same as in other branches-how to secure the most efficient men and how to eliminate political preference. In the framing of regulations there has been a tendency to lose sight of the first and to pay enough attention to the second to challenge evasion but not prevent it. The tendency to lose sight of the principle of comparative fitness has resulted from the difficulty-by no means small-of determining such fitness. Somehow the feeling has been prevalent that laborers cannot be graded according to their merit. Tests have been applied which separated the goats from the sheep, but seldom have any attempts been made at grading. As this essential principle of the merit system has been lost sight of, a new factor has crept into the selection. This factor is the idea that rules shall be devised which, if a man is reasonably qualified for the work, shall give him an equal chance with every other man. A man has no right to public service except that he is better fitted for that service than some other man. The public service demands more than passing competency, more than the qualifications, is he capable, is he honest? It demands the most capable man. Still, this is somewhat

academic. My paper was to be practical.

To give some adequate idea of the problem of employing laborers in the civil service and the attempts at solution it is necessary to examine briefly, though with some detail, the labor regulations in the various services. They differ widely as to method and principle.

In Chicago there are two labor classes, skilled and unskilled. The skilled labor class includes almost every kind other than common labor, and is examined competitively. Nor are the examinations merely makeshifts. Out of 99 coal passers examined, 23 failed; out of 26 boiler inspectors' helpers examined, only 8 passed; out of 201 oilers examined, only 128 passed; out of 243 lamplighters (two examinations), only 172 passed.

These examinations comprise a technical examination, and a practical examination where possible. Credit is given for experience in the work applied for. No educational test is required except in the case of foremen, for which positions spelling and arithmetic are tested. The

system appears to work very well, and the written examinations seem to be very practical.

The unskilled class is examined physically-merely a qualifying, examination-and are then arranged on the eligible list according to lot. This does away with political preferment in selection for in Chicago the top man on a list has to be appointed. The vagaries of the goddess of chance, though doing away with politics, however, are hardly to be considered a substitute for a system which would concern itself with the comparative merits of the applicants.

It seems to me the chief thing to be learned from the Chicago rules is that it is possible to examine skilled labor competitively.

In Milwaukee the only creditable thing about the labor rules is that foremen of laborers are included in the official service, which is, of course, examined competitively. Although the rules for the employment of labor require that each applicant shall receive a marking or rating upon the qualifications shown by an examination and that he shall be entered upon the appropriate eligible list in the order of such rating, no attempt is made to carry out this provision. The examination is construed to be the answers to the questions on the application blank, and a resolution has been passed by the commission that all laborers shall receive the rating of 100 per cent. if their applications are properly filled out. The eligible list is then arranged according to the date of registration, an obvious violation of the spirit, if not indeed of the letter, of the law. This may be explained, though hardly justified, by the difficulty encountered in grading laborers.

Massachusetts has an omnivorous veteran preference; the veterans are ranked first and must be employed before others can be certified. After the demands of the veteran have been satiated, former employes of the service who have given satisfactory service for a period of three months or more come next in the order of preference, and after them are ranked all others in the order of the number of persons dependent upon them. Within these different groups the men are rated according to

their capacity as evidenced by the certificates of former employers. There is no physical examination.

In the certification of eligibles, after the veterans have been appointed, two names are certified for each vacancy and the appointing officer is at liberty to select any of these men he wishes. Thus if 20 men are called for, 40 are certified and any 20 may be employed. This is a very dangerous latitude to be given an appointing officer, for the head of a department, if he wished to employ 20 men, upon the certification of double that number, could not be prevented from selecting the 20 according to their political affiliations.

The inclusion of foremen and sub-foremen within the competitive group, and the giving preference to laborers with experience in the service, are commendable regulations, though offset by the latitude in selection given the appointing officer. I fail, however, to see the peculiar merit, so far as ability to work is concerned, in having a great number of persons dependent upon the applicant. Perhaps the spinster state offers this preference as an encouragement to matrimony.

In New York City priority of application is the test for merit and fitness, but the appointing power is given ample latitude in selection to upset even this restriction. However admirable the principle of first come first served. may be in certain fields, I am at a loss to see in what way the date of filing an application determines the fitness of a laborer.

The attempts to reveal the merits of applicants are through physical examinations, which are merely qualifying, and trade examinations, also only qualifying. These trade examinations are held for certain positions in the labor class, such as plumbers, painters, brick-layers and pipe-fitters, and are practical tests intended to show that the applicants are moderately skilled in their respective trades. They are conducted at various trade schools in New York.

I had an interview with the superintendent of one of these schools and it was his opinion that it was perfectly feasible to conduct such an examination on a competitive

basis, coupled with written and oral tests; in fact such a plan had been previously used.

The violations under the New York rules group themselves around certain well defined and also well-known methods. The labor service is not free from the violations and evasions in vogue in the competitive service, such as assignment to work other than that called for by the title under which the person is employed, the appointment under special and fictitious titles, and the like. The labor service lends itself more readily to violations, however, owing to the obscurity of the individual positions and the ignorance of the laborer.

There are certain violations and circumventions which are peculiar to the labor service, owing to the great number of persons employed in certain positions and the free hand which the head of a department has in the discharging and laying-off of the laborers. The practically unlimited power of an appointing officer in the matter of suspending and dismissing laborers, as well as his power to increase at will the compensation of the "faithful" deters the better class of workmen, without political affiliations, from entering the service of the city. This power is the one most used to subvert the civil service regulations.

There are some 70 titles in the labor service in New York City and under each of these titles it is held foremen and assistant foremen may be appointed. Men are instructed to register for foremen or assistant foremen of positions for which no lists of foremen exist. They are appointed and assigned to work-if, indeed, they do any work-not in accordance with the title under which they are appointed. Thus we find a foreman of riggers in a department in which there are no riggers, and four foremen of bridge mechanics in a department in which there is not a single bridge mechanic.

Another method is the wholesale appointment of laborers and their almost immediate dismissal. Two favorites, let us say, are 25th and 30th on the list. A sufficient number of laborers are employed to reach these men and

within a few days the surplus ones are discharged for "lack of work" or "lack of appropriation."

The rules and the charter in New York City provide that men discharged for no fault of their own shall be reported to the Commission and placed on lists to be preferred for appointment over all others. During a new administration it has been common to suspend, contrary to these rules, for a considerable period of time, men of the opposing political party and carry them on the pay rolls without pay. In the meantime, to do the actual work required by the department, political favorites are employed from existing lists. As an instance of this may be cited a case in the Department of Parks in New York. On August 13th 150 laborers were appointed from registration lists. At the time these men were appointed there were at least an equal number of laborers carried on the rolls without pay. A Tammany administration was in power. Of the men so appointed and whose political affiliations could be ascertained, 81 were democrats and 8 republicans. Eleven days later, 154 laborers were discharged. Most of them had been carried on the rolls without pay for from two to six weeks and longer. Of the men discharged, and whose political affiliations could be ascertained, 99 were republicans and 16 democrats.

Even if the men are not carried on the rolls without pay longer than the time allowed under the rules, it is an easy matter to carry them for the permitted time and meanwhile to appoint all the political favorites necessary. Of course those suspended when reported back to the Commission, go on a preferred list, but it is too late then.

There are many more ways in which the rules are evaded and many more in which they could be. I have found a rather fruitful source of discovering existing violations is to figure out how, if I were a politician, I could evade or violate the rules.

In the Federal Service all except mere unskilled laborers are included in the classified service. The unskilled laborers are, by Executive order, made amenable to some sort of merit regulations in the departments at Washington, and it is contemplated extending these regulations