that they may be printed on a small leaflet The classification is to apply to all offices now existing or hereafter created that are not specifically exempted, reversing the former plan through which all were exempt until specifically classified.

The Executive civil service is re-divided into five branches: the departmental service, the custom house service, government printing service and the internal revenue service. The departmental service will include all officers and employees, between the two extremes stated, in (1) The Departments, Commissions and offices in the District of Columbia; (2) the Railway Mail service; (3) the Indian Service; (4) the Pension Agencies; (5) the Steamboat Inspection Service; (6) the Marine Hospital Service; (7) the Lighthouse Service; (8) the Mints and Assay Offices; (10) the force of custodians of public buildings; (11) the Sub-treasuries; (12) the Engineer Department at large; and (13) those other employees outside of the District of Comlumbia whose duties are clerical or medical, or who serve in any capacity higher than that of laborer.

The old plan of classification according to titles or salaries is superceded by a classification based upon the duties or functions-a change which shuts the door against innumerable possible abuses. Another noteworthy change is the recognition of the Civil Service Commission as the supervisor of the entire system of promotions. The jurisdiction of the Commission in the matter of investigations is also broadened greatly. The whole tendency of the new rules is, in effect, to centralize both the control and responsibility in the Commission, a plan which cannot fail to add greatly to the general good order of the Civil Service.

President Cleveland has thus well nigh completed the work of Civil Service Reform in the executive branch of the Government. When the plan of labor registration in operation in the Navy Yards shall have been extended to all laborers employed by the Government, when the rules for the selection of candidates for the Consular Service shall have been made competitive, when a system of appointment and retention for merit shall have been applied to the great body of postmasters, and when it shall be the custom, at least, to retain in office, during good behavior, even officers confirmed by the Senate, whose duties are of a business and not a political character, the

merit system will have been applied to the entire Executive branch; the task then will be one of administration, which is of course, equally important.

There remain other extensions, which may be brought about only through the action of Congress. These would include the employees of both the legislative and judicial branches of the government, of whom there are 1,066 and 2,666 respectively. It is the view of the president, that to classify the employees of the District of Columbia, numbering, approximately, 2,000, also requires action by Congress.

Efforts have been made to secure from the present Congress legislation designed to hasten these further reforms. The bill to reorganize the Consular Service on a competitive basis has been reintroduced by Senator Lodge, and referred to a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate, consisting of Senators Lodge and Morgan. It has not been advanced. A bill to classify the employees of the District, prepared by the Civil Service Reform Association of the District of Columbia, and advocated by the Washington Board of Trade, and other business and political organizations has been introduced in each House. It has been reported unfavorably in the Senate, and is still under consideration by the Civil Service Committee in the House. The bill designed to secure appointment and tenure of postmasters for merit has been reintroduced, but has not passed beyond the reference to committees.

When it became clear that reform in the appointment of postmasters would be impracticable for a year at least, Postmaster-General Wilson adopted a system of his own, designed to secure that end. His plan was, simply, to consolidate the small offices with the larger free delivery offices, and to redesignate the postmasters as superintendents or clerks, thus bringing them within the classified service. This plan had been carried out to a limited degree during 1895. 94 offices had been consolidated. Not only had the efficiency of each been increased greatly, but the saving in the cost of annual maintenance had averaged $354. To extend the system, however, Mr. Wilson found that it would be necessary to secure a transfer from the appropriation for postmasters' salaries to that for clerical service. He asked of Congress that during the coming fiscal year $2.000,000 be taken from the

one head and $1,500,000 added under the other, the difference of half a million to represent the saving he expected to effect in consolidating two thousand additional offices. It would be impracticable to exceed that number during a single year. After a bitter debate in the Senate this request was flatly refused. The Senate went further than this, and adopted an amendment to the Appropriation Bill prohibiting consolidation in future beyond the corporate limits of a city, and restoring the offices already consolidated to their original condition. This amendment is still under consideration by the Conference Committee of the two Houses. A campaign against its adoption has been carried on by the National League and protests from all parts of the country, particularly from localities in which consolidation had already been effected, have been forwarded to the Committee.

It has been the constant effort of the administration during the year to improve the service, and to establish the merit principle in appointments to places both classified and unclassified. Many individual instances of appointments of the latter class have been cited in the monthly reports of the Secretary. The recent sweeping extension of the President fittingly completes the record that has been made.

It is believed now to be possible to secure the extension of the merit system in New York State as far as in the federal service. The amendment to the Constitution that went into effect on January 1, 1895, requiring that all appointments and promotions in the civil service of the State, and of any of its civil divisions "shall be made according to merit and fitness to be ascertained so far as practicable by examinations, which, so far as practicable, shall be competitive," has been construed very broadly by the Court of Appeals. It has been held in effect that the amendment is self-executing, and that even though the Legislature were to repeal all existing civil service statutes, any appointments made contrary to its provisions must be held to be illegal. No appointment may be legally made to a position for which it is practicable to examine candidates competitively, unless such an examination has been held and the appointee selected from among those passing highest. As the test of practicability can only be actual experience, and as examinations are being held in the Federal service for positions of every character and of the

highest order, there is little doubts that the Courts would consider these standards in reaching conclusions in individual

cases.

The bill drawn by the counsel of the Senate Investigating Committee of 1894, in conjunction with committees of this and other associations, and designed to carry the constitutional amendment into full effect, was, with some changes suggested by these committees, reintroduced into the legislature of 1896 by Assemblyman William Cary Sanger. The passage of this bill would have provided an adequate system of classification based upon competitive principles, and would have solved very largely the various questions that have been at issue. It was, however, defeated. Hearings were held before the Committees on the Judiciary in each House, and a favorable report secured in the assembly. In the senate there was no report. When the bill was placed on the order of final passage in the assembly, the adverse vote was 61 ayes to The fact that it was advanced at all was due very 50 noes. largely to the untiring efforts of Col Sanger, and to the assistance given him by Mr. Robbins, chairman of the Assembly Committee on the Judiciary.

In the absence of legislation it will be necessary to secure the enforcement of the amendment during the coming year through the courts. A suit designed to test the legality of appointments without examination to a number of excepted places in the Brooklyn municipal service, has already been commenced under the auspices of the Brooklyn Civil Service Reform Association. Another suit will probably be brought shortly in the matter of the employees of the recently organized State Department of Excise. The liquor tax law, commonly known as the "Raines Law," provided for the appointment of a large number of subordinate employees. special agents, of whom there are sixty, were described in the bill as the "confidential agents of the Commissioner," the design being to secure their exemption from examination on the pretense that the persons to occupy relations to the Commissioner of so delicate and confidential a character must be selected by him personally. Governor Morton was requested on behalf of the Civil Service Reform association and other bodies to classify these and other subordinates of the new department in the competitive schedules, as the constitution

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undoubtedly requires. He failed to do so, promulgating a classification that included these offices in either the exempt or non-competitive schedules. State Comptroller Roberts has since held that he has not the authority to sign warrants for the payment of salaries to persons appointed to these positions without examination, and has stated positively that he will not do so. It will be remembered that the Comptroller refused to pay the salaries of persons appointed without examination by Superintendent Aldridge, to positions in the Department of Public Works. It was in a suit brought to compel him to make such payments that the decisions of the Court of Appeals were given construing the constitutional amendment and holding that these and all other positions in which examinations are practicable, must be classified competitively. It is likely that a similar suit to compel payment will be brought by an employé of the Excise Department. If this proves to be the case the Executive Committee of this association will be represented in the defence, and steps have already been taken toward securing competent counsel.

Although the competitive lists in the State service have been extended largely during the year, much wider extensions are still necessary to give the constitutional amendment full effect. A letter has been prepared, and will be submitted herewith, addressed to the Governor and the State Commission, asking that they at once take the necessary steps toward securing these extensions, (1) by placing in the competitive schedules all positions which it is practicable to fill by examination; (2) by establishing a system of labor registration for the employment of laborers and mechanics on the canals, the new capitol and other public works; and (3) by insisting that the municipal classification in each city shall also be based upon the principle that there shall be competition wherever practicable. It will be an important part of the programme of the Committee's work for the coming year to secure these important advances.

The State Civil Service Commission has been reorganized during the year by the retirement of Commissioner McKinstry, and the appointment by Governor Morton of ex-Senator George P. Lord, of Yates county, a gentleman whose reputation had been that of a practical politician, and whose lack of sympathy with the purposes of Civil Service Reform, and of