REPORT OF THE COMMISSION.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Dec. 31, 1911.

Honorable Charles S. Deneen, Governor of Illinois:

DEAR SIR-The State Civil Service Commission respectfully submits for your consideration its sixth annual report for the year ending Dec. 31, 1911. The year covered by this report has been the most important one, as regards the work of the commission, since its organization. The amendments to the Act made by the Legislature of 1911 placed under the jurisdiction of the commission about 2,700 additional employés, bringing the total up to about 80 per cent of the entire State service. The amount and importance of the work of the commission thereby has been greatly increased.

Without your active and intelligent support this important step in placing the service of the State on a business like basis could never have been accomplished. The enactment of the civil service legislation during your administration will mark that period as one of the most important in the history of the State for the advancement of good government.

THE NEW SERVICE.

The new positions brought under the law are of a character wherein the constructive benefits of an intelligent administration of the law should show the greatest results. A civil service law is not self executing, and its beneficial results depend on the intelligence and faithfulness of those on whom rests the responsibility of its administration. On the other hand, however faithful and untiring a commission may be in choosing proper examiners and proper selective methods, if through too low compensation or because of the character of the work, positions do not attract the best applicants, the commission cannot furnish them. The quality of the eligible list cannot rise higher than the source of its supply. For the reason that the new service contains such a greater per cent of positions that are attractive to the public, the commission will be enabled to supply the State with a higher grade of employés. Moreover, so many positions in the new service require technical, and if not technical at least very exacting requirements, that civil service methods of selection should soon demonstrate their great worth in the new material sent into the service. The opportunities for the commission to secure good results have been greatly increased.

The new service includes such important departments as that of Insurance, the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, including the important branch of Grain Inspection, all employés exclusive of clerks and watchmen in the offices of the Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction; and the employés of the Canal Commission, State Entomologist, Director of the Geological Survey, administrative employés of the University of Illinois, the Factory Inspection, Food Inspection, Board of Health, Fire Marshal, Board of Pharmacy, Labor Bureau, Highway Commission, the three penal and reformatory institutions, Live Stock Commission, Mining Board, Laboratory of Natural History, Board of Arbitration, Board of Pardons, and the Rivers and Lakes Commission.

One hundred and two separate payrolls pass through the office of the commission; most of them monthly, a few quarterly, and some only occasionally when expenses happen to be incurred. These latter include such departments as the penitentiary commission and the park commission, which have no permanent force of employés. For the month of December, 1911, these payrolls contained the names of 4,477 civil service employés, and of 144 exempt employes, with salaries totalling $246,810.81.

NEW FEATURES OF THE LAW.

The greater extent of the service was not the only result of the amendments of 1911. Many of the important features and provisions of the law were changed.

One of the amendments provided that one name only should be certified by the commission for either original or promotional appointments. Originally, the commission certified three names for both original and promotional appointments. A subsequent amendment reduced the promotional certification to one, and now the certification is limited to one in both cases. This is in accord with the advance of civil service legislation and administration. Recently in the city of New York, where the commission under their law certified three names for original appointment, Mayor Gaynor issued an order that appointing officers should limit their right of selection to the highest one certified. Illinois is a pioneer in this feature of the law, and if the selective methods have been proper, as they should be, it is only just that the highest man should have the appointment. Also, thereby will be removed any temptation for the use of influence among the three highest to secure appointment. In this connection, the law provides that the eligible when appointed shall be on probation for a period of three months. This period of probation is a test of actual experience with the employé, a trial of his adaptability, competency and faithfulness, which is in reality the final part of his examination. If within this period, he does not meet the requirements of the position, he is dropped from the service and not until he has served the period of probation does his appointment become complete.

Another important amendment provides that before an employé can be discharged he must be given an opportunity to be heard before the commission or before some officer or board appointed by the commission. Manifestly, with the widely scattered service throughout the State, it would be inexpedient and too expensive for the members of the commission to conduct the hearings at the various localities where branches of the service are located. There were selected, therefore, public spirited citizens of high character, living at the points where hearings would be required, to represent the commission as investigating officers. The reports and recommendations of these officers are subject to the approval of the commission. The commission has been fortunate in securing able and conscientious representatives for these places. These officers have undertaken their hearings or investigations, when called upon by the heads of institutions or departments, with alacrity and keen interest in the matters before them. At Lincoln, Mrs. Caroline C. Lutz acts in this capacity for the commission, and has demonstrated that a woman can fully meet the requirements of the position.

EFFICIENCY RECORDS.

The safeguarding of the selection of employés is by no means the only duty imposed upon the commission by the new law. The commission is to keep a careful record of the efficiency of the employés in the classified service. Again the State is only following out the methods used by large employers of labor in the business world to maintain the most. efficient organization. The development of the efficiency system under the new law will revolutionize the character of work in the State service. The employés will know that unless they keep up to a standard of faithfulness, attendance and proficiency, they will automatically force themselves out of the service. The employé also knows that the record of daily work performed will be used for or against him in further promotion in the service. The result of the administration of these duties imposed by the new amendments to the Civil Service law cannot be otherwise than to raise the standard of the whole classified service of the State.

STANDARDIZATION.

The commission is also commanded to standardize the classified service of the State. Pursuant to this requirement the commission employed experts who have chartered and standardized each position in the classified service. For the first time the Legislature will have for its inspection in making appropriations for the various departments a complete chart showing the salaries paid for every position of like service and the distribution of all these positions among the various departments. This will show inequalities of compensation and title. Upon this information can be based measures for economy in the State service that will pay many times the expenses of the administration of the Civil Service law.

In a paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League, held at Philadelphia during the month of December of this year, President Moulton touched upon the new features of the law in part as follows:

It is not so much the extent of civil service in Illinois that I wish to speak of as the unique development of distinctively local ideas in the laws themselves. These features are, first, the rigidity of the laws, so far as exemptions are concerned; second, the necessity of a hearing by the commission before a discharge can be made; and third, the incorporation of standardization and efficiency requirements in the laws. There is a fourth which I shall not touch upon, namely, the certification of but one name for appointment, now a part of all the laws in the State.

And first the removal from the commission of the power to make exemptions. We do not take much stock in Illinois in the confidential nature of public positions, and none whatever in the impracticability of competition. Our laws make but few exemptions and these generally are limited to heads of principal departments. The commissions have no power to classify as exempt or non-competitive any position in the service. The Legislature did that once for all in the statute. The city of Chicago Act exempts only the legal staff and the heads of principal departments. Out of some 25,000 employés there are but 36 exempt aside from the legal staff. The first State law covered only the charitable institutions and exempted on the confidential ground one private secretary or stenographer for each superintendent and the chief clerk of each institution. In 1909 the new Board of Administration Act removed these from the exempt class and placed them under the Civil Service Law with the acquiesence of the superintendents. In the amendments of the present year extending the law over practically the entire State service, we again find the private secretary, or stenographer, for each of the six elective officers, exempted on this ground. The confidential nature on which these exemptions were based related to political matters, not public secrets. After six years as an administrator of this law, I have yet to find any reason based on the alleged confidential nature or on the impracticability of competition which should exempt a position. In administering the law we are absolutely relieved of all the troubles of the New York commission, for we cannot exempt a single position.

All Illinois laws now have the provision that a hearing by the commission must be had on all charges filed against an employé before he can be discharged or suspended. This provision was incorporated in the State law. this year, and we have been working under it since July 1st. I presume we have about ten discharges a month, and as yet I have not seen any evidence that the discipline has suffered or the responsible officers hampered. On the other hand, it is developing some good features not thought of. For instance, we have appointed as hearing, or investigating officers, at various points in the State, public spirited citizens of high standing in the community. These citizen-officers have developed an unexpected interest and capacity. Keeping in close touch with the service and the work of the commission, they have become advocates of civil service in their respective communities.

Further, many heads of institutions seem to be glad to have a convenient official on whom they can throw the burden of a particularly disagreeable investigation. I believe this feature of it will grow and the heads of departments will find in these investigating officers a real and valuable auxiliary in the enforcement of discipline.

Taking up the third feature we find that section 3 (a) of the State law provides as follows: "SECTION 3 (a). STANDARDIZATION]. The commission shall ascertain the duties of each office and place in the classified service and designate by rule the grade of each position. Each grade shall comprise offices and places having substantially similar duties. The commission shall by rule indicate the lines of promotion from each lower grade to a higher grade wherever the