered his annual address, and Mr. Robert Catherwood spoke on the work of the Salary Reclassification Commission. A Modern Hydra Address of Richard H. Dana In the legends of ancient Greece there was a gigantic monster named Hydra. It was said to live in the miasmic marshes near Argos, the capital of the ancient Argives, or Greeks. Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It had nine heads and the center one was immortal. No sooner was one head cut off than two grew in its place. The destruction of this monster was one of the twelve labors of Hercules. In modern times and in our country, a gigantic monster called Spoils lives in the miasmic marshes of Partisanship, in the neighborhood of capitals, national and state, and is born of Greed and Political Ambition. It, too, has many heads, some of which have been cut off by the sword called Merit, but when one head has been cut off, in due time two start to grow in its place and the center head, called Congressional Patronage, seems indeed immortal. The destruction of this monster is one of the twelve tasks of our modern Hercules, American citizenship, and to our League, as a leader, the destruction of Spoils has been specially committed by the common consent of this citizenship for the last thirty-nine years. Even the great Hercules had to call in the assistance of Iolaus to destroy Hydra. |