in private business to render temporary and occasional service, presents continual difficulty. Some provision of this nature is absolutely essential to the efficiency and practical administration of the law. The departments from time to time find it necessary to call in outside aid, which may be that of a lawyer for a particular litigation, a scientific expert to deal with an emergency, a stenographer at some remote point to take testimony for an hour, or a mere assistant in detecting a milk adulteration. The Commission endeavors to deal with such emergencies in a liberal spirit, but it finds application under this rule resorted to in many cases which, starting as mere temporary employment, tend to become by reason of the recurrence of the emergency practically permanent. Applications are also made under it to fill positions of a temporary character when a little foresight might make possible the employment of persons from eligible lists of reasonable appropriateness. To prevent abuse of the privileges of this rule, the Commission feels obliged to refuse exceptions under it in cases where with reasonable notice persons on an appropriate eligible list might be found to do the work, and except in cases of emergency to refuse to certify under it the payrolls of persons whose employment was not authorized in advance by the Commission.

The County Service.

At a meeting of the Commission held on June 30th, a resolution was adopted classifying the service in the counties of Chautauqua, Nassau, Niagara, Oneida, Orange, Rensselaer, Suffolk and Ulster, and on July 15th the Governor signed the resolution, to take effect on August 1st. As a result of this classification, approximately 331 positions were brought under the jurisdiction of the State Commission, divided as follows: Unclassified, 72; exempt, 64; competitive, 174; noncompetitive, 21. It is obvious that in extending the classification to small counties where each office has comparatively few assistants, the proportion of exempt places will be large. In classifying these counties the Commission followed strictly the lines of demarcation established last year in the reclassification of the larger counties, which largely reduced the number of exemptions in them. With this extension of classification, the service in seventeen counties is now under the Civil Ser

vice Rules, and it is believed that all of the counties have been classified in which the service is not at present so small, or so largely organized under the fee system, as to make classification impracticable. The policy adopted in the classification of county Superintendents of Highways in all counties may lead to the extension of the rules in other counties to particular offices where appointment by competition would prove beneficial.

The Commission finds that the embarrassment growing out of the decision of the Court of Appeals in the case of Flaherty vs. Milliken continues. That decision held that the employees of a sheriff engaged in the civil work of his office were his personal agents and, so far as the Civil Service Law was concerned, were not public employees at all. Nevertheless, it imposed upon the Commission the duty of certifying their payrolls. Great difficulty is experienced in finding out what employees of the sheriff are necessarily in whole or in part engaged in civil work. When a sheriff desires to make new appointments he is insistent that they must be allowed to do civil work. When he is going out of office and wishes his own appointees to enjoy the protection of the competitive classification, he is perfectly ready to certify that some of them are only engaged in the criminal work of his office. The Commission appreciates the objections to the passage of any law changing the long established rule that the sheriff and not the county is liable for the torts of the sheriff in civil actions, but it believes that a statute might be so framed as to differentiate more clearly between the administration of the civil and the criminal functions of the sheriff, and make possible a classification which is not dependent on the whim of the appointing officer, or the possible ability of the Commission to satisfy a court that a sheriff's assignment of an employee to civil work is made arbitrarily for the purpose of affecting the classification.

The recent elections brought to attention a tendency among other officers than sheriffs to discover suddenly the virtues of the competitive classification. Republicans were chosen to county offices in New York County which had been controlled by Democrats, and in Kings County Democrats were elected to succeed Republicans. Immediately requests were made to the Commission by outgoing officials in both counties in behalf of incumbents

of exempt places to have them placed in the competitive class. Among the applicants was the county clerk of Kings county, who, after litigating for two years with the Commission to secure the exemption of an assistant cashier, asked that the still more responsible and confidential position of assistant deputy county clerk, which had been left to him as a personal appointment, should be made competitive for the sake of protecting his appointee. The State Commissioners were also asked to co-operate with the Municipal Commission of New York city in making similar reclassifications in the city finance department. All these requests were de nied. The Commission might have collected an interesting series of testimonials from appointing officers as to the practicability of competition for positions concerning which it has hitherto been considered doubtful, but it believed that even extension of the competitive class merely to safeguard patronage already distributed, though requested by officials of both parties, would be as improper and tend as much to discredit the merit system as the granting of exemptions for the creation of patronage. The abolition of exemp tions which may be found unnecessary is desirable, even though it incidentally covers into the competitive class persons appointed by favor, but the Commission declines to use its power of reclassification because of political changes, or for any purpose but the improvement of the public service.

Cities.

The policy of periodical inspection of the work of municipal commissions has been continued, and this year the cities of Auburn, Binghamton, Cortland, Cohoes, Fulton, Geneva, Kingston, Hudson, Lockport, Mt. Vernon, Newburgh, New Rochelle, Ogdensburg, Port Jervis, Poughkeepsie, Schenectady, Troy, Watertown and Yonkers have been visited. The only city in which practices calling for severe condemnation were found was Cohoes, where it was discovered that the Commissioners were almost entirely neglectful of their duty, and that little attempt was being made to enforce the law. The mayor, with the city attorney of Cohoes, appeared of his own volition before the Commission on December 2nd, and offered to take any steps deemed desirable for the reform of the service. If the State Commission had cited the

municipal commissioners to show cause why they should not be removed, and had found, after hearing, reason for removal, and had appointed new commissioners in their places, these commissioners would have gone out of office after only a few weeks service with the end of the present mayor's term. The present mayor has, however, been re-elected, and it appeared to the Commission that the best interests of the service would be promoted by placing upon him the responsibility for organizing a new commission, constituted to secure reforms, which would probably continue in office. At the request of the State Commission, the mayor asked the resignation of all three municipal commissioners, and has appointed a new commission which shows every disposition to learn its duties and to perform them along lines suggested by the State Commission.

These periodical investigations of cities are bearing good fruit. The improvements in methods suggested after one visit are generally found to have been put in force at the next, and on the whole, the Civil Service Law is much more strictly enforced and intelligently administered in the small cities of the State than it was but a few years ago. One of the chief weaknesses of the system in the small cities, however, and one responsible for the greater part of such retrogression as has in some few cases occurred, is the lack of continuity of administration. In the third class cities commissioners are paid little or nothing, and often have no staff of assistants. Sometimes a clerk, often appointed by somebody else and having other duties, is assigned to help them. A new municipal administration, especially if a change of political control occurs, is likely to make an entire change in the personnel of the Commission, and the office is filled by men entirely inexperienced who do not take their work seriously. Every municipal commission in a third class city should have a chief examiner appointed by the commission as a result of competition, who if the service does not warrant a second employee should also serve as secretary. He should be solely responsible to the commission for the performance of his duties, and not to the mayor, and he should receive a sufficient salary to secure the thorough performance of his work, and his continuance in office. Such an attache would acquire experience and be able to carry the work

of one commission on to another, and prevent that complete breakdown in the application of the Civil Service Law which sometimes occurs in third class cities where there is no public opinion to secure its enforcement.

The Commission is endeavoring to secure so far as possible uniform rules for cities of the second class. On January 1, 1908, when Schenectady, Utica and Yonkers were added to that class, their classifications were revised to harmonize with those of other cities of the same rank. The State Commission suggested to other second class cities a uniform classification for positions of chief of police and chief of fire department, which were variously classified. This suggestion has been followed and in all the second class cities these positions are now in the noncompetitive class, with the proviso that no person shall be nominated for examination who is not connected with the department either in the first or second grade below that of chief.

During the present year, following the opinion of the AttorneyGeneral holding that the position of sealer of weights and measures is in the unclassified service, the suggestion was made to commissions in cities of the second class that where necessary the rules should be amended to conform to this opinion. The Commission is now endeavoring to secure a uniform rule in cities of the second class relative to the term of eligibility of promotion lists. In some, the term is now one year, while in others it is four. The Commission recommends a maximum term of two years as best meeting the conditions in cities of this size.

In March last, the State Commission requested all the municipal commissions in the State, except that of New York city, to file thereafter with the State Commission notices of all open competitive and noncompetitive examinations as soon as called, and to file immediately subsequent to each of such examinations copies of question papers and the scheme of rating used therein. This request was received by the municipal commissions in good spirit and called forth many expressions of approval. The reports have been promptly filed and the examination papers have been found in the main satisfactory, and where defects have been discovered or opportunities for improvement noted, suggestions to that effect have been cordially received. Cities which were failing to make