Chief Examiner's Annual Report.

ALBANY, N. Y., December 31, 1896.

The New York Civil Service Commission, Albany, N. Y.:

GENTLEMEN.-- In accordance with the usual custom, I have the honor to submit the following report of Civil Service examinations held during the past year:

Competitive Examinations.

Number of Applicants and Growth of Competition.

The number of applicants examined in competitive examinations during the past year is 3,829, two and two-thirds times as many as were examined last year, and substantially as many as were examined in competitive examinations during the whole of the first eleven years of the Commission's history. In no one of the first nine years of the Commission did the number examined competitively exceed 400, but during the last four years the number has increased beyond expectation and out of all comparison to previous years. At the same time the appropriations provided for the examinations of this department have been only slightly increased; a fact which has had its effect in rendering some of the later examinations less satisfactory than the earlier ones.

The character of the applicants is on the whole substantially that of previous years, but it is noticeable that the first competitive examination for any position does not call out a class of applicants so well qualified as the subsequent examinations, and that as more examinatious are held for the same position, even though the standard is raised, the proportion of candidates who are successful usually becomes greater and greater. This result is no doubt principally due to the fact that those who are specially qualified for the position in question withhold themselves from a competitive examination in the first instance on the supposition that the examination will not be

a practical one, directed fairly to test their fitness for the position, but as they see the results and the questions used in prior examinations they are convinced that the examination is in fact a fair test of comparative merit and are willing to come forward for such a test. If this be the true reason, it is of itself a vindication of the competitive system as now administered from the common criticism that "the examinations are not practical."

Not only is competition growing in favor among the applicants of the better class who more and more see that it is practically and fairly conducted, but there have been some striking instances of its growing favor with appointing officers within the past year. One appointing officer who had a vast amount of new work thrust upon him, involving the employment of some three or four hundred additional men for work requiring technical knowledge, was reported as saying that had it not been for the protection given him by the Civil Service rules, he would have been obliged to resign, on account of the pressure of applicants seeking those places. In another case an appointing officer in a new department having to appoint a large number of subordinates of a particular kind had them classified in the non-competitive class on the ground, as he stated it, that "if the appointing officer were left free to select his own agents after personal investigation of their character and then could have them subjected to a most rigid examination by the Civil Service authorities," such a method would result in an ideal corps of employes. It is interesting to note that this head of a department did actually nominate under the non-competitive rule for these positions a class of twenty-five or more candidates, none of whom he had ever seen or known anything of except that they were recommended by his friends; and he afterward remarked that it was an outrage that the friends of an appointing officer should force him to appoint such people. Legal complications having arisen in connection with this same class of appointees, they were later classified in the competitive schedule, and after a competitive examination of a very large number of applicants, the remaining vacancies were filled by selection from the eligible lists. The only criticism that the head of this department has since made is that he was compelled to accept from the list, on account of the veteran preference, a class of men who were, on account of their age and the hardships they had endured in

their military service, unfitted physically for the strain of the work required.

After a careful study of the decisions of the courts interpreting the veteran preference clause of the Constitution, I am convinced that limits of age fixed for good reason, as preliminary conditions for admission to examination for any special position, are applicable to veterans as well as to all other candidates and that, therefore, the condition which interfered with the successful application of competition in this instance can be avoided in future cases if proper care be taken to fix proper age limits and physical requirements in advance. This same appointing officer has repeatedly said that if the veteran preference did not prevent, and he could appoint the men who actually attained the highest percentage in the examination, he would be able to secure a most efficient force of employes.

Character of Examinations.

In fixing the character of the examinations I have been guided by the precedents set by my predecessor, Mr. Carmody. Examinations for new positions have, so far as practicable, been framed after the pattern of old examinations for positions requiring substantially the same grade of attainments.

A criticism which is frequently made, justly if not always with sincere motives, is that for a large class of positions the candidate who is best fitted to perform the work is generally unable to pass a satisfactory written examination, even though the questions set are properly prepared and are in themselves pertinent to the duties of the position, and it has been urged that for such positions it would be much more satisfactory to have oral examinations and practical tests conducted in the presence of the examiner and marked for the intelligence and practical skill displayed. That this is not a fault inherent in the competitive system will be shown by the few instances described below in which practical tests have been satisfactorily applied and rated as part of the examination, but the obstacle which has prevented the more general use of such tests is mainly a matter of expense. An oral examination to be at all satisfactory must be conducted by an expert in the trade or specialty for which the candidates are being examined, and the questions and answers should, so far as practicable, be recorded stenographically, and the record transcribed and

filed with the written examination of the candidate. The cost of this work is beyond the reach of our present appropriations. For example, I may state that the stenographers' bills for the oral examination of candidates for engineering positions in December, 1895, amounted to about $200. The members of the examining board were limited in compensation to our statutory rate of $5 per day; but even at that rate the oral examination required six additional days' work at a cost of $30, besides the traveling expenses of the examiners; and if these examiners had been paid anything like the sum they would receive commercially for expert work of this character, the cost would have been many times as large.

At the rate we are now allowed to pay it is almost impossible to secure the actual presence of the expert examiners for whole days at the examination. If they are willing to do our work at all at the rate allowed them, they insist upon being allowed to take it to their homes or offices, and to do it at such odd times as they can find free without interfering with their regular professional duties.

Under the new classification we shall be obliged to hold examinations for many trades and callings for which the oral examinations and practical tests will be even more essential than for any held in the past.

As regards practical tests in examinations for positions requiring skill in any craft or trade, the question is again one of the possibility of having the necessary plant and expert examiners. The New York City Civil Service Boards have an arrangement by which their applicants in the various trades are sent to the New York Trade Schools for competitive practical examination. In the State service such competitive tests are available and have been used for positions in State institutions, such as those at Elmira and Rochester, where the requisite plant was available. It will be my study in the future, as in the past, to make such tests come as near the ideal as possible.

Another criticism of the competitive system often advanced is that it affords the appointing officer no guarantee of the good character of the applicant. This criticism, like the one just discussed, is to a certain extent just. The New York City Civil Service Boards have also devised a scheme for meeting this criticism to some extent by what they call" character examinations." This consists of a system

of specific and direct inquiries by letters of persons who vouch for the applicant's character and persons who have previously employed him or are acquainted especially with his educational career. Steps are also taken to satisfy the examiner that the persons of whom such inquiry is made are citizens of good reputation in the community. In case the reply to such inquiry is indirect or incomplete or consists of mere general statements, the character examiner visits the person of whom inquiry is made and makes every effort to obtain satisfactory evidence either for or against the applicant's general character and trustworthiness. Although this system is probably not perfect, it is the best I have been able to discover in use, and undoubtedly does succeed in throwing out the greater number of the candidates whose previous record shows them to be unfit for the public service; and this method in connection with the rule allowing a name to be stricken from the eligible list for after-discovered defects of character would seem to come as near a satisfactory solution of this problem as can be obtained at present.

Examining Boards.

I have found, as have preceding chief examiners, much embarrassment from the unsatisfactory statutory provision for examiners, which is alluded to above. The difficulty is easier to see than to remedy. The trouble has been alleviated somewhat by the appointment of Mr. Saxton as examiner, but if the work of examination continues to grow as in the past, additional provisons of the same kind must be made.

An entire recast of the section of the statute giving the Commission authority to employ subordinates would seem to be necessary to meet the case. I would suggest that an attempt be made to secure an amendment of section 3 of chapter 354 of the Laws of 1884, substantially as follows:

"Section 3. Said Commission is authorized to employ a Chief Examiner, a part of whose duty it shall be under its direction to act with the Examining Boards so far as practicable, whether at Albany or elsewhere, and to secure accuracy, uniformity and justice in all their proceedings, which shall be at all times open to him. The Chief Examiner shall be entitled to receive a salary at the rate of $3,600 a year, and he shall be paid his necessary traveling expenses