New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-27
Bosses Friends Land Jobs
That Law Would AS
sign to Merit.
COMPETITIVE POSTS
IN SPOILS CLASS
Orgy of Exemption Under
Sulzer.Glynn Regime with
Their Approval.
BY FREDERICK W. CRONE.


In the job grabbing game which the
Democrats have played NJ Albany for
four years the State Civil Service Conf
mission has been Tammany's greatest
aid. Supposed to protect the merit
system"-that is. TO carry out not only
! the letter but the spirit Of the law
which dictates that places on the pub
lie payroll shall be held for fitness
only, the Civil Service commissions OF
the Dix and Sulzer-Glynn adminiStra-
tions have riddled that law. They hav.
been effective servants Of the organl-
cation and have obsequiously taken Joo
after Job out Of the competitive class
when application was made Tor sucn
action, the result being that some
boss's friend landed the place. Gov
ernors Dix, Sulzer and Glynn officially
sanctioned and approved their work.
The Dix commission broke ali rec
ords of that kind in its first year. Bad
/ as that commission was It was not
nearly SO brazen as the present body.
appointed by Governor Sulzer. Seeing
that il was a grab administration, this
commission, made up of Messrs. Neu'
Wolff and Lavery, early decided TO get
theirs" to adopt the phraseology OF
"Murphy's boys at Albany" The COM
mission iuggled the regulations so that
relatives and friends got jobs without
examination. For the proceedings
which accomplished this the commits
sioners are now resting under charges
preferred against them to Governor
Glynn by the Civil Service Reform As
ISOLATION.
Before the present commission took
Office there was no fixed term of ser
vice and the members received $4,000
year. This commission, having tasted
the sweets of Office, presented bill to
the 1913 Legislature fixing definite.
overlapping terms of office-the long
terms extending beyond the term OF
Governor Glynn-and increasing the
salary to $4,000 year. This grab bill
Governor Sulzer signed For drafting
il law partner of MIR. Neu, chairman
of the commission, received $3.50, al
though there was no authority given to
the commission to pay the money out
of its Office account, and the drafting
of the bill could have been done for
nothing by the Attorney Generals Of
fice or the legislative bill drafting
bureau.
Took No Examination.
Warren c. Neu, son Of Chairman
Neu, was appointed on March IS, 1918,
without examination, an inspector to
enforce the law against sales of cleo
margarine. Or May 29 the commission
made exempt from examination the
place of counsel in the Bureau Of
Licenses of the Agricultural Depart
ment, and young Neu was appointed
permanently. d. Kern Einfuhrer, who
was an employe IN Judge Neu's law
Office, now holds Job as stenographer
TO the commission.
Mrs. Wolff, wife of Commissioner
Wolff, has drawn money from the state
Tor stenographic services TO her hus-
band. Isidor Wolff, uncle of Commits
sioner Wolff, was appointed on May Z,
1913, as assistant inspector in the state
architects Office. He passed no ex-
animation. Finally he landed job
ment. Theodore A. Moolten, brother-in-
law of Wolff, was appointed. under sus-
pension of the rule, an examiner and
auditor of contracts of charitable in
situations in the Controllers office. lie
held this job until October !, 1913,
when under a special rule the job was
made permanent at $40 day.
Charles l. Lsvery, brother of the Re-
publican member, has drawn money
regularly for stenOgraphic services. He
is a clerk in the Poughkeepsie post
office. His work for the state Is be-
lieved to be in violation of an Executive
order against holding Of state or mu-
nicipal places by federal employees.
The system under which these
things were worked was as easy IN the
far bigger places which the "organl-
cation" grabbed. It began in 1911.
Governor Dix named for his Civil Ser
vice Commission Messrs. Kraft, Burton
and Ludvigh. Kraft had been a fairly
weak member of the preceding com
mission, whose place was retained at
the personal request of his patron,
Alton b. Parker. Burton was an ex-
Senator from Brooklyn, whose record
showed him anything but proper per-
son to safeguard the merit system.
Ludvigh was a Republican of whose
ideas on civil service nothing was
known. This body distinguished itself
and made a lasting mark for NAL
treating the merit system.
The number Of places put into the
exempt, or non-cOmpetitive, class
that is, the classification under which
no examination is needed for the APP
plicant TO qualify, and in which the
boss's backing is qualification potent
In the entlre TOUR years O1 me
Hughes administration was 2lS. in
1911, the first year of the Dix admin
istration, the number was 222. That
record caused the Civil Service Re-
form Association to say Of the DEM
ocratic control as applied to the merit
system:
"The whole atmosphere has changed;
the merit system is no longer advancing,
but distinctly retrograding, and the
association has been engaged in a bit
ter struggle 20 hold as much as pos
/ sible Of the ground gained in the
past
With that can be bracketed the asso-
/ cations opinion Of the work of the
present commission: 1--WE view the
record Of this commission in general
as one almost without parallel in this
state Tor subserviency to outside inhu-
ences, disregard of either consis, ,ncy
or plain duty, and complete lack of
comprehension by the commissioners
OF the dignity and judicial impartial
~ which their office demands"
directorate" at Work.
Needless to say that the Outside in
huences" we're the Delmonico direc-
tOrate.
A few specific instances will illus
trate how the commissions turned over
the state service TO the Murphy gang.
Early in his first term Controller
Sohmer, of Tammany, applied for the
exemption of forty-nire places in his
department which were then in the