it a remarkable set of papers. I have gone over these papers again very carefully and am impressed with their perfectness and the thoroughness of their essential details."

The farms at Kankakee and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home are managed by two men from this list and any one with an investigating turn of mind need only visit those two farms as at present managed to be convinced of the effectiveness of the system.

SEEK TRAINED HOSPITAL SERVICE.

Nursing Service.-Startling as it may seem, there was at the time the Civil Service Act went into effect only one graduate or trained nurse in the hospital service for the insane in Illinois. The service had in charge approximately 10,000 patients. The untrained attendants from the farm and other occupations went on the wards, containing hundreds of physically sick cases, with no other instruction than "do the best you can." Other than the physicians, they came in contact with no one who could instruct them, as the supervising nurses were themselves untrained in the care of the sick. Such a service was not a hospital service. Soon after appointment this Commission began an agitation for training schools for nurses through the service. This met with no little opposition on the part of some of the superintendents. Later we had the able assistance of the Board of Charities. Since the Civil Service law went into effect we have sent into the service fifty-seven graduates of recognized training schools. A competent chief nurse now heads the nursing service of every hospital for the insane with graduate nurses under her as charge nurses. Moreover, a training school for nurses has been established at each of the hospitals, and the hospitals for the insane are now producing and will continue to produce something of the greatest value to the State.

In every community where a woman goes with the training of a nurse she is a more valuable citizen. Country girls to whom the training school of the city is closed because of expense now find training within their reach. When it is considered that the training schools are situated in the large cities where the applicant for the training must go for three years at her own expense-often indeed paying for the training while at work in the hospital-the advantage offered by the State in the hospitals for the insane will be apparent. In the latter the nurse in training not only does not pay for her valuable instructions, but she receives compensation for her work while in training. A pupil nurse who, like a physician, may desire post graduate work in a general hospital after her three years of training, may thus save enough money to meet the expense of such additional training. On the side of the service it is needless to say that the attendant instructed is of more value than the one untrained. The very contact of the raw attendant with the intelligent nurse from the training school is of itself both am incentive and a constant guide.

Under the new rules of the Board of Administration, all charge nurses must be graduate nurses. When the training schools shall have been thoroughly organized the standard of nursing in the hospitals for the insane will have made a tremendous advance.

EXTERMINATE HOSPITAL ROUNDERS.

The Commission, upon its creation, immediately began the work of eliminating the "hospital tramp." He is the canker of the insane hospital service. He is the experienced attendant who cannot be satisfied. in any institution. He is not susceptible to discipline. He demoralizes the new or inexperienced employés who enter the service with a desire to give the patients the same care they would like to see their own relatives receive, if so unfortunate as to possess relatives who are suffering from mental ailments. The "hospital tramp" knows how to abuse a patient without leaving marks on his body. He knows how to conceal those abuses by terrorizing the new employés or by convincing them that they "must protect each other by concealing all evidence should the hospital authorities learn that a patient has been abused." If it be discovered that the "tramp" is responsible for the abuse and discharged, he goes to an adjoining state and readily secures employment. In the old days he was able to obtain assignment in the other hospitals in Illinois, as no record was maintained that enabled the superintendents to know what was going on. Some of the superintendents tried to protect their institutions against the "tramp" by exchanging letters, but this method was found unsatisfactory and often unproductive of results. When the Civil Service Law became effective it assumed the duty of exterminating this pest so far as lay in its power. Through the fact that all employés must come through a central office, this work was and is rendered much easier than under the old system of individual employment. One superintendent stated that the work of the Commission in this single matter would justify its existence. Another superintendent writes: "Aside from the medical staff, we have been aided by the Commission especially in the elimination of the 'hospital tramp' or institutional rounder. Those people have been the bane of the service and the perpetrators of the institutional abuses which so completely shook public confidence in the institutional methods in the past."

HIGHER EXECUTIVE OFFICES.

One often hears the statement that while civil service may be all right for the minor positions, it would not be successful in the selection. of the higher executive places. As a matter of fact, it is really there. that a civil service system can produce its best results. It is there that the protection of civil service to the skilled head and the care taken under the civil service system of selection is needed the most. If any one should be skilled and able, it is the head of a department. He is the mainspring of the whole mechanism. In the selection of such an executive officer no rigid written examination is required by law as many

pert

suppose. The examining or selecting board can go fully into his personal qualifications, as well as his experience and knowledge of the duties. Under the civil service system you have the united judgment of a board of the best men in any line of work to pass on the candidates. This board can call the candidates in before them and use other means to ascertain the candidate's personal qualifications.

Perhaps it would be better to give an illustration of a successful test for a higher officer conducted by this Commission for Executive Secretary of the Charities Commission, who receives $3,600 a year. The examination consisted of a preliminary oral qualifying examination on personal qualifications. Those who successfully passed the examining board in this regard were admitted to the general examination. It consisted of a paper on their education, training and experience with a weight of three; papers on the applicant's knowledge of the Charities Law and the duties of the position with a weight of five; and a report of an actual inspection of a State Hospital for the Insane and a County Almshouse, with a weight of two. Many well equipped applicants applied for this position. Six qualified and passed. The examiners who passed on the personal and other qualifications of the applicants were Alexander Johnson, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Secretary of the National Conference of Charities, who has known every Secretary of a similar State Commission and his work for the past twenty-five years; W. T. Cross, Secretary of the Missouri Board of Charities, and Demarchus Brown, of the Indiana Board of Charities.

In the selection of the eligibles for this place we had the united judgment of three of the best men for this purpose in the United States. Would it not be of the greatest value to the State to have its employés selected by men of this kind in every line? Is not this the most effiicient and practical method that could be used in the selection of public employés? Morever in this day of specialization, will not a department like the Civil Service Commission, devoting its whole time to the study of the questions of employés and employment, produce better results than to leave these questions to the heads of departments whose work is not so specialized and who are, more often than not, prevented from using even their best judgment by influences that are not always in the public interest? Even uninfluenced, not every man who understands the proper administration of a department is also a good judge of men. What is more to the point he has not the time nor opportunity to investigate as he would like the records of the applicants.

SYSTEM ATTRACTS APPLICANTS.

Under the civil service system you have the united judgment of experts in making the selection, a greater number to select from and hence a better opportunity to make a good selection. The ordinary private employer of labor usually is limited in his range of selection to his own acquaintances or those of his immediate friends. Sometimes he

may advertise to a limited extent. A Civil Service Commission, through its means of publicity, has the full extent of the State from which to draw its applicants.

First in importance in this use of publicity are the newspapers. Through this medium we reach every corner of the State, not only with paid advertisements but through the news columns. We notify the men and women of the State that opportunities of employment are awaiting them. In this service we desire to call attention to the more than ordinary assistance and interest taken by the press. Everywhere through the State the press are not only supporters of the civil service movement, but are ready and eager to render the Commission every assistance in their power. Often at examinations at local points the editor of the local paper will call, inquire into our methods of giving examinations, as to our success in securing good applicants, and always part with the request to let him know whenever he can be of assistance to us. On some examinations our advertisements will appear in twenty-five or more papers; while actual notice of the examination will be in four or five hundred more.

SERVICE OPEN TO THE PEOPLE.

Another source of publicity has been the postoffice. With the permission of the Treasury Department we had large placards calling attention to the needs of the service posted in 1,500 postoffices of the State. For teachers we have addressed all the county superintendents. At another time we called on 1,400 supervisors of the various counties. Through the Women's Clubs, through trades journals, and many other sources of publicity the Secretary of the Commission brings home to every man and woman in the State, if possible, a notice of our needs. It must become apparent that the Commission by these means must and does secure a far greater range and number of applicants than any ordinary means of employment could possibly attain. The wider the range of choice, the greater the opportunity to make a good selection. Morever, we are bringing home to all the citizens of the State an opportunity, to which they are entitled, of entering the public service. It is this equality to enter the public service that caused Theodore Roosevelt to characterize civil service as democratic a part of our government as the public school system, because it gives equal rights and opportunities to all-a condition that never could exist under the old system.

We not only bring notice of the opportunity to every citizen, but through local examiners, carefully selected at twenty-nine places in the State, we hold our examinations within easy reach of all. It speaks well for the care used in the selection of these local examiners that during the five years existence of this Commission, during which we have examined 9,786 applicants, not one complaint has ever been made, nor has any examiner ever violated the trust reposed in him.

SCOPE OF PRESENT LAW.

The present law places 2,500 positions in the classified service. They are in the seventeen state charitable institutions, the offices of the Board of Administration, and the Charities Commission. Their pay annually aggregates $1,165,658. Outside of the classified service the State employs approximately 2,600 persons. In the estimation of the Commission, there is no reason why they should not be placed under the operation of the law. Some exemptions may be made, such as teachers in the State Normal schools, the University of Illinois, and of certain confidential positions. The number of exemptions should not be large.

After the affirmative vote of the people of Illinois at the November election, the Commission began assembling the information it believed the Forty-seventh General Assembly would desire in passing upon the subject of extension, when it is reached. The Commission desires here to express its thanks and appreciation of the promptness and courteous responses of the various departments to its inquiries. The information. obtained is summarized in the following table.