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positions, and a few others are governed by the same general civil-service regulations as obtain in the positions mentioned above, but those who occupy them can be removed at any time by the superintendent when in his opinion their services are not satisfactory.
The other positions in the service are non-competitive, but the applicants have to take a civil-service examination to test their qualifications for the work ; this examination being conducted by the local civil-service board, appointed by the State Civil-Service Commission and selected from the list of officers of the institution. This local board submits at stated intervals a report showing the appointments, resignations, discharges, and promotions. In the case of original appointments, the examination papers are forwarded to the State Civil-Service Commission for inspection and filing.
In an experience of many years in public hospitals for the insane, party politics have not controlled ; in fact, so far as my personal knowledge goes, applicants are not appointed with regard to their political or religious belief, but simply and solely for fitness.
" E " has a less optimistic outlook :
At present party service solely governs the appointment of men in all the grades, with a strong tendency toward making the appointment of women a personal favor to political friends. In the subordinate places : firemen, engi- neers, gardeners, watchmen, etc., etc., when the place is wanted the incumbent goes, regardless of civil-service certificate. Local sentiment is summed up on the one hand in the old war cry, "To the victors belong the spoils," modified by the " Thief ! Thief ! " of the vanquished. Even our bread and butter carries the taint of politics, especially the egg part of it. The steward is beset by dealers in every kind of commodity, and all with a backing not to be despised, if his goods are.
"F":
It was the design of the framers of our prison law to take the prisons out of politics, as is evidenced by chap. 382, Laws of 1889, sec. 30, which says that the superintendent of prisons shall appoint certain officers, "and he may remove them from office when in his judgment the public interests shall so require." Also subdivision 3 of the same section says : " No appoint- ments shall be made in any of the state prisons of this state on the grounds of political partisanship, but honesty, capacity, and adaptation shall consti- tute the rule for appointment, and any violation of this rule shall be sufficient cause for the removal from office of the officer committing such violation."
There is scarcely a state in the union which permits politics to interfere with its prison management, and up to the present time New York state has not attempted to run its prisons as a part of any political machine. As instance of the truth of this. Warden Brush was appointed at Sing Sing by the first superintendent of prisons, Louis D. Pillsbury, and served successively
