The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-21

tions. The chairman of the commission accordingly applied to the president of the Connecticut association for assist anoe, and; as he happens to be profess sor in Yale university, he was able to
 secure, through the courtesy of the di- rector of the Sheffield Scientific school the gratuitous use of one of the large examination rooms in Winchester hall : Two examinations were held in that
 hall during the year-one March 2S, the
 other November IS. In one case some
 fifty applicants for positions were ex-
 anined, and, if it had not been for the courtesy of the university, they would either have been obliged to go to a dis
 tant city for the examination or forego altogether the opportunity of taking it. As Yale university was originally founded for the express purpose of inc structings youth for public employment both in church and civil state" we may
 be sllre that it can always be counted
 upon to do it's share towards promoting
 good government; but every city is not fortunate enough to llavea Yale uniEer- sity within it's boundaries, and, it is not right that democratic government like
 that of the United States should be obliged to rely upon the gratuitous help of institutions of learning for the means i of carrying out one of it's important functions.
 NEW HAVEN CIVIL SERVICE BOARD.
 For the Investigation of the New Ia- ven civil service board a silb-c committee consisting of Clarence Derning, Charles
 s. Pickett and Henry w. Farnam was
 appointed. Inasmueh. as the New Ha-
 ven board is the only civil service
 board of any kind appointed under state
 law in Connecticut, it seemed especially
 important that it's work should be thor
 oughly and irnDartially examined. The
 committee accordingly went over the
 entire records of the board from the be-
 ginning of it's activity. January, 1898, to the beginning oe 1903 The yrnade
 careful comparisons Of the marks ob-
 tained on examination of those certified,
 and Of the marks of those appointed.
 They also had personal conferences
 with the heads of departments, in order to ascertain their view of the operation of the civil service system, and made a written renort to the executive com mittee. As 1t is planned to print this ! report in full with the proceedings of l the annual meeting. it will suffice in ! this place to say that, while the system as applied in New Haven is not as rig { idly competitive as that which exists in the, federal service or in Massachusetts ! and New York, and while it suffers from inadequate funds with which to pay ey- afniners. it has produced marked re- 1 suits ir increasing tine efficiency of the employees in the principal departments of the city government. The annua meeting Of the National Civil Service
 Reform league was held this year in Baltimore. December 10 and Il, and it was expected that considerable dele-
 gation would go from Connecticut. Un- fortunately all but one were prevented from carrying out their plan. and this 1 association was represented only by it's president,
 CHANGES IN THE UNITED STATES COMMISSION.
 In this report we do not propose to deal at length with matters outside of the province of the Connecticut associa- tion. and yet the leading events should be briefly referred to. A year ago we congratulated the country upon the ap- pointments os Messrs. David Dudley Foulke and James A. Garfield as mem bers os the Federal Civil Sebvicet conn., mission. Those members oe our asso- citation who heard MT. Garfield speak
 at the annual meeting of 1902 will re- member the splendid impression which
 he then made. Greatly to the loss of
 the civil service board Mir. Garfield was