good; that it had done constructive work which had distinctly improved the methods heretofore existing, and that there was no sufficient reason for its removal or the removal of any member of that commission. In conclusion we said that we were convinced that notwithstanding the past faults and errors of judgment referred to, which were perhaps in part due to the fact that the Commission took office in January, 1914, and that two of the commissioners had had no previous experience in the administration of the Civil Service Law, the commissioners were endeavoring with the best of intentions and good faith, and with increasing success, to uphold high standards, and properly administer the Civil Service Law and rules. Both our predecessors' and our own report have been printed for general distribution.

The Oswego Investigation

In July a complaint was lodged with the Commission as to the conduct of an open competitive examination for the position of patrolman in the service of the city of Oswego. An inspection of the papers of this examination and the records of the municipal civil service commission was made, and it appearing that there was considerable doubt as to the regularity of the examinations held by the local commission for the positions of chief of police, captain of police, patrolman, and fireman, it was decided that a formal investigation of the work of the municipal commission be made. The municipal commission having canceled the eligible lists requested the State Commission to hold examinations for the places mentioned. This was done and proper lists promulgated, with the result that several appointments have been made therefrom to fill vacancies which had existed for a long time.

The investigation was held August 2nd and 3rd, 1915, and at a meeting of the State Commission held September 9th a report thereon was received: It was the conclusion of the Commission. that the members of the Municipal Civil Service Commission and their secretary had failed to perform their duties, and it was decided to bring the facts to the attention of the mayor with the request that he ask for the resignations of the Commissioners.

The mayor in due time received the resignations, and the State

Commission acting under authority given it by section 11 of the Civil Service Law, proceeded to appoint the following persons, who entered upon their duties September 22, 1915: William H. Quigley, a prominent business man, in place of James P. Maney; Alexander C. Calish, M. D., a leading physician in the county, in place of Thomas Cunningham; and Richard K. Piez, ViceDirector of the Oswego State Normal School, in place of Byron A. Harris.

The new Commissioners were appointed with the knowledge and the approval of the mayor and at the first meeting of the Municipal Commission Mr. Quigley was elected president, and Commissioner Piez was appointed secretary to serve without compensation in the place of J. J. White, resigned.

Constitutional Convention

This Commission took an active interest in the work of the Constitutional Convention, and was in constant touch with the work of its civil service committee. We wish to record our appreciation of the very careful and intelligent work done by that committee, and of the study which it made of the administration of the Civil Service Law in the State and of the suggested amendments to the constitutional provisions on the subject of the civil service. We urged the committee to make no change in the present civil service clause of the Constitution and heartily approve of their determination not to adopt any of the very many amendments to it that were proposed, but to leave it as it stands. We were especially pleased with their decision not to grant a preference in appointment and promotion to any classes of citizens who are not now preferred, but to leave the admission to the service and promotion therein to competitive examinations open on equal terms to all classes of our citizens, except for the long standing preference for Civil War veterans. We believe that the inclusion in the constitutional provision of preference for Spanish War veterans, volunteer firemen, and members of the militia, would create favored classes which by excluding the ordinary citizen from entrance into or promotion in the civil service would tend to make the civil service of the State less democratic and less representative of our citizenship.

Physical and Character Investigations

The appropriations allowed the Commission have never enabled ito employ regular medical examiners or character investigators, and the result has been that for many years there has been no adequate consideration of the physical qualifications of candidates, or of their character. Many complaints have been received from appointing officers on these grounds, and we believe that appropriations should be made to enable us to employ regular medical examiners and character investigators, to the end that these important qualifications may be adequately tested. Other Civil Service Commissions - notably the Municipal Civil Service Commission of the City of New York, have appropriations therefor, and are doing this work with great success.

Conclusion

The Commission takes this opportunity to express its appreciation to the heads of several departments for assistance in the rating of examination papers; to the Attorney-General and his deputies for advice as to construction of statutory provisions, and for successful defense in litigations in which it was a party; to its own employees for faithful service; to the Civil Service Reform Association and employees for helpful suggestions; and to many others for their co-operation in making the constitutional mandate, that appointments to public office shall be for merit and fitness, more effective and better respected.

Accompanying this report will be found the civil list, the chief examiner's report, appendices relating to examinations, and other matters which are required by law to be published.

Respectfully submitted,

VOL. I-2

SAMUEL H. ORDWAY,

WILLARD D. McKINSTRY,
WILLIAM GORHAM RICE,
State Civil Service Commission.

To the Commission:

The Chief Examiner respectfully submits the following report of the work of the Examinations Division for the year ended. December 31, 1915.

During the calendar year 1915, 23,051 persons were examined as shown by the following table:

8. Candidates whose applications were examined and accepted for examination but failed to appear.

9. Candidates whose applications were examined and

The work of the Examinations Division covers every detail of the Commission's routine work up to the "writing up" of the eligible list, and includes the preparation of application blanks and many other forms for the printer; the preparation of examination announcements and sending same to 500 newspapers throughout the State; the preparation of examination questions; the shipment of papers to examination centers; the rating of papers; the computation of averages; the receipt, review and approval of applications for examination; sending notices to applicants of the time and place of examination; the preparation of an index card for each application filed; the preparation of a report of each examination held showing the application number, name, average percentage, county of residence, and address of

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each person examined; and the keeping of incidental records and the preparation of statistics. For the past two years the work of this division has been considerably in arrears because of an insufficient force of examiners and clerks; the number of persons examined in competitive examinations has increased in a larger proportion than the examining force. On December 31, 1915, there remained unrated 2,342 sets of papers, while by reason of the pressure of work several examinations were postponed which should have been held in 1915, such as clerk, messenger, orderly and watchman.

The best results are obtained from examinations when papers are rated promptly and the eligible lists prepared at the earliest possible date after holding the examination. With an adequate force vacancies could be filled without long delays, and some of the best qualified competitors, who now become unavailable by reason of delays in rating their papers would not be lost to the service.

In this connection it is interesting to note the number of persons employed in the Examinations Division of other Civil Service Commissions as shown by the following table which also gives the number of competitors examined. These figures are for 1915.

Appropriation of $7,000 for special examiners.

† Actual number of applications handled, 29,893.

In the opinion of the Chief Examiner, the number of examiners and clerks in our Examinations Division should be largely increased. As it is now much of our work is done under such pressure that there is great danger of serious error.