Excerpt from Addresses and Papers by Andrew S. Draper You have very courteously invited me to discuss the State civil service laws and regulations from the standpoint of officers who have to make appointments. If a multiplicity of appointments could qualify one for the duty I might be expected to be able to meet it, for there are something like three hundred employees in the Education Department and there are few of them whose status has not been changed, upon my responsibility, in the last two and a half years, since the educational unification act went into Oper ation. Still, I am bound to say that I have no special preparation for the task vour courtesy has assigned to me, and I know I shall stand sorely In need of your consideration when I accept such a conspicuous and favorable Opportunity for the expression of my rambling thoughts upon an exceedingly important subject. The last report of your commission, Mr President, shows that January I, 1906, there were persons in the employ of the State and the counties and cities of the State subject to civil service laws. Of these, were in the classified service. I have no' exact information concerning the compensation of this service. If the average annual salary is $750, which seems small, then the total cost is about To insure decent appointments, to protect places from imposition and occupants from outrage, to encourage competency and assiduity by proper rewards and make certain Of reasonable justice as between rivals, to keep all of this employment and all of this money from appealing to the cupidity of the indolent and from debauching the sentiment of the State, to assure a service which is competent, alert, responsive, and polite, and which at the same time can be resistive and which will never sell out the interests for which it stands, provides a fit study for an expert and a very proper ground for solicitude on the part of all good citizens. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.