IV Summary and Conclusions Those seriously interested in the improvement of the public service realize that their great task now is not merely to keep inefficient persons out of official positions, but to provide methods whereby the public service may be recruited according to the most approved standards of the present time. Such methods call for special training and apprenticeship in the actual work performed by the several branches of the government which are constantly engaging employees. To accomplish this fundamental reform, the following changes are necessary: 1. The civil service commission must become a training board as well as an examining board. 2. The ordinary academic tests which are now applied to persons actually entering the public service should be applied to persons who wish to prepare for that service by taking the required apprenticeship course under the direction of the city. 3. Inasmuch as New York City has a well-equipped college of its own, nothing seems more logical than that the city enter into cooperation with the College of the City of New York, and through that institution with other colleges and universities in the city. An agreement might readily be made whereby those properly qualified students who have passed the preliminary entrance examinations should serve their apprenticeship in city departments with the respective departmental officers under the supervision of the appropriate officers of the City College. As an inducement to encourage young people to seek the public service, the City College and other institutions of learning in the city might grant credit toward the academic degrees for units of work thus performed under adequate supervision. Thus, the city in filling positions in its service could draw upon a large body of youth actually trained for the work, and not trained for some other employment or for nothing at all. And this further fact is to be taken into account: That a person who has a training which will make him efficient in public service, has a training which will be equally useful in private undertakings. The problems of administering a public water works, a public school, a public hospital, are similar to the problems of administering a private water works, school, or hospital; problems of staff investigation and report are identical whether in private or public employment; the training and discipline which will make him useful in public service will make him useful in private service-in any place where merit and fitness count. The city, therefore, would not only be providing a training school for civil service, but one which will help to make its citizenship more efficient. The student would suffer no loss as a result of his effort to fit himself for the public service. Competition for public service would naturally be materially increased, and opportunity for every young man and woman in the city would be broadened. If it be said that this involves a somewhat radical revision of our current practices, the obvious reply is that the demand for trained and efficient service, both public and private, is imperative and that nothing but heroic remedies based upon tried and tested methods at home and abroad will suffice. CHARLES A. BEARD. THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DR. SIDNEY EDWARD MEZES, PRESIDENT, Dear Mr. President: On March 6, 1915, you appointed the following Committee on Municipal Service Survey: Messrs. Baskerville, Clark, Parmly, Storey and Duggan (Chairman). The Committee was directed, generally speaking, to consider and to report the ways in which the College might be of service to the City government in preparing students for positions in the City employ and in improving the efficiency of those already in the City service. The Committee met on March 9, 1915, and after a careful consideration of several plans decided to limit its investigations, at first, to those departments of the City government the work of which is of high educational or technical character and for which the College could directly prepare especially the Departments of Finance, Health, Education, and Public Works. Moreover, as the detailed investigation would require a great deal of time and effort, it was decided to request the President to appoint a sub-committee composed of representatives from the College departments most interested. They were to gather for the heads of departments the information that would enable the latter to determine the ways in which they could best co-operate with the departments of the City government. Prof. Breithut of the Department of Chemistry, Prof. Goldfarb of the Department of Natural History, Prof. Klapper of the Department of Education, Prof. Woolston of the Department of Political Science and Prof. Parmly of the Department of Physics formed with the Chairman this subcommittee. At its first meeting on March 16th this sub-com mittee drew up a plan of work in accordance with the general principles agreed upon by the Committee. Each member of the sub-committee devoted himself to gathering information in the department of the City government to which his own College department was cognate and the entire sub-committee met weekly for purposes of consultation and deliberation. The sub-committee received much assistance from organizations which had information upon its problem. Prof. Breithut in his report explains the nature of the assistance secured and expresses the gratitude of the Committee. After a careful study of the material secured from the various sources and upon the advice of several heads of City departments who had been consulted, the Committee decided to send a questionnaire to the employees engaged in the various grades of the City service to find out what courses these employees themselves wished to pursue to increase their efficiency and to secure advancement in grade. The questionnaire was first submitted to the heads of the City departments and received their approval. It was then circulated among the employees in the departments under consideration. The Committee was convinced that for a proper appraisal of the answers to the questionnaire, it was necessary for one person to read and evaluate them, and upon the basis of the information thus secured to consult further with the heads of the City departments and with the Municipal Civil Service Commission. Prof. Frederick E. Breithut was selected for the work and not only performed that service but made a most intensive study of the whole problem. His report which is appended was first submitted for consideration to the sub-committee and received its hearty endorsement. It is now forwarded to you with the cordial approval of the Committee. December 31, 1915. Sincerely yours, STEPHEN P. DUGGAN, Chairman, Committee on Municipal Service Survey REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MUNICIPAL SERVICE SURVEY I. PURPOSE On March 6, 1915, President Sidney E. Mezes, of the College of the City of New York, appointed a Committee on Municipal Service Survey. The fundamental work of this Committee was to consider and to report the ways in which the College might be of service to the City government: (1) in preparing students for entrance into the City's employ and (2) in improving the efficiency of those already in the City's service. II. DATA The Committee considered its first duty to be the gathering of data concerning the muncipal service as it is at present. These data are embodied in the appended tables, as follows: TABLE 1 (see insert at end) shows the number of employees under each title in each department of the City and the total number for each title and for each department. These facts were obtained from the Civil List of December 31, 1914, the latest available at the time the Committee began its work. At that date the City of New York employed in its sixty-two departments or bureaus 86,397 men and women under 371 titles. Many of the positions, though different in title, are similar vocationally or functionally. TABLE 2 shows these positions grouped vocationally. TABLE 3 contains a summary of the number in each vocational group in each department. TABLE 4 contains the total number in each vocational group for the entire City. |