pointment, had to accept or decline. No other course was open to him. If he declined the position and salary for which he was examined, his name, under the rules, could not be so certified again by the Commission. In one week that evil had come to an end in every department of the city government.

It must be remembered that Mayor Gaynor set the practice of the competitive merit system far beyond the civil service rules when he issued an order making it compulsory for the Police Commissioner and the Fire Commissioner to make appointments from the civil service eligible lists in exact numerical order, without exceptions. That made favoritism impossible. The public servant could hold his head up and do his duty without fear. He knew that he had secured his place by his own merits. No political boss or organization could pretend that it had helped him. He was free to serve the city without fear or favor. Although not under written orders, the Dock Commissioner, the Tenement House Commissioner and the Commissioner of Correction, out of sympathy with the Mayor's policy, also made appointments in strict numerical order.

But the enemies of any system of government are not always to be found on the outside. So it has been in New York City. Until a few months ago there was a spirit of conspiracy developed within the ranks of the public service which broke down a large part of the competitive promotion system. Through intimidation on the part of superior officers, or through combinations among the eligibles employed, themselves, in order to reward a favorite, it was a frequent practice that all but one of the persons eligible to take part in a promotion examination would send to the Civil Service Commission written waivers of their rights. Then, under the rules, the head of the department would ask to have the remaining eligible, who had not waived his rights, promoted without competition.

That was a vicious abuse. The effect on the public service was deplorable. It struck at the heart of the most substantial, just and practical part of the civil service merit system. Whatever may be said about the

difficulty of ascertaining the actual efficiency of candidates through written examination for original entrance to the service, no such criticism applies to promotion examinations. Every public employe in the city has his efficiency record entered in a book by his superiors once every three months. It shows the kind and quantity of his work, his general conduct and punctuality. To this is added his length of service. The whole public service is thus on three months as satisfactory, more than satisfactory, and less than satisfactory. As these records have a weight of one-half of the whole weight in all promotion examinations, it will be seen that nothing could be fairer and nothing better adapted to show a public servant's real worth.

record

Such a promotion system is intended to keep alive hope and ambition and to stimulate a spirit of selfimprovement. Every candidate knows that his ability to rise in the service depends on his own merits. This is the splendid device for good government and for the recognition of ability and faithful service which was being wrecked by coercion and by combination. The Commission refused to recognize the waivers of persons eligible for promotion. Many devices were resorted to, to continue the practice of promoting favorites without competition, but all were futile. The Commission would not make exceptions. Then a bureau in one department sent in twenty waivers from twenty-one persons eligible for promotion. The department asked that the remaining eligible be promoted, under the rules, without competition. The instant answer of the Commission was to order an open competitive examination for the vacant place, and also to order a competitive promotion examination. When the time for filing applications for the promotion examination had expired and it was found that only one person had applied-he being the person who had procured the twenty waivers for his purpose-the Commission cancelled the order for the promotion examination, on the ground that an effective list could not result, and ordered that the vacancy could not be filled except by a stranger from the open competitive list. At that time the Commission also decided that the same method would

be employed to stop any other similar attempt to cheat the competitive principle in promotion.

The results of the new enforcement of the promotion system in New York are already impressive, although the reform has been in operation only a few months. The competitive promotion examinations ordered in the last two months amount to something like 30 per cent more than were ordered in the whole of last year. The Commission's examiners estimate that more than five hundred civil employes will have entered promotion examinations by the end of the year who would have been kept away under the now-ended waiver method of defeating the law.

Not only that, but the Commission has further protected the promotion system by refusing to allow any department to alter the efficiency records set down to the credit of its employees. The ratings are made when the facts are fresh in the minds of superior officers. It would make a farce of these ratings if it were possible for an administrative officer or his representatives to go back over efficiency records and alter them in order to give the advantage to their favorite in promotions.

To make it certain that efficiency records are kept continuously and with absolute uniformity throughout all departments of the city, the Commission has decided that wherever the records are not maintained properly and subject to frequent inspection by its examiners, no promotions will be allowed in that department and vacancies will have to be filled from open competitive lists.

I can hardly sufficiently acknowledge the assistance given by the Civil Service Reform Association in calling attention to abuses, and it was a complaint by the Association that led to the defeat of an unlawful appointment to the important position of general medical superintendent and the reform of a loose, lawless practice in certifications by the Commission itself.

The Relation of Organized Labor to Civil

Service Reform

BY HONORABLE SAMUEL B. DONNELLY, UNITED STATES

PUBLIC PRINTER

The relation of organized labor to civil service reform

has been one of agreement.

Coincident with the origin of the civil service reform movement the associations of workingmen initiated their efforts for national federation and in their national conventions evidenced an interest in the problems of government and civil administration.

In England, sometimes called the classic country of

trades

unionism, the civil service system was well devel

oped. The opponents of civil service reform in America prophesied that a civil service aristocracy similar to one said to exist in England would be created in this country if the reform movement were successful, but the trades unions were not at all alarmed by these prophecies, particularly for the reason that the English system had in nowise interfered with or hampered the growth of the trades union movement in that country.

of employment of laborers and mechanics by the governWhen this movement had its inception, the conditions ment of the United States and the several states and municipalities therein were comparatively the same as the conditions of employment in private industry. The object of trades union policy at that time was stated in fewer words and was more comprehensive than the announced policy of today. The primary object was the

securing

of a living wage and the establishing of a shorter

working day.

Further than that, the securing of permanent employ

ment

is their labor, whose means of subsistence are at an end

was and is the great desire of those whose capital

the

moment their labor is not turned into value. To at

tain this much-desired end, the efforts of the advocates of

civil service reform co-operate most powerfully with the working men, organized and unorganized, and no one recognizes this fact more clearly than they do.

For many years the different trades have striven to secure the betterment of their membership through organized effort. While the workers in many trades had always had specific grievances which they sought to redress and particular rights which they desired to maintain, one of the declared rights for which the mine workers' union was organized was one that municipal employees in many cities long contended for, namely, the right to spend their wages where they chose. Another right for which they contended and which was frequently denied employees of municipalities was the right to receive and enjoy the fruits of their labor without interference.

An aged and distinguished citizen of New York City in recent years offered proof of the saying that "there is nothing new under the sun," and derived much pleasure by exhibiting a souvenir of his career as commissioner of parks more than half a century ago, consisting of a notice which he posted upon the sides of all park vehicles, informing the employees that the offering for sale or endeavoring to induce employees of the department to purchase tickets for raffles, benefits, dances, or political outings by superintendents, foremen, or any other employees, would result in the discharge of the offender.

Such abuses of the power of the employer are manifestly impossible under the civil service law. Merit is the sole prerequisite to employment. Fidelity and continued capacity ensure a steady tenure of it. For the government of this ever-growing Republic knows no seasons, in the ordinary transaction of the public business, when the deadly "lay off" deprives its employees of the means of turning their stock in trade-labor of hand or brain. -into that which means the enjoyment of existence for themselves and family.

The sympathy with civil service reform by the trades. unions was to some extent the result of the ability of their members and leaders, commencing as they were the study of economic conditions, to realize that the old system encouraged inefficiency, extravagance and waste. The practice of employing great numbers of men during cer