The State Employee, 1940 March

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THE STATE EMPLOYEE is published
monthly except April, July, and August,
Publication office 2 Norton St,, Albany,
N. Y. Editorial and executive offices,
Room 156, State Capitol, Albany, N. Y.
10¢ a single copy, 1.00 per year. Entered
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the Act of March 3. 1879. Letters to the
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for advertising rates should be sent to
Executive Headquarters, Room 156,
State Capitol, Albany, N.Y.

The State Employee

VOL. 9, Number 3

MARCH, 1940

10c a Copy

The Budget Passes!

Remember the budget storm of
last year? Remember the unreason-
able claims, demands and criticisms
made in connection with the State
service, its service and the salary
program? Nothing like it had ever
come before the people of the State.
What would have happened if the
employees and the citizens did not
have available a well-informed, earn-
est, cooperative body of employees
already organized into an associa-
tion for the mutual benefit of the
employees of the State and the cit-
izens of the State?

The efficient and proper function-
ing of State government is the most
important business in the Empire
State. If Democracy is to survive,
this status must be rigidly preserved.
The appalling situation in Europe,
the rise of Communism, is a gigantic
enough spectre to warrant the rigid
adherence to the principles of De-
mocracy in State government, and a
continuing effort to raise the stan-
dard of efficiency and service and
contentment among its members.

To any person familiar with the
budget situation, it was immediately
apparent that the attack upon the
salary program was founded upon
lack of information or upon misin-
formation. No civic minded group,
no matter how earnest, had taken
the occasion, or had the interest or
desire to place before the people of
the State the true facts in connection
with the State budget. The Associa-
tion officers and others went to work;
printed documents, bulletins, radio,
newspapers, word of mouth, every
avenue was used to present a true
picture of the situation. Clearly es-
tablished were the facts that the in-
creases complained of were not due
to increases accorded State employ-

March

ces or to increases in the cost of gov-
ernment itself. They showed that
during the last ten years the cost of
State government, even though new
services had been added, had de-
creased some fifty million dollars. As
far as the salaries of employees were
concerned the evidence established
that they were less than the average
salaries being paid by local govern-
ments or by private industry. These
facts were collated and distributed
far and wide. The Governor of the
State and the Director of the Budget
were familiar with this situation.
‘They were adamant in their posi-
tion that the career service set up
in the Feld-Hamilton Law unani-
mously by the Legislature should be
adhered to. Prior to the presenta-
tion of this year’s budget, the Repub-
lican leaders, convinced that the sal-
ary plan entered into after considera-
tion during a great many years was
of far reaching importance and that
interference with its progress would
injure the efficiency of the State ser-
vice, stated that they favored full
compliance with its terms.

This year when the Governor pre-
sented his budget to the Legislature
in accordance with the usual proce-
dure, he included in it the Feld-
Hamilton increments, commutation,
time service and the increments for
the other statutory schedules. Again
a clamor arose for the reduction of
the State budget. All precedents
were cast aside, a gigantic hearing
was scheduled and conducted at the
State Armory in the City of Albany
at which the protestors and the de-
fenders were given an opportunity
to have their say. Six, seven, per-
haps eight thousand people came to
Albany to attend the hearing.

But the educational program un-
dertaken by your Association, and

by it alone, had its effect. The asso-
ciations the year before who had
been so insistent upon starting econ-
omies with State employees had
had the opportunities to examine the
facts. While there was a hue and
cry for economy—and certainly the
employees are just as interested in
this subject as any other group of
taxpayers—there was no widespread
insistence for seeking that economy
at the expense of the employees and
of the efficiency of the State service.

And so the Legislature has passed
the budget and the contractual ob-
ligations announced by them two
years before were fulfilled. The Feld-
Hamilton Law is again a reality. The
budget as passed contains the joint
insistence of the Democrats and the
Republicans that the employees of
the State be accorded the career to
which they are entitled and which is
so important for the good of cit-
izenry.

Rejoicing as we do that these re-
sults have been obtained, and that
the State employees may rely upon
the word of the Legislature, we
nevertheless must not rest or hesi-
tate in carrying on the Association’s
program informing the people con-
cerning State service and the true
facts in connection with its cost. The
need of an association to carry this
forward must be indeed patent to
everyone. The support which the As-
sociation has received in the past, the
recognition it receives from the Leg-
islature, its leaders, the Governor
and the Department Heads, is a
matter of great pride to its officers
and members. Its numerical evi-
dence of membership is a very po-
tent force. Every State employee
should take personal pride in _be-
longing to the Association and in
helping with this work. There should
be no slackers or hitch hikers,

59
Personal-ized Income Tax

By
Joun J. Ronan
Administrative Supervisor, Income Tax
Bureau, Department of Taxation
and Finance

You, with thousands of other State
employees, have just finished a new
experience in the preparation and
filing of your Federal income tax re-
turns. Those of you who are mem-
bers of the Association of State Civil
Service Employees were guided in
the preparation of your Federal re-
turns by an article printed in the
February, 1940, issue of The State
Employee and, undoubtedly, were
able, through the application of the
various income tax principles enun-
ciated therein, to compute correctly
your Federal tax.

Most of you are already familiar
with the requirements of the New
York State Income Tax Law and
are probably well acquainted with
the State income tax blank. How-
ever, at the present time, it would
seem to be appropriate to point out
that each of you has a vital, personal
interest in tax matters of your own
State. Federal taxation, because of
its far flung impact and the remote-
ness of its central administration can-
not, to you residents of New York
State, assume the personalized quali-
ties which, upon mature thought,
will be seen to exist in the tax which
is administered in your own State
by your fellow State workers.

Payment of taxes, both Federal
and State, is a duty and a respon-
sibility inherent in your role as a
citizen. You, as an employee of the
State, owe a particular duty to the
State because you receive not only
those indirect benefits which accrue
to all residents but, in addition, you,
as distinguished from the great mass
of individuals outside the public ser-
vice, are a direct beneficiary of tax
collections. You may not realize it,
but it is definitely true that your
salary and your salary increments
are made possible only through the
collection of the various taxes im-
posed by the State of which the Per-
sonal Income Tax accounts for al-
most 25% of the total tax collected.

60

YOUR NEW YORK TAX

You can hardly expect the great mass
of individuals outside of public em-
ployment to contribute to the sup-
port of the State of which your com-
pensation is a part unless you, as an
individual and as a public employee,
do your part as expeditiously and ac-
curately as it is humanly possible.
In other words, in your own self-
interest, you just can’t “Let George
do it” and expect George to continue
doing it indefinitely.

The amount of any tax which is
available for governmental expenses
is limited to the amount remaining
out of the gross collections after de-
ducting the total cost incurred in
making collections. This is patticu-
larly true of a personal income tax.
Every return which is prepared care-
lessly, which does not give complete
information or which is prepared
without a full realization of the prin-
ciples of income taxation, gives rise
to added costs of collection in an ef-
fort to adjust the tax which is legally
due. Remember, this is equally true
whether you understate your tax and
are required to make an additional
payment or whether you have failed
to take advantage of all your legal
rights and ultimately receive a re-
fund of a portion of the tax paid by
you. In either event, the cost of the
adjustment is material and, in the
aggregate, reduces the net revenue
which is available for State purposes.
It is hoped that the following will
permit you to compute your tax cor-
rectly, in the first instance, so that
once you have filed your return,
your entire tax can be placed to the
credit side of the ledger:

It is suggested that: you open up
the February issue of The State Em-
ployee at Page 24, where you will
find information which was helpful
to you in the preparation of your
Federal return. Keep in mind that,
although the State Law is patterned
generally after the Federal Act and
although most of the fundamental
principles are the same in both, there
are various essential differences,
knowledge of which is necessary be-
fore you start to prepare your State
return, For the sake of simplicity,

the general arrangement of the ar-
ticle on the Federal income tax will
be followed so that you may make
a direct comparison between the
Federal and State requirements.

I—Who Must File a Return

The requirements for filing New
York State returns are identical with
those relating to the Federal tax. It
should be noted, however, that in
the case of married persons living
together, if only one has income, he
or she must file a return if his or
her net income is $2,500 or more, or
gross income is $5,000 or more.

Ii—Forms for Making Returns

Unlike the Federal, only one re-
turn blank has been prepared for
the use of residents of New York
State; namely, Form 201. This form
is to be used regardless of whether
your net income was under or over
$5,000 and also regardless of wheth-
er your income was derived from
salary or from a business, rents or
the sale of property. If you happen
to be a non-resident of New York
State working within New York
State, you should use Form 203. If
you have filed returns for prior years,
you should have received through
the mail a blank for 1939. If you
have not received the blank, one may
be secured from the Income Tax Bu-
reau in Albany or from any of the
district offices located in New York
City, Brooklyn, Utica, Syracuse,
Rochester and Buffalo.

T1l—Personal Exemptions and
Credits for Dependents

All that was said in explanation of
the exemptions with respect to the
Federal tax applies equally to the
New York tax. Just in case you
have mislaid your copy of the Feb-
ruary issue, it may not be amiss to
repeat the exemptions and credits.
They are:

1—A single person or a married
person not living with husband or
wife, $1,000.

2—Married persons living togeth-
er, $2,500,

3—A “head of a family,” $2,500.

4—Dependency credit for each
person (other than husband or wife),

The State Employee
whether related to you or not, who
is actually dependent upon you for
support and who is under eighteen
years of age or is incapable of self-
support because mentally or phys-
ically defective, $400.

If your exemption status changed
during the taxable year, the exemp-
tion must be apportioned in accord-
ance with the number of months be-
fore and after such change.

Who is the “head of a family?”
Erroneous claims for this exemption
have given rise to a tremendous
amount of expense in the adminis-
tration of the Income Tax Law,
chiefly because taxpayers are not
aware of the economic reason for the
granting of the exemption. It was
recognized by those who formulated
the principles of personal income
taxation that single persons were,
many times, the pivotal point of a
family unit and were financially re-
sponsible for the continued main-
tenance of that family unit. A single
person’s responsibilities, financially,
morally and legally, may well equal
those of a married person and he
or she is fully entitled to the same
relief as that given married persons.
Therefore, if an individual is actu-
ally supporting and is maintaining
in one household one or more de-
pendent individuals who are closely
connected with him by blood rela-
tionship, relationship by marriage,
or by adoption, and if this right to
exercise family control is based upon
some moral or legal obligation, he
is permitted a primary exemption
of $2,500. If two individuals in the
same household are gainfully em-
ployed and if each contributes ap-
proximately equal amounts toward
the support of the family, it cannot
be said that one furnishes the chief
support and neither may claim the
“head of a family” exemption.

The Income Tax Regulations pro-
vide that, in the absence of continu-
ous actual residence together, the
character of the separation must de-
termine whether or not a person
with dependent relatives is the
“head of a family.” If the dependent
continuously makes his home else-
where, his benefactor is not the
“head of a family” irrespective of the
question of support.

What is meant by the words “ab-
sence of continuous actual residence
together?” It is difficult to give a
definite meaning to this phrase
which will be applicable to all cases.

March

Ordinarily, it refers to one who is
temporarily making his place of
abode elsewhere than in the home
where the dependents for whom he
claims the exemption reside. How-
ever, if a single person, who by force
of circumstances is required to take
employment in a locality other than
where he has previously maintained
a home in which he and his de-
pendents lived as a family unit, con-
tinues to maintain the former home
and the dependents therein in the
same manner as before for the rea-
son that he cannot remove them to
the new location where he is em-
ployed, and the former home con-
tinues to be the place of abode to
which he regularly returns and ex-
ercises family control, such indivi-
dual is considered to be the “head
of a family.”

You should use extreme care in
ascertaining the exact exemption
credit to which you are entitled.

IV—What Income Must Be
Reported

Generally, your gross income, for
purposes of the State tax, will be
identical with the amount reported
in your Federal return. If you be-
long to the State Retirement System,
or if any amounts are being deducted
from your pay check for group in-
surance premiums, or for the return
of money borrowed from the Pen-
sion Fund, or for any other purpose,
do not report as income only the ag-
gregate of your salary checks. Your
entire salary before deduction for
any purpose is the amount which
should be reported. You may ask
why this is so since you have not
actually received your total salary.
While this is true, you have con-
structively received your full salary,
The amount withheld for the Pen-
sion Fund is being invested for you
in the purchase of an annuity and
the effect is the same as if you had
received a check for the full amount
and immediately paid out a pre-
mium for the purchase of the annu-
ity. Furthermore, when, on retire-
ment, your annuity is available to
you, no portion thereof may be
taxed.

Of particular interest to institu-
tional employees is a difference in
treatment of maintenance for pur-
poses of the Federal and State Laws.
The Federal rule is clearly stated at
the top of the first column on Page
25 in the February issue of ‘The

State Employee. The State rule does
not give effect to the convenience
of the employer. On the contrary,
it looks to the financial benefit to the
employee of the furnishing of main-
tenance. If you are an institutional
employee and receive board and
lodging in addition to your cash
compensation, it is clear that you
have received something of value
over and above the cash payments
and that your total compensation in-
cludes the: value of what you have
received, After much thought, it
was concluded that the best test of
the value of maintenance is the
amount at which the institutional
employees themselves valued it, For
retirement purposes, the employees
of institutions were instrumental in
having the base salary, on which the
retirement allowance is computed,
figured as follows, as indicated in
Civil Service Regulations:

Any officer or employee receiving
an annual salary or compensation
in an amount of $2,000 or more,
plus maintenance, will be required
to compute the value of maintenance
as fifty per centum of the annual sal-
ary and the total amount which is
taxable is the salary plus such main-
tenance value. Any officer or em-
ployee receiving an annual salary of
less than $2,000 must compute the
value of maintenance in the same
manner as is provided under Civil
Service Regulation 10 for payment
in lieu of maintenance and living
quarters of those employees who do
not receive maintenance but who
live outside the institution. This is
as follows:

Single employee—$8.00 _ per
month for each meal of three
meals per day and $8.00 per month
for lodging, making a total of
$32.00 per month. Married em-
ployees or heads of families—an
additional $10.00 or a total month-
ly allowance of $42.00.

‘V—Items Not Taxable and Not
Included in Return
The items enumerated with re-
spect to the Federal tax as exempt
from taxation are essentially the
same as those which are exempt
from the State tax. However, retire-
ment annuities and pensions paid
to employees of New York State or
any municipal subdivision thereof
are fully exempt from the State tax.
While interest on obligations of
(Continued on page 62)

61
Your New York Tax
(Continued from page 61)
New York State is exempt, interest
on obligations of other states is tax-
able.
‘VI—Expenses That May Be
Deducted

In general, deductions which are
permitted in the computation of the
Federal tax are likewise permitted
in the computation of the State tax.
One notable exception is the income
tax paid in 1939 to either the State
or the Federal Government. If you
paid a Federal tax last year, no por-
tion thereof is deductible in the
computation of net income subject
to the State tax. This is equally true
with respect to your State income
tax. Real estate taxes and interest
on your own indebtedness may be
deducted in full even though part
thereof may have been paid in con-
nection with your personal home or
other personal purposes. Real estate
taxes and interest on mortgages on
property standing in the name of
another are not deductible by you
even though you, individually, may
make payment thereof. Such pay-
ment constitutes, in reality, a gift to
the owner of the property and not
the payment of interest and taxes.

Cigarette taxes, whether Federal,
State or local, are not deductible. They
are like many other commodity
taxes, as for example: taxes on liquor.
They are levied against the seller—
not the ultimate consumer—who
may or may not pass them on. Other
taxes, such as motor vehicle registra-
tion fees, amusement and admission
taxes, and gasoline taxes levied by
New York State (four cents per gal-
lon) are deductible because the sta-
tutes imposing them say they are
levied against the ultimate buyer—
the consumer.

Expenses incurred in connection
with your position and not reim-
Bursed by the State are ordinarily
not deductible because, in the ab-
sence of reimbursement, it would
not appear that any such expense
was ordinary and necessary. How-
ever, it is recognized that under cer-
tain conditions employees of the
State are required to use personally
owned automobiles and that the
wear and tear on the automobile due
to the use of the car in the per-
formance of official duties may give
rise to a deduction for depreciation.
Therefore, if the use of a personal
car by a State employee is systematic

62

and general rather than occasional
or sporadic and if the employing
Department will certify to the neces-
sity of such use, if so requested, de-
preciation will be permitted in an
amount which represents the ratable
portion of the total depreciation
which the number of miles traveled
on official business during the year
bears to the total number of miles
traveled for all purposes during the
year.
‘Vil—Items Not Deductible

In deciding whether an expendi-
ture made by you during the year is
deductible, keep in mind that we
are dealing with an income tax and
that unless, because of some specific
statutory provision a deduction is
allowed, all items of deductions are
limited strictly to those connected
with the production of income or
incurred in business. Therefore, pre-
miums on life or health and acci-
dent insurance, personal and living
expenses, repairs to your home, and
other personal items, are not deduc-
tible. If you own real property from
which you derive rental income,
amounts spent for permanent im-
provements or replacements are not
deductible but are recoverable only
through an added depreciation de-
duction over the life of the improve-
ment.

VIlI—Earned Income Credit and
Computation of Tax

The State Law does NOT permit
any earned income credit and the tax
is computed on the total amount of
net income after deducting the per-
sonal exemption and credit for de-
pendents. This taxable balance is
subject to two taxes:

(1) The Normal Tax, and

(2) The Emergency Tax

(1) The Normal Tax is computed
at 2% on the first $1,000 or portion
thereof; 3% on the second and third
$1,000 or portion thereof; 4°/, on the
fourth and fifth $1,000 or portion
thereof; 5° on the sixth and seventh
$1,000 or portion thereof; 6% on the
eighth and ninth $1,000 or portion
thereof and 7% on all over $9,000.

(2) The Emergency Tax is a flat
1% on the taxable balance.

IX—Net Capital Gain Tax

If, during the taxable year, you
sold or exchanged any capital assets,
your gain or loss may not be reflected
in the computation of net income.
Your net capital gain (the excess of
gains over losses) is separately tax-

able at one-half the normal rates.
If your losses exceeded your gains,
the amount thereof may not be de-
ducted in the computation of net
income and your tax liability will
not be affected. Just what is meant
by the words “capital assets” and
“sale or exchange” is rather compli-
cated and it may be confusing to at-
tempt to enlarge on the capital gain
provisions of the Income Tax Law
within the limitations of this article.
I£ you sold securities or real estate
or any other property, you should
consult the instruction relating to
Schedule E appearing in the Instruc-
tion Sheet attached to Form 201. No
exemption is permitted in comput-
ing the tax on net capital gain unless
net income subject to the Normal
and Emergency taxes is less than the
personal exemption, in which case
the amount of exemption unused in
the computation of such taxes may
be offset against net capital gain.

X—When and Where To File

Your return must be filed on or
before APRIL 15, 1940, and may.
be mailed or delivered to the Al-
bany Office, located in the State Of-
fice Building or to any of the fol-
lowing district offices:

New York City: State Office
Building, 80 Centre Street.

Brooklyn: 320 Schermerhorn
Street.
Buffalo: State Office Building,

Niagara Square.

Rochester: 55 Broad Street.

Syracuse: 236 West Genesee
Street.

Utica: 200 Oriskany Street, East.

If you have any unusual problem,
or if you do not thoroughly under-
stand how to prepare your return
correctly, you may secure help at
any of the offices mentioned. Your
tax may be paid in full when the
return is filed, or at your option, you
may pay only the total amount of
the Emergency Tax and one-half of
the Normal Tax and Net Capital
Gain Tax. The remaining one-half
of the latter taxes may be paid in
equal installments on JUNE 15,
1940, and OCTOBER 15, 1940.

Last Date
FOR FILING
STATE INCOME TAX

April 15, 1940

The State Employee
Legislative Report of Counsel

By John T. De Graff
Counsel

As this report is written, the legis-
lature is making its final drive for
adjournment, tentatively scheduled
for March 27. Although no bills
specifically affecting Civil Service
Employees have yet been signed by
the Governor, the biggest contro-
versy of the session, which affects
Civil Service employees more than
any bill in either house, was settled
with the passage of the budget. The
Feld-Hamilton and other increment
statutes have withstood the attack
of taxpayers and are continued un-
impaired for the coming fiscal year.
Despite insistent demands froni tax-
payer groups, not only for a suspen-
sion of increments, but for a further
reduction in salaries as well, legisla-
tive leaders on both sides of the aisle
stood firm upon their previous an-
nouncement that the salaries of State
employees would not be cut.

The action of the legislature in re-
fusing to tamper with the Feld-
Hamilton Law is essentially a recog-
nition of the fundamental soundness
of this law as the best method of
handling the personnel problem in the
State service. The educational cam-
paign conducted by the Association
during the past year is, in a large
measure, responsible for this result.
The legislature and the public gen-
erally, have been made aware of the
injustice that results from a suspen-
sion of statutory schedules. The full
implications of the decision to con-
tinue salary schedules in full force is
discussed in greater detail elsewhere
in this issue. One thing is certain—
the Feld-Hamilton Law now stands
on a firmer foundation than ever be-
fore. It will, in the near future, be
extended to other groups not now
affected, and it is destined to be-
come the basic method of handling
the personnel problem in the State
service.

Of the four thousand or more bills
already introduced in the legislature,
over 400 affect the Civil Service stat-
us, pension rights or working con-
ditions of Civil Service employees.
Space does not permit a complete re-
port on the action with reference to
all these bills. The bills sponsored by
the Association are progressing satis-

March

factorily and many of them will un-
doubtedly be sent to the Governor
before the legislature adjourns.

The Association’s bill amending
the removal statutes to give greater
protection to competitive Civil Ser-
vice employees has passed the Assem-
bly, was reported favorably from the
Senate Civil Service Committee and
is now on the third reading calendar
in the Senate. This bill, Assembly
Intro. 1736, introduced by Mr. Fite,
also protects Mental Hygiene em-
ployees. It provides, in substance,
that an employee who is dismissed
on charges, shall have the election to
review the case in court, as at pres-
ent, or to appeal to the Civil Service
Commission, which is empowered to
investigate the facts, hold a hearing,
and reverse or modify the determina-
tion of the officer who made the re-
moval. It is similar to the procedure
now applicable to teachers under the
Education Law, which permits them
to apply for a review by the Com-
missioner of Education. This pro-
cedure has also worked out success-
fully in a number of western States
and cities. The present procedure
with respect to removals is far from
satisfactory. Court review is, as a
practical matter, limited to a review
of questions of law. If the appoint-
ing officer can make a charge which
is sufficient on its face, the courts
cannot review the facts, except in the
case of veterans, volunteer firemen,
and other special groups. ‘This bill
would permit a review of the facts
by the Civil Service Commission,
and would go a long way toward
giving Civil Service employees a
protection which they now lack.

The Ehrlich Bill, Assembly Intro.
1758, was favorably reported from
Committee and is on the third read-
ing calendar in the Assembly. This
bill provides that reasonable sick
leave shall be granted to institutional
employees pursuant to Rules which
shall, so far as practicable, be similar
to those now applicable to depart-
mental employees generally. Budget
Director Abraham S. Weber is
making a survey to determine the
cost of extending the sick-leave rules
to hospital employees.

The Hampton-Fite Bill, Senate
Intro. 1406, Assembly Intro. 1737,

amends the law with reference to
temporary appointments in confor-
mity with the decision of the Appel-
late Division, Third Department,
elsewhere reported in this issue. This
bill has been favorably reported from
Committee and is on the third read-
ing calendar in the Assembly. Its
passage would do a great deal to
eliminate the present evils in the
practice of making temporary ap-
pointments.

The Condon Bill, Senate Intro.
152, extending the eight-hour in
the institutional service has passed
the Assembly, and the Martin Bill,
Senate Intro. 1013, providing that
members of the Division of State
Police shall not be required to work
more than six days a week, has like-
wise passed the Senate.

Assemblyman Ostertag has intro-
duced a bill to extend the life of the
Salary Standardization Board for
another year and also to extend the
time of the Classification Division
for correction of titles. This bill like-
wise provides that the Civil Service
Commission may empower one of its
members or an employee of the
Commission to hold hearings on ap-
peals from titles. No substantial
amendments to the Feld-Hamilton
Law seem to be required this year.

Attheannual meeting of the Asso-
ciation last fall, and at the meeting
of the Legislative Committee in
January, resolutions were adopted
to seek amendments to the law
passed last year which suspended sta-
tutory increments. This law denied
increments to employees receiving
less than $3,500 if their minimum
was in excess of $3,500, and it like-
wise denied credit to new employees
for service during the fiscal year
1939-40, This bill was vigorously
opposed by the Association last year
and when its passage was assured,
amendments were suggested but to
no avail. The Association has called
this situation to the attention of
Legislative leaders and has attempt-
ed to obtain their approval to amend-
ments which would authorize incre-
ments to be paid next July to em-
ployees appointed or promoted dur-
ing the year 1939. Legislative lead-
ers indicated that they were unwill-

(Continued on page 88)

63
The Annual Dinner

There is no greater service ren-
dered in any organization and at less
cost than that of the men and wo-
men engaged in administering the
government of the State, Governor
Lehman said at the annual dinner
of th Association, February 21.

Approximately 500 persons attend-
ed the dinner which was the twenty-
second such affair annually tendered
the Governor, Legislature and De-
partment heads by the Association.
This year’s meeting was in the De
Witt Clinton Hotel, Albany.

The Governor's speech, which was
informal, contained sincerest praise
for the Association and its officers.
Cooperation and moderation be-
tween the Executive and the Organ-
ization were the keynote of the
address,

The Governor said in part:

“I am proud of this Organization
because I saw it grow. This is the
twelfth annual dinner of the Asso-
ciation which I have had the priv-
ilege to attend, The first dinner
which I attended was in January,
1929,

“I believe the Association at that
time had about 1,400 members. To
day your president has reported to
you that it has 30,000. I have had
the privilege of working closely with
the officers of your Association and
I can bear testimony to the fact that
they have been cooperative, not only
with me but with the people of the
State. They have never made de-
mands that were unreasonable or
unfair. They have always been will-
ing to sit down and talk things over
reasonably and calmly and I believe
that the association between the
State officials and the officers of this
organization has been of great bene-
fit to the State service and the people
of the State.

“I am very proud of this organi-
zation for another reason and I am
not sure that it doesn’t transcend the
gratification which I have expressed
before and that is that we have an
organization of 30,000 members,
represented by many leaders here to-
night, and here is this group of men
and women of every race and stock,
sitting together, inspired only by a
desire to serve the principles of De-
mocracy, to serve their State and to

64

work together in understanding and
good faith.

“I know of no other country in the
world where that sort of thing can
occur to the extent that we are
blessed with it in this beloved land
of ours. I think that in the spirit of
maintaining and developing good
faith and good will which alone
made this country great, of under-
standing, of working together shoul-
der to shoulder, this organization
would be a great influence and a
great factor in our democratic life
of America,

“In the twelve years that I have
been up here in Albany as one of
your associates, both as Lieutenant
Governor and as Governor, my asso-
ciation has been of the happiest. I
know the calibre of the men and wo-
men who make up the Civil Service
of the State of New York. It is very
fashionable today for people to de-
ride and belittle the work of public
officials. It seems to be the mode of
today’s living, but I can say, based
on my own daily association, that
no body of men and women I have
ever come into contact with have
shown by and large the devotion to
their duty or willingness to carry out
the responsibilities with which they
are charged than the men and wo-
men who are today in public service.

“T know that there is no greater
service rendered in any organization
and at less cost than the service that
is rendered by the men and women
who are engaged in carrying on the
daily duties, the daily responsibilities
of administering the government of
this State.”

Thomas Stowell, of the Health
Department Staff, who was Chair-
man of the Dinner Committee, pre-
sided at the dinner. Other speakers
were: Grace A. Reavy, President of
the State Civil Service Commission;
Dr. Frank P. Graves, Commissioner
of Education; and President Brind.

A jovial entertainment was pre-
sented under the direction of a com-
mittee of which Allan Reagan, di-
rector of the Bureau of State Pub-
licity, was chairman. Other mem-
bers of the group were: William
M. O'Reilly, Department of Tax,
vice chairman; Hon. Walter Brown,
Secretary to the Governor; Hon.
Phillip D. Hoyt, Secretary to the

Lieutenant Governor; Charles Mc-
Tigue, Department of Tax; John F.
Tremaine, Department of Correc-
tion; Clarence Knapp, Department
of State; Howard Silberstein, De-
partment of Labor; Foster Potter,
Department of Agriculture and Mar-
kets; Frederick Hollowell, Depart-
ment of Audit and Control; and
John L. Halpin, Department of Con-
servation.

In charge of dinner arrangements
were members of the social commit-
tee, including: Mr. Stowell, chair-
man; and Harold Fisher, Hazel A.
Ford, Beulah Bailey Thull, Frances
Sperry, Janet Macfarlane, Lillian
Hyatt, Grace E. Keck, Evelyn Pat-
ton, Mildred Meskill, Jesse McFar-
land and Jane Z. LaChapelle.

Guests were: Governor Lehman,
Lieutenant Governor Charles Polet-
ti and Mrs. Poletti, Abraham S.
Weber, Director of the Budget; Dr.
Frank P. Graves, Commisioner of
Education; Miss Grace E. Reavy,
President, State Civil Service Com-
mission; President Charles A. Brind,
Jr., and Mrs. Brind; heads of State
departments and members of the
State Legislature.

Dancing followed the dinner.

Association Representatives pres-
ent were:

Earl Kelly, President, New York
City Chapter; Milton Schwartz,
Chairman, Legislative Committee,
New York City Chapter; Edward
Hyland, President, Buffalo Chapter;
H. H. Wagenhals, President, Syra-
cuse Chapter; Leslie Wood, Roch-
ester Chapter.

Claude Bigelow, President, Dan-
nemora State Hospital Chapter;
Paul Swartwood, President, State
College of Agriculture, Ithaca Chap-
ter; Guy E. Meeker, Elmira Reform-
atory; Frank McGovern, President,
Waterford Floating Plant Chapter;
Mrs. Alice Murtaugh, President,
Wassaic State School Chapter.

Albert Chick, Letchworth Village
Chapter; William Hansen, Water-
ford State Shop Chapter; Mrs, Ruth
C. Stedman, President, Rome State
School Chapter; Harry Fritz, Presi-
dent, West Coxsackie Vocational
School Chapter; Robert Ortlieb,
Rockland State Hospital Chapter.

John McDonald, President, Hy-

(Continued on page 78)

The State Employee
Classification and Reclassification

The thousands of State civil ser-
vice employees who appealed to the
Classification Board for reclassifica-
tion of their positions in accord with
provisions of the Feld-Ostertag law
of 1938, and whose appeals were not
granted by the Board, have been ad-
vised that they will be accorded a
hearing if they indicate to the Board
that they so desire. This is in ac-
cord with section 48 of the Civil
Service Law which states:

“Any person aggrieved by rea-
son of any determination made by
the board may appeal from such
determination to the civil service
commission which shall fix a time
and place for the hearing of said

appeal.”

‘The Classification Board, through
its Chairman, Charles L. Campbell,
states that the hearings will be held
in various cities of the State so as
to make for as great convenience of
employees as is possible. No dates
have as yet been fixed, and will not
be until reasonable opportunity has
been given to all interested to notify
the Board that they wish a hearing.

The Classification Division estab-
lished in Section 46 of the Civil Ser-
vice Law is headed by the Classi-
fication Board of three members, two
of which are appointed by the Civil
Service Commission and one by the
Director of the Division of the Bud-
get. The present members of this
Board are: Charles L. Campbell,
Chairman of the Board and the Di-
rector of the Classification Division;
Arthur L. Malloy, and W. F. Mc-
Donough.

In the case of employees whose
positions were reclassified by the
Board, the names of all such were
filed with the Governor. This is pro-
vided for in Section 47 of the Civil
Service Law which states:

“Any reclassification or change
of title recommended by the classi-
fication division pursuant to the
provisions of this article shall be
filed forthwith with the Governor
for inclusion, in his discretion, in
the next Budget.”

This Section further provides “no
such reclassification or change of title
shall be effective until such appro-

March

priation is made.” The printed bud-
get discloses that all of the reclassi-
fications approved by the Classifica-
tion Board were not ratified by in-
clusion in the budget. The basis for
rejection as stated to some of the em-
ployees affected was budgetary dis-
cretion indicating lack of necessity
to provide services of the superior
grade.

The decision of the Classification
Board to accord hearings to those
employees whose requests for re-
classification were not approved by
the Board is in line with the letter
and spirit of the career service bill
as a whole. The underlying purpose
of the career service bill is to assure
to the people of the State a body of
civil employees at once efficient and
subject to just and impartial appli-
cations of the principle of pay for
like work and equal opportunity to
gain promotion solely upon basis of
merit and fitness. It would be very
unfair indeed to deny to any worker
the right to appeal personally if he
or she believed their work was not
properly evaluated and titled and to
Jearn the exact reasons for the de-
cision of the classifying authorities.

What are some of the problems
facing the Classification Board? It
is obvious that a knowledge of the
needs of each service should be ele-
mentary in each department of State
government and that the personnel
officer of each department should be
wholly familiar with the most eco-
nomical attention to personnel needs.
Under such conditions it is easy to
institute a cooperation between the
department and the classification di-
vision of the Civil Service Depart-
ment. We know that when the Feld-
Hamilton law was approved that
there existed a most unsatisfactory
and even chaotic situation as to the
classification of positions and there-
fore as to salaries. While the State
service had been classified in 1932,
errors had been made and in the
years from 1932 to 1937 other errors
in classification had developed. No
machinery had been set up to cope
with the problems of fair classifica-
tion. Thus, the Classification Board
found itself faced with the tremen-
dous task of organizing a new divi-
sion within the Civil Service Depart-

ment, of recruiting a professional
staff and of training its employees
for the difficult technical duties de-
volving upon a classification divi-
sion charged with serving a juris-
diction comprising 50,000 workers.
It must be noted that the Classifica-
tion Division is charged with setting
up specifications showing the quali-
fications for and the nature and ex-
tent and scope of duties and respon-
sibilities and to assigning uniform
titles to positions that are substan-
tially similar in the essential char-
acter and scope of their duties and
responsibilities and in the qualifica-
tion requirements for the entire State
service. Whole services such as the
State Insurance Fund, the Transit
Commission, the Psychiatric Institute
and other large groups had no uni-
form classification and had to be stu-
died and positions classified. Many
new positions were being created in
new branches of State service which
had to be given special attention.
Upon the top of all this, as noted,
lacking recent classification the
whole service was burdened with in-
equities. While this new work with-
in the Civil Service Department has
received new funds, these funds are
not adequate. The work has had to
be done with a limited force and de-
lays have resulted naturally.

It would be desirable in many de-
partments to reclassify whole units
in the interest of efficiency and econ-
omy. It will be apparent, alas, that
to reclassify one position because the
occupant has brought the matter of
need of reclassification to the atten-
tion of the Classification Board and
not to examine positions closely asso-
ciated with the position involved
may create new inequities. There-
fore the work of classification and
reclassification is a continuing one
and must have intelligent first hand
attention by the personnel officer of
the department working harmoni-
ously with the Classification Board.

The Salary Standardization Board
is directly dependent upon the
prompt and complete functioning of
the Classification Board, and looks
to that board for a broad, uniform
treatment of classifications in order
to allocate justly the positions to
proper salary grades.

(Continued on page 78)
“For Distinguished Service”

With this issue the editors
are presenting a new feature.
Roger Stonehouse, who has con-
tributed so much time and ef-
fort as the art editor, has agreed
to edit a page entitled “For Dis-
tinguished Service.” In this col-
umn he hopes to include em-
ployees and particularly Civil
Service employees who have dis-
tinguished themselves through
service to the State.

It is a happy thing to be
proud of one’s self (when we
can!) — but there is real joy
in exulting in someone else’ suc-
cess. There is real inspiration
in being proud of someone else
and that pride puts us on a bet-
ter relationship with the whole
world.

If success or merited honor
has come to one of our mem-
bers, won't you share the news
with us by informing headquar-
ters? We'll pass it on to the
whole Association!

by
Roger H. Stonehouse
“Know ye, that reposing special
trust and confidence in the patriot-
ism, valor, fidelity and abilities of
Ames Thorndike Brown, we have
appointed and constituted and by
these presents do appoint and con-

GENERAL WALTER G. ROBINSON

stitute him Brigadier General, Ad-
jutant General’s Department, New
York National Guard, with rank
from February 9, 1940.”

With these words Governor Leh-
man as Commander-in-Chief of the
Military and Naval Forces commis-
sioned the new Adjutant General of
the State and again demonstrated his
policy of rewarding efficient service
with promotion, a policy essential to
a real “career” in State service.

The time-honored language of
the commission admirably expresses
those qualities necessary to devoted
State service and requisite to the
promotion of civilian or soldier.
That there is ample ground for re-
posing that special trust is evidenced
by the War Department records.
General Brown was commissioned
Second Lieutenant of infantry Feb-
ruary 19, 1915, and has served in
all the intervening grades up to his
present rank. He left the Federal
Service after the World War as a
Major.

During the World War he earned
the following citation by Major Gen-
eral John Francis O’Ryan, Com-
manding the 27th Division, A. E. F.:

“For gallantry, determination and
qualities of leadership in the battle
of the Le Selle River, October 17,
1918. After being painfully wound-
ed in the face by a shell fragment,
this officer continued in action and
later being gassed, he refused to be

evacuated, remaining with his bat-
talion until his regiment was with-
drawn from the line on October 20,
1918.”

General Brown’s decorations in-
clude the Silver Star; Purple Heart;
Conspicuous Service Cross (State of
New York) and the State Long and
Faithful Service Medal.

The Governor who himself holds
the Distinguished Service Medal re-
ceived as Colonel, General Staff, dur-
ing the World War, could not have
failed to recognize that in these dan-
gerous days when peace hangs in the
balance, his trust to protect the
people of the State demanded the
appointment of a seasoned, experi-
enced officer, trained under actual
war conditions. That the Governor
so loyally kept the faith is abundant
cause for congratulation to him, to
General Brown and to the people of
the State of New York.

In the recent death of Major Gen-
eral Walter G. Robinson, Adjutant
General of the State on January 24,
1940, “the Military and Naval Forces
of the State of New York mourned
the loss of an eminent citizen and a
distinguished soldier.” To quote
further from the General Order an-
nouncing his sudden death: “Since
December 13, 1907, when General
Robinson entered the National

(Continued on page 80)

HON. JOHN T. HIGGINS

The State Employee
Story of State Government

CHAPTER V:

The following article is the
fifth of a series of articles on
New York State Government.
The next article of this series,
which will appear in the May
issue, will deal with the work
of the Division of Standards
and Purchase. This series is in
charge of our Editorial Board
Member, A. K. Getman, of the
State Education Department
Staff.

By
Hon. Lirucow Osporne

Commissioner of Conservation
State of New York

Conservation is not a new activity
or even a new governmental func-
tion. It is just a comparatively new
word. From the earliest historical
times governments and peoples prac-
ticed this art. The management of
the annual spring floods of the Nile
whereby the soil of Egypt was con-
served in a climate in which rainfall
was virtually unknown was one of
the most important services rendered
to the people by the Pharaohs and
officials of ancient Egypt. The canals
of ancient Babylonia and the forest-
ing of the hills from which the trib-
utaries of the Tigris and Euphrates
flowed were conservation measures
practiced in the land where humanity
traditionally is supposed to have had
its origin.

It has been by persistence during
countless centuries in conservation
practices that Egypt has managed to
survive and flourish and, conversely,
by neglect of such practices that
Mesopotamia has in parts become
virtually a desert.

Conservation is a governmental
activity in all the thickly settled Eu-
ropean countries where strict laws
govern the cutting even of privately
owned trees, the damming of waters
and the taking of wildlife. It is rec-
ognized by peoples who have lived
for many generations on the same
soil that not merely individual but
cooperative and governmental regu-
Jation of natural resources is im-
perative if the lands and waters and
all their products are to be pre-

March

served from generation to genera-
tion.
Waste vs. Want

Newly settled countries are usu-
ally so vast and in the beginning so
thinly populated that conservation
does not at the outset appear to be
at all needed. The history of the
United States in this respect is simi-
lar to that of Australia and South
Africa, for example. Pioneers find-
ing apparently limitless areas of vir-
gin timber, prairie, soil, vegetation
and wildlife feel themselves loosed
from the fetters of conservation
which have bound them in the coun-
tries from which they emigrated.

DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION

tion laws. Even today, however,
these laws in practically every part
of the United States are less drastic
and less effective than they are in
the older nations. Nevertheless we
have built up here, particularly in
the State of New York, a body of
protective statutes which are the
model for the rest of the United
States to follow.

For example, in 1885 the State of
New York constituted an inviolate
forest preserve and at the same time
acquired from private ownership
public title to the State’s greatest na-
tural wonder, Niagara Falls, Even
before 1885 there were restrictive

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Wild life is conserved in many parts of the State. These white tail deer,
one of the most graceful of all the animals in the State, were photographed
in a game sanctuary in the Adirondacks.

Finding themselves in an environ-
ment of apparently unlimited plenty
they indulge in reckless waste. That
was the history of the United States
up until very recent times and the
penalty is now being paid in dust
storms, droughts and polluted rivers.

The consciousness that this coun-
try had a limit to its natural wealth
dawned upon Americans between
fifty and seventy-five years ago and
since that time has very slowly been
written into our so-called conserva-

game laws calculated to prevent the
extinction of any desirable species
and in very recent years these laws
have been placed upon a scientific
rather than a hit or miss basis.
Agencies United
The Conservation Department as it
exists today represents a combination
of a group of separate departments,
boards, and commissions which
formerly operated in various fields.
There were, for example, at one time
(Continued on page 68)

67
Department of
Conservation
(Continued from page 67)
in this State a Water Power Com-
mission, a Water Supply Commis-
sion, a Fisheries Department, a
Forestry Department, and several in-
dependent park commissions, all of
which, and other activities, are to-
day combined in the Conservation

Department.

Generally speaking, this depart-
ment is charged with the care and
protection of most of the natural re-
sources of the State including its
forests, its water power and its water
supply and its wildlife. As minerals
are not mined to any large extent in
this State, except for the deposits of
oil and natural gas along the south-
western border, the State has never
assumed the duty of conserving these
scanty supplies, so mineral conserva-
tion has no part in the Conservation
Department’s work. Soil conserva-
tion also is excluded from the duties
of the Conservation Department, as
that particular activity is handled by
the Department of Agriculture and
Markets, Otherwise, however, prac-
tically every natural resource includ-
ing natural beauties and places of
historic and scenic interest are with-
in the scope of this department's
activities.

The department operates through
four main divisions and one separate
bureau:

Four Units

‘The Division of Lands and Forests
manages the forest preserve in the
Adirondacks and Catskills, consist-
ing of 2,400,000 acres of State owned
land. It protects this preserve from
fire, pest and disease and it estab-
lishes within the preserve numerous
recreational facilities including camp
sites, trails, ski trails, etc. It also
protects all other forested areas of
the State from fire through its ranger
and observer force, consisting of up-
wards of 300 men and eighty fire
towers, as well as fire trucks and
other equipment. In its forest pest
and disease activities it employs sea-
sonally several thousand men. It also
carries out the State’s reforestation
program under which: 400,000 acres
of submarginal or abandoned farm
land have been acquired by the State
and planted with trees. In addition
it administers a number of historic
sites including such places as the
Saratoga Battlefield, the Schuyler
Mansion in Albany, Fort Crailo, the

68

Sir William Johnson Mansion, Baron
Steuben Cabin, etc.

The Division of Fish and Game
manages the wildlife resources of the
State. It administers the fish and
game laws which divide the wild-
life into groups setting up open and
close seasons for each species and
regulating the taking, possession and
transportation of all forms of fish
and game. It has 163 game pro-
tectors and several hundred unpaid
special game protectors to enforce
these laws. It also regulates the com-
mercial fisheries of the Hudson
River, the Great Lakes and several
of the larger internal lakes. In ad-
dition it supervises both the con-
servation and the sanitary fitness of
the State’s shell fisheries around
Long Island and on Staten Island.

fishing areas. It has acquired and
operates more than 600 miles of
State owned trout streams which
have been recently acquired from
private owners, as well as many
thousands of miles of other streams
and many thousands of square miles
of larger waters in which fish
abound. It pours into the waters an-
nually hundreds of millions of young
fish artificially reared in its hatch-
eries and stocks appropriate covers
with many thousands of game birds.

The Division of Parks administers
the magnificent State park system,
consisting of upwards of seventy
parks located outside the limits of
cities in every part of the State,
There are eleven park regions, each
of which is headed by a commission
appointed by the Governor but all

Whitefish are developed from eggs in glass hatching jars at the Crown
Point hatchery. The Department’s stocking of streams
is a great boon to fishermen.

Fish and Game

It operates twenty-four fish hatch-
cries and rearing stations for the pro-
duction of artificially reared fish
for planting in the streams and
waters of the State. It operates five
game farms mainly for the produc-
tion of pheasants and quail but also
as research centers for activities in
the preservation and conservation of
other species of birds and quadru-
peds. It carries on extensive scien-
tific investigations in the field and
in the laboratory. It manages twelve
game refuges or sanctuaries for game
and numerous public hunting and

responsible to the Conservation De-
partment. Among these many parks
are the State Reservation at Niagara
Falls, the great wilderness area in
Cattaraugus County known as Alle-
gany State Park, the numerous beau-
tiful forested and glen parks studded
with lakes in the Finger Lakes region
and the Central New York region,
the Lake Ontario and Lake Erie
waterfront bathing beach parks, the
great Bear Mountain Park which is
part of the Palisades Interstate sys-
tem, the beautiful string of Taconic
Parks to the east of the Hudson and
north of New York City and the

The State Employee
fine system of highly developed
parks on Long Island, including the
world famous Jones Beach.
‘Water Power

The Division of Water Power
and Control has several important
functions, chief among these is
the control of the State owned
water power in the Niagara
River and in the State canal sys-
tem. Next and perhaps most im-
portant of all is the control of this
division over the allocation of water
supplies to all municipalities in the
State. Third, this division supervises
the formation and subsequent opera-
tion of river regulating districts, such
as the Hudson River Regulating
District which controls the great
Sacandaga Reservoir and prevents
floods in the Hudson while furnish-
ing power to numerous industries.
Fourth, this division supervises the
formation and subsequent operation

dreds of thousands of booklets to
prospective visitors to this State.

In addition to the above the de-
partment has set up a Division of
Finance to handle its extremely com-
plicated accounting. Accomplish-
ments in all these fields have been
particularly striking in the last ten
years. It was in 1931 that the reforest-
ation program was inaugurated by
the State on a constitutional basis.
In 1933 the federal government be-
gan an extensive program of aid to
States in conservation, principally by
the establishment of the Civilian
Conservation Corps.

C. C. C. Camps

At one time the federal govern-
ment placed upwards of 200 camps
of the C. C. C. in this State, all of
them under the jurisdiction either of
the Division of Lands and Forests or
the Division of Parks of the Conser-
vation Department. Today the num-

Jones Beach State Park, maintained by the Department, is world famous.
‘The strip of sand on Long Island is reached by fine roads and is enjoyed
by millions of persons annually. Photos by Earl McGuirk,
Conservation Department.

of drainage improvement districts in
various parts of the State.

The Bureau of State Publicity is
not concerned with the conserving
of any natural resource but was set
up in 1935 and attached to the Con-
servation Department for the pur-
pose of publicizing mainly the re-
creational advantages of this State.
Tt advertises these advantages in
newspapers and magazines all over
the country and it distributes hun-

March

ber of camps has been reduced to
about sixty but the enrollees in these
camps are performing extremely
valuable work in making improve-
ments to the entire park system, in
constructing fire truck trails and ski
trails through the forest preserve,
in building great additions to camp
sites, in stream improvement, and in
wildlife management. practices.

In the few years following 1933
the federal government also set up

in this State what were originally
known as the Rural Resettlement
areas, developed some of them for
forestry and others for game man-
agement purposes. Eventually these
areas totalling more than 60,000 acres
will be turned over to the Conserva-
tion Department for management.
About the same time the federal gov-
ernment began its soil conservation
and flood control work in this State
and many of the C. C. C. camps for-
merly assigned to this department
were transferred to that work. In-
asmuch as this department has no
authority over soil conservation, in
this activity the federal government
has acted as a separate agency. In
1935 the State celebrated the fiftieth
anniversary of conservation stirring
immense public interest in the ac-
tivities of this department. In 1938
the fish and game laws of the State
were recodified.
Interest Aroused

Public interest in conservation and
public participation in the work of
the department have grown im-
mensely in recent years. There are
now in New York State upwards of
700 active fish and game clubs, most
of which assist the department in
the planting or releasing of game
birds or fishes. Large numbers of
landowners purchase trees produced
at the nurseries operated by the de-
partment and engage in private re-
forestation ventures, Attendance at
the forest preserve camp sites and the
State parks has practically doubled
in the last decade, The State's sys-
tem of ski trails has been entirely
established in that period. The num-
ter of hunting, trapping and fishing
licenses issued has increased by fifty
per cent at least.

All of this involves added respon-
sibility on the part of the Conserva-
tion Department particularly in the
field of fish and game. The parks
and the camp sites have expanded
adequately to meet the increased
public demand. The reforestation
program has slowed down because
of reduced appropriations but is still
in operation. The increased demand
of the public for the sports of field
and stream presents a problem which
is extremely difficult.

Many Hunters

At least a million hunters and
fishermen operate in the woods,
fields and waters of New York every
year, some of them going afield as

(Continued on page 70)

69
Department of
Conservation
(Continued from page 69)
many as fifteen or twenty times in
the course of a year. This terrific
drain upon the wildlife resources as
reflected in the take of fish and game
can be met only by intensive man-
agement and stocking, particularly
management. Fortunately this activ-
ity is self-supporting. The amount re-
ceived by the State for fish and game
licenses is more than sufficient to
carry on the present operations of
the department. In fact, a large
surplus has been built up in this
segregated Conservation Fund. That
the supply may in some measure
equal the ever-increasing demand
requires that this surplus be put to

work.

In the last few years the Governor
and the Legislature have adopted a
policy of expanding more than antic-
ipated revenues with the idea there-
by of reducing the surplus. How-
ever, revenues have increased faster
than was anticipated and until the
present year the surplus continued to
grow as well as the drain upon the
State’s wildlife resources,

Use of Fund

The situation is serious but not
alarming because the department
knows what to do and is equipped
to do it. All it needs is the adequate
appropriations from the Legislature
—appropriations incidentally which
are not a drain upon the general tax-
payer but are taken from a fund al-
ready in extremely healthy condition
and containing a large unexpended
balance.

Compared with other departments
of the State government the Con-
servation Department is an extreme-
ly inexpensive one to operate. Its
total appropriations from all sources
do not exceed $5,000,000 a year and
$3,000,000 of this goes into the park
system. Of the money spent by parks
only $2,000,000 is out of the tax-
payer’s pocket, the other million be-
ing paid from park revenues. Of the
amount spent by the Division of
Fish and Game, which is more than
$1,500,000 annually, none of it is a
drain upon the general taxpayer, as
all is paid from the Conservation
Fund made up of sportsmen’s license
fees, etc. The net cost to the State,
therefore, of all the operations of this
department is less than $2,500,000.

70

It would have been more had the
reforestation program been con-
tinued on the basis as set up by the
constitutional amendment of 1931
but since adoption of the changes
suggested by the 1938 Constitutional
Convention, reforestation is no long-
er a mandatory activity and has con-
sequently been greatly reduced. It
is understood among executives and
legislators, however, that when the
State’s fiscal condition becomes bet-
ter, acquisition and planting of re-
forestation areas will be resumed on
a much larger scale.

Work is Popular

While there is much minor and
local criticism of the activities of the
Conservation Department, particu-
larly in relation to the enforcement
of the game laws, the department
generally is very highly regarded by
the public. Many of its officials and
employees are regular guests and

ciation, the Middle Atlantic Fish-
eries’ Association, a commercial
group—the Long Island Party Boat-
men, the Association of Commercial
Lake Fishermen, and numerous
others.

The Conservation Department's
activities touch the business and re-
creation of several millions of per-
sons and these are among the most
articulate in the State. There are but
few departments in the government
which receive so many letters dis-
cussing matters of public interest.

The public of course is generally
familiar with the Department's ac-
tivities in relation to wildlife man-
agement and to forestry. It has prac-
tically no knowledge, however, of
the activities of the Division of

Water Power and Control. A great
majority of the people of the State
is in complete ignorance of the fact
that the park system is part of the

Fingerlings to stock streams are shipped by truck from the hatchery at
Warrensburg. The fish are counted out by weight before
being transported in cans.

speakers at the meetings of numerous
organizations particularly fish and
game clubs. In addition to these
clubs there exist at least a dozen ex-
tremely active organizations which
take a lively interest in the work of
the department, such as the Adiron-
dack Mountain Club, the Society for
the Preservation of the Adiron-
dacks, the Ski Congress, the Na-
tional Recreation Association, the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, the Fur Dealers’ Asso-

Conservation Department. In fact
some of them regard it as an exten-
sion of the New York City park
system because it happens that the
Commissioner of Parks of the City
of New York also is Chairman of the
State Council of Parks. Neverthe-
less the Department finds that
knowledge of its functions and ap-
preciation of its importance in the
governmental scheme has been grow-
ing rapidly in recent years with ex-
tremely gratifying results.

The State Employee
Decision On Temporary Appointments

A decision of far reaching impor-
tance with respect to temporary ap-
pointments was handed down by
the Appellate Division, Third Depart-
ment, on March sixth. The petition-
er, Florence S. Graae, who was No.
1 on the eligible list, was appointed
Case Supervisor in the Department
of Public Welfare “for a period of
six months,” Her temporary ap-
pointment was renewed for another
six months and at the end of this
time Commissioner Ahern summar-
ily dismissed her without charges,
claiming that she was only a “tem-
porary employee” and not entitled to
Civil Service protection. Through
her attorney, John T. De Graff, she
instituted action for reinstatement,
claiming that she became a perma-
nent employee after she had served
her probationary period of three
months and that her dismissal was
illegal because written charges had
not been preferred against her and
she had been given no opportunity
to answer the charges in accordance
with the provisions of section 22 of
the Civil Service Law. The lower
Court denied her application but the
Appellate Division unanimously re-
versed and ordered her reinstate-
ment.

The opinion reads as follows:
HILL, P. J.

Appeal from an order of the Al-
bany Special Term denying peti-
tioner’s motion that respondents
Ahern, commissioner of public wel-
fare for the County of Rensselaer,
Tower, treasurer thereof, and Reavy
and others, civil service commission-
ers of the State of New York, rein-
state her in the permanent position
of case supervisor in the bureau of
old age assistance, department of
public welfare, Rensselaer County.
She was originally appointed on
May 19, 1937. Previously on the
12th, Ahern had written her offer-
ing the “position for a period of six
months.” She accepted on the 15th.
Thereupon Ahern notified the com-
mission and other officials that she
had been appointed “for a period of
six months.” On December 15, 1937,
she was still holding the position,
and the commission wrote Ahern

calling attention that the six months,

had ended in November, and ask-
ing that he advise as to “the exten-

March

sion of her employment to whatever
date you will need her services.” He
replied:

“May I request that the appoint-
ment of Mrs. Graae, which terminat-
ed as of November 15th, be con-
sidered a permanent appointment.
As you pointed out in your letter of
December 15th, Mrs. Graae is num-
ber one on Civil Service list for this
job and is qualified for this posi-
tion.”

Appointments in the civil service
are to be made according to merit
and fitness to be ascertained so far
as practicable by competitive exam-
inations, (Constitution, Art. 5, Sec.
6). Appointments to all positions in
the competitive class not filled by
promotion, reinstatement, transfer or
reduction are to be made under the
provisions of the Civil Service Law
and the rules adopted thereunder.
(Regulations are not mentioned)
(Civil Service Law, Sec. 14). When
the need for service is immediate
and urgent and will not continue for
more than one month, an appoint-
ment for a temporary period may
be made from the list of those elig-
ible for a permanent appointment
without regard to the standing on
the list. (Civil Service Law, Sec. 15,
subdiv. 3), Whenever there are ur-
gent reasons for filling a vacancy
and no list of eligibles is available,
the appointing officer may name a
person for the consideration of the
Civil Service Commission for non-
competitive examination, and if the
nominee be certified he may be ap-
pointed provisionally to fill the va-
cancy until an appointment can be
made after a competitive examina-
tion, “Such provisional appointment
shall not continue for a longer period
than four months nor shall succes-
sive provisional appointments be
made to the same position under
this subdivision.” (Civil Service
Law, Sec. 15, subdiv. 1). “Every
original appointment to or employ-
ment in any position in the classi-
fied service shall be for a probation-
ary term of three months, except
as otherwise provided herein (this
position is not within the exception)
and an appointing or nominating
officer in notifying a person *#*
shall certify the same is for a pro-

bationary term only” and if the pro-
bationer serves satisfactorily the orig-
inal appointment shall be equivalent
to a permanent appointment. (Rule
12 for the Classified Civil Service).
The commission may make rules
for the classification of positions and
for appointments therein not incon-
sistent with the constitution and the
civil service law. These rules and
any modifications will take effect
when approved by the governor.
(Civil Service Law, Sec. 10). Sub-
ject to the Civil Service Law and the
rules, the commission (without ac-
tion by the governor) “shall make
regulations for and have control of
examinations,” (Civil Service Law,
Sec. 10) and may make and enforce
regulations for carrying the rules,
statutes and the constitutional pro-
vision into effect. (Rule XXIII). The
commission has made “Regulation
13” which purports to empower an
appointing officer to make a tem-
porary appointment whenever he
desires for a period exceeding one
month and without limit as to the
length of service. The appointing of.
ficer is to notify the commission of
the nature of the services desired,
the term of employment and rate of
compensation. Thereupon the com-
mission is to certify the names of the
three persons standing highest upon
the general eligible list who are will-
ing to accept the appointment. The
temporary appointment may be
made permanent during the tempo-
rary term if the appointee was elig-
ible at the time of the appointment
or became so at any time thereafter.
The commission was not permitted
to make a regulation concerning the
subject matter dealt with by Regula-
tion 13, as it does not deal with ex-
aminations or the enforcement of
the constitutional provision, statutes
or rules made thereunder. It is an
attempt to modify and repeal the
time limit concerning temporary ap-
pointments contained in subdivision
3 of Section 15, and the provisions
of other sections and Rule 12 con-
cerning appointments. The attempt
by respondent Ahern to make appel-
lant’s appointment for six months
was in violation of Rule 12, for
thereunder “every original appoint-
ment *** shall be for a probationary

(Continued on page 79)

a
THE STATE EMPLOYEE

Official Publication of
THE ASSOCIATION OF STATE CIVIL
SERVICE EMPLOYEES
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Room 156 State Capitol Albany, N. ¥.
Editor Charles A. Brind, Jr.
‘Art Editor Roger Stonehouse

Business Manager Joseph D. Lochner
Editorial Board
W. F. McDonough
Ralph D. Fleming Linda J. Wharton
Foster Potter Charles L. Mosher
A. K. Getman
Association Officers

Charles A. Brind, Jr. - -_- President
Charles L. Campbell - - Vice-President
Earl P. Pfannebecker - - - Treasurer
John T. DeGraff - - - - - Counsel
Mary H. Ahern - - - - - Secretary

Joseph D. Lochner - Executive Secretary

Workers Are Taxpayers

To the employees of the Hudson
River State Hospital belongs the
credit for initiating a citizen move-
ment new to New York State. They
have formed a Taxpayers’ Associa-
tion devoted to the unselfish purpose
of setting forth the truth about taxes.
We say this is novel because thus far
taxpayers associations have asserted
themselves only to question or to de-
claim against any and all taxes. First
of all the new group recognizes and
proclaims that all taxpayers should
take an equal interest in taxes and
approach the methods of taxation
and the purposes served with a mind
to the general welfare of the State
and the nation,

If education is helpful to human
progress, then education must be
provided. If health is an asset to
society, then health must be safe-
guarded. In short, if life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness are
practical things and worth secking
and planning for, then all of the
people should know how their gov-
ernment cares for these things and
what it costs to do the work and all
of the people should help to pay the
bills, and taxes simply pay for the
services rendered within a civilized
society. The first things the new tax-
payers’ group did was to point out
that the tax dollar paid by New

72

York State tax payers went mostly to
care for expenses of town, county
and city governments (47 cents of
each dollar), that the next largest
share (46 cents of each dollar) goes
for National expenditures—army,
navy, Federal Departments, etc., and
that the State Budget concerning
which there has been so much said
of late really involved only seven
cents of each tax dollar, and pro-
vided for State courts, prisons, re-
formatories, mental hospitals, de-
partmental services, and aids to edu-
cation, health, and relief. If the so-
called taxpayers’ associations that
have been boasting about their de-
sire for economy ever knew these
facts they never gave them to the
press or at least we failed to find
them published in the press. And
they have given inordinate attention
to saving out of the seven cents and
neglected to mention the ninety-three
cent portion of the tax dollar. There
is little doubt but that as the
Employees’ Taxpayers Association
formed by the employees of the
Hudson River State Hospital hits
its stride it will become a helpful
member of the taxpayers groups of
Dutchess County and will in an in-
telligent way present the economy
of taxation in a Democracy. It should
be the first to condemn waste in
National, State or local governments.
It should be the first to awaken a
sense of responsibility among all sal-
aried and wage earning men and
women as to their stake in taxes. It
should endeavor to clear up the
present misunderstanding—a misun-
derstanding often wilfully perpetrat-
ed by selfishly interested persons and
groups as to the rightful place of
taxes and the proper place to re-
trench when services must be elim-
inated.

Good luck to the workers of Hud-
son River State Hospital in their
new effort to serve their community,
and may the plan spread to other
places, It is in direct line with the
project of the Association to aid all
citizens to a better understanding of
the services they demand and of the
men and women they employ to per-
form those services.

“Racket” Groups Fail
Again

Now that the budget for the fiscal
year beginning next July Ist has
been settled upon, it is more clear
than ever before to State employees
how necessary it is to maintain a
united front and to present the State
employees’ side intelligently and
with proper dignity. The Association
of State Civil Service Employees is
the only civil service organization
recognized in executive, legislative
and administrative circles in Albany.
Because it always urges constructive
action and does it in a convincing
manner, the door of every legislator
is wide open to Association represen-
tatives. It is a serious, difficult job to
represent any large group of cit-
izens in Legislative matters. Sel-
fish groups, asking for the moon
and misrepresenting themselves and
their membership soon wear their
welcome and their influence out in
Albany. The “racket” group is quick-
ly sensed by legislators.

This year when small but articu-
late groups from various parts of the
State descended upon Albany to de-
mand a wrecking of the budget in
the name of “the taxpayers,” the
Association was faced with the dif-
ficult task of clearing the atmos-,
phere as to State services and as to
State employees. The so-called “tax-
payer” pressure groups submitted
only half the picture as to taxes.
They sought “economy” in State
service at the expense of the State
worker. There were many “dues col-
lecting” groups represented at the
public hearing.

One of the most unfortunate fea-
tures of the public hearing was the
C. I. O. inspired parade and “march
on Albany.” The State employees
who joined in this and spent their
own money to travel to Albany to
the hearing were the unsuspecting
dupes of a plan that has threatened
disrepute and some shame to State
employees. The Association found
the legislative atmosphere charged
with animosity toward such activities
among State workers. Obviously

(Continued on page 85)

The State Employee
The Budget “On the Air”

“Is it wise and practical to cut the
proposed State Budget?” was the
topic discussed by Association Coun-
sel, John T. De Graff, and Doctor
George H. McCaffrey, Director of
Research for the Merchants’ Associa-
tion of New York, at the 39th Em-
pire State Town Meeting, held at
Union College in Schenectady on
February 18th from 3:15 to 3:45
P. M,, which was broadcast over
NBC Station WGY, Schenectady,
N. Y. The following is a transcript
of the discussion with questions and
answers:

Announcer: Station WGY pre-
sents the 39th Empire State Town
Meeting at Union College in Sche-
nectady. The audience gathered here
in Old Chapel on the campus will
join with our two guest speakers in
discussing the most important issue
confronting the people of New York
State: “Is it wise and practical to
cut the proposed State Budget?”

President Dixon Ryan Fox of
Union College as chairman of this
weekly town meeting will introduce
our discusion leaders. Dr. Fox.

Dr. Fox: Thank you, Mr. Martin.
And ladies and gentlemen who are
listening to this program, Union Col-
lege greets you wherever you may
be. A small army of taxpayers de-
scended on Albany on Lincoln’s
birthday to protest against and also
to defend the size of the proposed
State budget and a new tax plan
which was devised by Governor Her-
bert H. Lehman in cooperation with
both Republican and Democratic
leaders of the legislature. When sub-
mitted to the legislature it was hailed
by its leaders as the easiest way out
of a difficult situation, But the per-
sistent and widespread demand of
many groups who asked whether
this budget and tax plan was the
“fairest and wisest way out” led to
the State-wide town meeting in the
Armory in Albany where about 8,000
gathered to voice their opinions.

Today we are fortunate in having
as our discussion leaders the leading
speakers for each side of the ques-
tion, Dr. George H. McCaffrey, di-
rector of research for the Merchants’
Association of New York, who be-
lieves we should cut the budget, and
John T. De Graff, Counsel to the

March

Association of State Civil Service
Employees of the State of New York.

After each has spoken for eight
minutes, the audience gathered here
will be given the opportunity to
question the speakers whose replies
you will also hear.

First you will hear from Dr. Mc-
Caffrey. When he spoke in Albany
at the public hearing, he represented
not only the Merchants’ Association
but also the following state organiza-
tions: the Associated Industries, the
Taxpayers’ Federation, the Chamber
of Commerce, and the Real Estate
Association. A graduate of Harvard
College with the bachelor, masters
and doctorate degrees, Dr. McCaf-
frey spent a year as the Sheldon
Traveling Fellow in Government
and then returned to Harvard for
two years as Assistant in Govern-
ment. After twelve years of semi-
public service, he became in 1927
assistant director of research and a
year later, director, for the Mer-
chants’ Association, Dr. McCaffrey:

Dr. McCaffrey: It is wise to cut
the proposed State budget for sev-
eral reasons, anyone of which is suf-
ficient.

The tax problem of New York
State is only one phase of the gen-
eral problem of all government ex-
penditures—Federal, State and local.
The financial situation in all three
layers of government is bad and
growing worse.

Our municipalities are either fast
approaching their constitutional tax
limits or keeping within them only
by maintaining gross _over-assess-
ment of real property. The yield of
those State taxes which most quickly
reflect business conditions indicates
forcibly that the law of diminishing
returns is working here. This omi-
nous decline in the tax yield is sup-
ported by fast accumulating evidence
of an alarming exodus of business
and industry from this State. Our
national finances are in a sorry con-
dition, which is becoming worse day
by day.

‘The greatest menace of the mo-
ment, however, lies in the possibility
that we may at any time be drawn
into either military or economic war,
despite our overwhelming desire for
peace. Should either type of war

come to pass, the weakest link in our
national defenses would be the vital-
ly important one of money.

They say an army fights on its
stomach, but under modern condi-
tions of warfare, cither military or
economic, a nation really fights on
its financial resources. On July 1,
1916, our national debt was $1,225,-
000,000. The peak of our World
War debt was $26,600,000,000. If
war should come tomorrow, we
would start with a national debt in
excess of forty-two billion dollars.
Inevitably a dictatorship would de-
velop to obtain that regimentation of
our people necessary to carry on a
war under conditions of bank-
ruptcy. Even if we are fortunate
enough to avoid the calamity of
actual war, we shall need all of the
financial resources we can possibly
muster to do our part in the reestab-
lishment of trade when peace at last
does come. Obviously we should
proceed at once to improve our pub-
lic finances and to husband our tax
resources,

Our present straitened circum-
stances are largely the result of three
factors:

First, the remainder of the World
War debt;

Second, the rapid development of
governmental services and functions,
particularly in the States and munic-
ipalities, during the prosperous
1920's, and the stubborn mainte-
nance of these costly functions and
services long after economic condi-
tions changed for the worse; and

Third, the added burdens of re-
lief and of the major social reforms
which were adopted during the
1930's,

We now find ourselves bending
under a staggering load of govern-
mental activities beyond our eco-
nomic capacity to sustain.

The State’s share in this burden is
less than that of either the Federal
Government or the local govern-
ments, but it is still substantial and
far heavier than it was only a few
years ago, both absolutely and re-
latively.

The National Industrial Confer-
ence Board estimates that in 1919
the private production income of this

(Continued on page 74)

73
The Budget “On the Air”
(Continued from page 73)

State was about 7% billion dollars.
The State took in taxes, for its own
purposes, about 1 per cent of that
income. In the boom year of 1929
that private income rose to $11,300,-
000,000, of which the State took in
taxes about 2.1 per cent. In 1938 the
private income was almost $200,000,-
000 less than in 1919, but State taxes
took more than 5 per cent of it.
In other words, the burden of State
taxes was about five times as great
as it was twenty years ago.

Translating that percentage into
dollars, we are confronted with the
disheartening prospect of paying
‘over to State tax collectors alone dur-
ing 1940-41 the huge sum of $508,-
000,000, exclusive of another $125,-
000,000 or more which the State will
collect and turn over to the Federal
Government for the unemployment
insurance fund.

The Governor proposes to raise
this $508,000,000 by continuing cur-
rent taxes in full force, by imposing
a pari-mutuel tax, and by increasing
personal income tax rates sufficiently
to raise $15,000,000.

This income tax increase well il-
lustrates the extremes to which it
is necessary to resort in order to raise
more revenue. Since 1930 the gen-
eral rates of this tax have been more
than doubled and the exemptions
lowered. That doesn’t sound as bad
as it really is.

In 1930, a bachelor with an in-
come of $3,000, all earned, would
have paid a State income tax of only
$5.00. Today he must pay $70, or
fourteen times as much, and the
Governor asks that it be made sev-
enteen times.

It is significant that, despite these
lower exemptions and higher rates
imposed upon a larger population,
the income tax will yield 11 per cent
less than in 1930—only $107,000,-
000 as against $120,000,000.

I believe enough has been said to
show the wisdom of reducing the
State budget, and I believe it is prac-
tical to do that which is wise. I
believe it will be done, but the doing
of it will not be easy.

This total of $508,000,000 may be
broken down into three major items:

First, $86,000,000 to pay the debt
service and the deficit.

4

Second, $139,000,000 for the ex-
penses of the State Government
proper, and

Third, $283,000,000 in various
torms of State aid, exclusive of the
$22,700,000 in debt service on home
relief bonds already covered in item
de

The Constitution wisely requires
full provision for the debt service
and deficit, so no reduction can be
made there.

The expenses of the State Govern-
ment proper may be divided into
$12,500,000 for capital outlays; $55,-
500,000 for maintenance and opera-
tion; and $70,500,000 for personal
service.

The capital outlay program is low-
er than the amount needed to keep
the State’s physical plant and equip-
ment from falling below reasonable
standards and needs.

Maintenance and operation have
likewise been held down as far as it
is safe to go.

Only in personal service is there
room for a reduction. Admitting
that many State employees, particu-
larly in the hospitals, receive small
salaries, their working conditions
have been improved since 1930,
many have received pay increases,
and their only pay reduction during
the whole depression was on the
average 64 per cent for twenty-
seven months. It is not unreason-
able, therefor, to ask that the per-
sonal service item be reduced five
per cent, or $3,500,000, rather than
to increase the already greatly ex-
panded income tax.

We have good reason to be pro-
foundly disturbed over the fact that
the amount we are asked to pay next
year as State aid for localities is al-
most sixteen times what it was in
1919, The mushroom growth of that
class of expenditures is obviously the
chief cause of our State’s financial
plight. State aid has become a finan-
cial Frankenstein which must be
curbed, and curbed promptly, or it
will bring ruin to us all.

Time does not permit giving rea-
sons why it seems impractical to
reduce some forms of State aid at
present. The most important, by far,
is State aid to education for which
$122,000,000 is asked that should be
reduced. It is indisputable that the

methods in which aid to education
is granted and administered have led
to waste and extravagance, and even
the desire to economize appears to
be lacking in far too many cases,

Under present circumstances it is
more essential for the maintenance
of democracy that we restore a sound
economic structure than it is to main-
tain an educational program based
upon conditions which no longer ob-
tain. State aid for education should,
therefore, be reduced by $13,500,000,
which is approximately five per cent
of the total cost of personal service
in the schools.

The total of $17,000,000 in these
reductions would remove the need
for the increased income tax and
leave a small margin for reduction
of the stock transfer tax which is so
high that it is driving one of our
most important sources of revenue
literally out of the State,

Dr. Fox: Thank you, Dr. McCaf
frey. Ladies and gentlemen, you
have heard Dr. George H. McCaf-
frey, director of research for the
Merchants’ Association of New
York, speaking in favor of cutting
the proposed State budget at the
Empire State Town Meeting at
Union College. And now you will
hear another point of view expressed
by John T. De Graff, Counsel to the
Association of State Civil Service
Employees of the State of New
York. Mr. De Graff is also legal
assistant to the New York State
Board of Law Examiners. He played
an important role in his organiza-
tion’s sponsorship of the Feld-Ham-
ilton law which set up standards of
salaries for State employees. A gradu-
ate of St. Lawrence University, he
prepared to practice law at the Al-
bany Law School. Mr. De Graff:

Mr. De Graff: Iam very glad to
have this opportunity to discuss the
State budget, because I believe that
it will be a healthy thing for every-
one if the present interest in the
budget develops into a broader un-
derstanding of the State government.

The widespread publicity given to
the recent taxpayers’ march on the
Capitol has created the illusion that
tax reduction can be brought about
by cutting the State budget. In fact,
however, the State expends but a
very small portion of the taxes paid
by its citizens, If you will total all
the taxes collected in New York

The State Employee
State by the Federal, State and local
governments you will find that, out
of every dollar collected, 45.7c is col-
lected by the Federal government,
47.2c is used to pay the expenses of
local governments, such as cities,
counties, towns and school districts,
and only 7.1c is used to operate the
State government... It is apparent
therefor, that the State government
expends only a part—and a very
small part—of the tax dollar and
that a reduction of the State budget,
without a corresponding decrease in
Federal and local budgets, can have
but a trivial effect upon the taxes
you pay.

When we talk about our State
budget of $397,000,000 we should
begin with an appreciation of the
fact that the State, to a very large
extent, is merely a collection agency
for municipal and county govern-
ments. Nearly two-thirds of the
taxes collected by the State are re-
turned to local governments in the
form of State aid or shared taxes. I
was amazed, at the budget hearing
in Albany, on Lincoln’s birthday, to
find so many taxpayers demanding
that the State budget, and “State
aid” in particular, be reduced in or-
der to relieve the burden of the tax
on real estate. The fact is that the
State does not receive any money
from the tax on real estate, which
goes entirely to cities, counties, vil-
lages and school districts for local
services. The only taxes collected by
the State of New York are the taxes
on income, cigarettes, motor ve-
hicles, gasoline, stock transfers, mort-
gages, alcoholic beverages and a few
other minor taxes. The State govern-
ment does not even spend the major
portion of the revenue from the taxes
it does collect. Nearly two-thirds of
the taxes collected are returned to.lo-
calities as “shared taxes” or as “State
aid” for roads, schools, welfare, etc.

The average citizen pays very little
to the State. He may pay a few
pennies when he fills up the tank of
his car or when he buys cigarettes or
strong drinks. He pays a small sum
when he buys a license for his car.
He may be the one person in eleven
who pays a State income tax. He
seldom pays any other State taxes
unless he is wealthy or engaged in
large business transactions.

It is impossible to even outline at

this time all the services performed .

by the eighteen State departments,
and the amazing fact is that the

March

services are performed at a cost
which is less today than it was ten
years ago. To appreciate the truth
of this statement it is necessary to
understand that the State budget is
really made up of four separate and
distinct budgets, namely—the bud-
get for State services; the State Aid
budget; the Relief budget, and the
Debt Service budget. Comparing the
budget today with the budget of ten
years ago, we find that the unem-
ployment relief budget alone has in-
creased by $82,000,000 and similar
increases have been made in State
aid. The cost of the State govern-
ment proper however, has been re-
duced by $50,000,000. This is a truly
remarkable achievement when we
realize that, during this same period,
governmental services have been ex-
panded,

It is generally conceded that it is
impracticable, if not impossible, to
reduce the budget for regular State
services without eliminating func-
tions now performed by the State
government. Both Governor Leh-
man and the Republican and Dem-
ocratic leaders who participated in
preparing the present budget have
said:

“T£ any just criticism may be
directed against this budget, it is
that appropriations for the regu-
lar State services are too scanty.”
Although the taxpayers who ap-

peared at the budget hearing were
asked to point out specific services
that should be eliminated in the in-
terest of economy, not a single tax-
payer who appeared at the hearing
requested that any existing State ser-
vice be eliminated. The plain fact
is that the citizens who demand
economy, nevertheless expect gov-
ernment to continue to perform all
its present obligations. They want
existing services to be maintained,
but they want someone else to pay
the taxes necessary to perform those
services. This attitude is typified by
the taxpayer who wrote one of our
legislators demanding a $30,000,000
cut in taxes but insisting in the same
letter that appropriations for high-
ways be increased by $50,000,000.
It is also typified by the Syracuse
Chamber of Commerce, traditionally
a supporter of a bigger and better
State Fair, which seeks a special ap-
propriation for a Centennial Pageant
but, at the same time demands that
the budget be reduced by cutting the
salaries of State employees.

I haven't sufficient time to discuss
the effect of the proposal to cut the
appropriations for relief or State aid,
but I do wish to refer to the proposal
to achieve economy at the expense of
the State employees.

The total salaries of all the em-
ployees of the State, from the Gov-
ernor down through the Legislature,
the courts and the lowliest laborer,
amount to $69,000,000—only 17%
of the total budget and over half of
these employees receive salaries of
less than $1,000 per year. It is sug-
gested that a reduction can be made
by suspending the Feld-Hamilton
increments, but the fact is that, a
suspension of those increments will
result in a saving of only $900,000—
less than % of 19% of the total bud-
get. Is it true economy to make this
trivial saving at the expense of de-
moralizing State Civil Service em-
ployees for the second successive
year?

New York State has a highly effi-
cient corps of employees, selected on
the basis of merit and fitness. No
more wasteful policy could be
adopted than to repudiate the salary
scales that have been established
after careful research and study. The
Feld-Hamilton law was hailed as the
most forward step in the history of
budget making that has ever been
made in this State. It was called a
“Career Law” not only because it
established fair-wage standards for
the first time, but because it sets
forth a sound, permanent salary
policy under which an employee can
hope for a career in the public ser-
vice. It is truly a long-range economy
measure because, when an employee
leaves the service his position’ is
filled at the minimum rate, and
these savings will stabilize the bud-
get for personal service when the
Jaw is in complete operation. To re-
pudiate this law for the second suc-
cessive year would nullify the career
principle in public service and the
demoralizing effect upon the public
service would far offset the trivial
immediate saving.

I can best illustrate the effect of
the Feld-Hamilton Law by relating
an incident which occurred when an
appointing officer interviewed a can-
didate in New York City for the po-
sition of Junior Clerk, a position
which pays $900 a year. Number
One on the list appeared for an in-
terview and when asked to state his

(Continued on page 76)

15)
The Budget “On the Air”
(Continued from page 75)

qualifications for the position he
said, “I was graduated from Eras-
mus Hall High School; after that I
obtained a B.A. degree at New York
University . . .” The appointing
officer was about to stop him to
call his attention to the fact that the
position paid only $900 when the
applicant continued “. . . and after
that I got my Master’s degree at
Columbia.” The appointing officer
could restrain himself no longer and
said, “Do you understand that this
is only a $900 job located in Al-
bany?” The applicant replied, “I
realize that, but I have been reading
that Feld-Hamilton law and it seems
to me that there are opportunities
for a career in the public service. I
am willing to start at the bottom be-
cause I believe there is a future in
the State service under this law.”

True economy can best be achieved
by attracting the most qualified em-
ployees to the public service. The
benefits resulting from the main-
tenance of a fair and equitable per-
sonnel policy cannot be achieved if
economy is continually to be sought
at the expense of State workers.
State employees are competent and
interested in their work, but they are
human and they expect a square
deal.

Last year the members of the Leg-
islature received many letters for and
against the suspension of the Feld-
Hamilton law. One of them was
unique. It was a small birth an-
nouncement card with the picture of
a stork and a basket containing a
baby. It disclosed the birth on Jan-
uary second of a son weighing eight
pounds, twelve ounces. On the re-
verse side in ink, was written:

“This is a Feld-Hamilton baby.
He wouldn’t have come if it hadn’t
been for this law for which you
voted and which gave me my first
salary increase after eight years in
the State service. But I can’t sus-
pend him now. What shall I do?”

Dr. Fox: Thank you, Mr. De
Graff. Ladies and gentlemen, that
was John T. De Graff, Counsel of
the Association of State Civil Ser-
vice Employees, who spoke at the
Empire State Town Meeting at
Union College where we are today
discussing whether it is wise and
practical to cut the proposed State

16

Budget. And now we will have the
question period where both Mr. De
Graff and Dr. George H. McCaf-
frey, our first discussion leader, will
answer questions from the audience
gathered here in the Old Chapel.
Who wishes to ask the first ques-
tion? Please rise and state your
question directly to the speaker from
whom you wish a reply. Question,
please!

Question: Is not State Aid to
Schools and a cut in State Civil Ser-
vice employees being urged for bene-
fit of a small group who would save
from such economy?

Dr. McCaffrey: No. The cut is
urged for the welfare of the whole
State. We are urging this so that we
may keep our industries from run-
ning out of the State to other States,
so that we may keep our stock ex-
change in New York.

Question: How do you propose
that salaries of State employees be
cut?

Dr. McCaffrey: By a graduated
cut of salaries above a certain mini-
mum until $3,500,000 is reached.

Question: Is it not true that the
legislature is forced by “pressure
groups” to maintain State services
and salaries?

Mr. De Graff: Services are main-
tained or curtailed in response to
public opinion. Taxpayers’ groups
are as much “pressure groups” as
those who advocate the extension
or maintenance of existing State ser-
vices. The demand for State ser-
vices comes from the public not from
the officers or employees of the State.
The cost of government has in-
creased because in response to pub-
lic demand, the government has un-
dertaken to provide financial and
other assistance to the unemployed,
has provided more and better roads,
etc,, and regulates and inspects many
more fields of activity. Almost half the
cost of the State government goes for
the maintenance of our State institu-
tions. You cannot reduce the cost of
maintaining State institutions while
the inmates are increasing at the rate
of 3,000 a year. In the Mental Hy-
giene Institutions alone, there has
been an increase of 2,000 patients
every year for the past ten years.

Question: How true is it that in-
dustries are moving out of the State
because of a heavier tax load in New
York than elsewhere?

Dr. McCaffrey: It is so true that
the Ives Industrial and Labor Rela-

tions Committee recommended a
special investigation of the matter.

Question: How does the average
State civil service eemployee’s salary
compare with that of the average
salary in business?

Mr. De Graff: The average State
employee receives less than the aver-
age employee in private business in
New York State. He likewise re-
ceives less than Federal employees
and less than New York City em-
ployees. As a matter of fact, the aver-
age State salary is about $100 lower
today than it was in 1930.

Question: Why do you gentlemen
differ as to the size of the proposed
State Budget? Mr. De Graff speaks
of a $397,000,000 budget while Dr.
McCaffrey speaks of a $508,000,000
budget. Which is correct?

Dr. McCaffrey: I spoke of $508,-
000,000 which the citizens of New
York will be taxed by the State for
all purposes, this includes not only
the $397,000,000 but also $33,000,000
which will be collected by State tax
collectors to wipe out the deficit in
relief expenditures, and $77,000,000
which will be collected in “shared
taxes,” such as mortgage filing fees,
etc.

Mr. De Graff: As a matter of fact,
neither is correct. The actual cost of
operating the State government is
$139,000,000, as Mr. McCaffrey
pointed out in his opening remarks.
The figure of $397,000,000 is the
amount submitted by the Governor
as the authorized expenditures for
the coming year, including State aid,
relief, etc. Mr. McCaffrey’s figure
represents the estimated tax collec-
tions, including shared taxes which
are no part of the State budget, be-
cause they are retained by local units
of government.

Question: How does New York’s
stock transfer tax compare with that
of other states?

Dr. McCaffrey: New York’s tax
is about 20% to 40% higher than
that of Massachusetts and Pennsyl-
vania. The only other two States
having such a tax are Florida and
North Carolina where it is almost
negligible. The other forty-three
States have no stock transfer tax.

Question: What would happen if
State aid is greatly cut?

Mr. De Graff: The localities will
increase their real estate taxes, as
‘85%, of them did last year when State
aid to schools was cut by the legis-

(Continued on page 78)

The State Employee
Local News

Orangeburg Chapter

Sven S. Munson was elected pres-
ident of the newly formed chapter
at Rockland State Hospital, Orange-
burg. There were 165 members pres-
ent at the initial meeting.

Other officers chosen were: Irving
Scott, vice president; Margaret Mer-
ritt, recording secretary; Arthur A.
Lawson, Jr., financial secretary and
Oswald Graf, treasurer.

The Executive Council consisting
of seventeen units, giving every de-
partment representation, is composed
of the following members:

Harold A. Williams, chairman;
Irving Scott, Theodore Clark, James
Anderson, Emil Bollman.

Royal Bonville, William Gruen-
wald, Alyce Watt, Raymond Mur-
ray, Nannette Berkwits, Dr. Wil-
liam H. Walker.

Elizabeth O'Brien, Marion Phil-
lips, Charles Davidson, Margaret
Pull, Florence Goodfield and Anna
Gottlieb,

Robert Ortlicb and Margaret A.
Merritt are delegates.

The delegation which attended
the recent budget hearing at Albany,
composed of Mrs. Alyce Watt, Miss
Marion Howell, Edmund T. Logue,
Harold A. Williams and Charles
Davidson, reported that they made
satisfactory contacts in regards to
commutation and other matters of
importance for their fellow employ-
ees with officers of the New York
State Civil Service Employees Asso-
ciation, as well as officers of the
Mental Hygiene Association. Their
report was most enthusiastically re-
ceived by the members.

Westfield State Farm

Mildred J. Buzza is the new pres-
ident of Westfield State Farm Chap-
ter. Other officers for 1940 are:
Mabelle Pickett, vice president; Wil-
liam Johnston, treasurer; and Mil-
dred Sanders, secretary. Katherine
Wasserchied is delegate and Lillian
V. Fish, alternate

The second annual dinner dance
of the chapter was conducted Janu-
ary 27, About 100 members and
guests met at the Motor Inn, Mt.
Kisco. Guest speaker was Brigadier
Agnes McKernan, prison secretary of
the Salvation Army.

March

Binghamton State
Hospital

A basket ball game and dance for
the benefit of the Athletic Associa-
tion and the Nurses’ Alumni was
held at Kalurah Temple, February
27. The game between Harlem Val-
ley State Hospital and Binghamton
State Hospital teams resulted in a
victory for the former. The score
was 77 to 40.

Much to the grief of Binghamton
was the loss of one of their fine play-
ers, Harry Howard of Ward 73, who
was injured a few days before the

ame.

Officers of the chapter are: An-
drew Augustine, president; Clara
Jayne, vice president; Hazel Wood,
secretary; and James William, trea-
surer.

Trustees are: James Many, Arthur
Smith and Frank Bell. Harold E.
Boyce is chief representative.

Highway Engineers’
Convention

The fifth annual convention of the
New York State Association of
Highway Engineers will be con-
ducted at the Hotel Seneca, Roch-
ester, March 28 to 30.

An interesting program featuring
the discussion of pertinent problems,
the largest number of exhibits in the
history of the organization and fine
entertainment during the evening
has been planned.

Rome Club Meets

A meeting of the Rome State
School Employees Club was held
February 27 in the club rooms, for
the purpose of electing officers for
the current year. The club was
founded in 1909 for the social, char-
itable, and athletic activities of the
employees and has been an active
asset of the institution since then.

Dr. M. C. Montgomery, retiring
president, gave an interesting ac-
count of the organization and early
activities of the group. He was elect-
ed Honorary President, and a life
membership was awarded him.

The following officers were elect-
ed for the year:

President, Dr. W. MacCasland;

» vice president, Raymond Butler;

treasurer, Leslie Patterson; and sec-
retary, Joseph Wissman.

Buffalo Annual Dinner

Buffalo Chapter of the Association
will conduct its annual dinner Sat-
urday, April 13, at the Buffalo Trap
and Field Club. J. Milford Diggins
is chairman of the committee in
charge of arrangements by appoint-
ment of E. J. Hylant, Chapter presi-
dent.

Assisting Mr. Diggins are Laura
Clancy, E. M. Simon, Milton J. Broc-
conier, W. G. Clark, Fred Dopp, L.
D. Spink, Milton Perry, John Mee-
gan.

Also Dorothy Krull, A. W. Mar-
quardt, Petrina LaDuca, George
Arnstamn, William McKernan, E.
B. Larkin, M. Serreiter, C. Karnof-
sky. °

Dr. D. H. Solomon, W. E. Cook,
Marie Keller, J. T. Slattery, K. Gra-
ham, T. R. Nardozzi, Harold Ste-
vens, L. A. Maeder and Charles V.
Roarke.

Long Island Chapter

District Court Judge Norman F.
Lent was guest of honor and install-
ing officer at the meeting on March
12 of the Long Island Inter-County
State Park Chapter of the Associa-
tion in V. F. W. Hall, Freeport.

Officers installed were: President,
Clinton E. Travis, Jones Beach State
Park; Vice-president, Edward Bert,
Belmont Lake State Park; Secretary,
Theron Chase, South Valley Stream
State Park; Treasurer, John Mc-
Grath, Jones Beach; Financial Sec-
retary, Frank Keyser, Jones Beach;
Sergeants-at-arms, Fred Pedersen,
Valley Stream; and George Loesser,
Northern State Parkway.

Utica Credit Union

The N.Y.S.D.P.W. District 2,
Employees Federal Credit Union,
reports 239 members and is anxious
for all employees of the district to
join. James L. Davies, P. O. Box
138, Utica, will furnish any infor-
mation desired.

A four per cent dividend was de-
clared at the annual meeting which
named Gerald Fenner president. Mr.
Davies was elected vice president;
Thelma Tilbury, treasurer; Lillian
Peckham, clerk; and Herman Gun-
ther, Edward J. Foster and Clarence
Gallagher, directors,

7
The Budget “On the Air”
(Continued from page 76)

lature. Only 15% of the school dis-
tricts were able to make sufficient
economies to absorb the cut. In all
other cases, the localities had to in-
crease their real estate taxes to make
up for the loss in State aid.

Dr. McCaffrey: Last year the leg-
islature only did part of its job in
cutting State aid to schools, They
did not suspend the mandatory laws
regarding salaries. This time if they
suspend the mandatory laws, the lo-
calities will not have to maintain the
high salaries which some cities, like
New York, pay and which can stand
a small reduction without harm.

Question: Do you think we can
have a “ceiling” for our State ex-
penses? Can’t we make economies to
hold the budget to a total of -$400,-
000,000 or $500,000,000?

Mr. De Graff: There can be no
“ceiling” for State expenditures until
there is a “ceiling” for the demand
for State services, If the public con-
tinues to demand additional services
of the State, the cost will necessarily
increase. Some economies are pos-
sible but they are not achieved by
the simple expedient of cutting 5%
or 10% from existing appropriations.
They require careful formulation.
For example, a saving of $20,-000,-
000 can be made if local units of gov-
ernment would purchase supplies
through the Division of Standards
and Purchases at prices now paid by
the State. The State today pays $16
for tires for which the cities pay $40.
The State pays 7c for gas while local
units pay the prevailing rate. $1,000,-
000 could be saved in the purchase
of coal alone. Thousands of other
items of food, supplies and equip-
ment can be purchased through the
State at a saving of 25% to 100%
below the prices paid by our cities,
counties and towns. This idea is not
new. A bill along these lines was
introduced by Senator Desmond last
year. It was defeated because Mr.
McCaffrey’s constituents, the local
merchants throughout the State, who
belong to his Association, objected
so strenuously that the bill was killed
in Committee. While the Merchants’
Associations are loud spoken in their
demand that the expense of govern-
ment be reduced, they took exactly
the opposite stand when the pro-
posal was made to cut costs by pur-

8

chasing governmental supplies at the
prevailing prices now paid by the
State.

Question: Will not a further re-
duction in salaries of civil service
employees tend to break the morale
of “career” men and women in pub-
lic service?

Dr. McCaffrey: No. They are get-
ting salaries as high as those of ten
years ago which is better than the
experience of people in business, and
a 5% cut for those above a certain
minimum, should not break their
morale. New York City School
teachers receive an average of $3,100
to $3,500 a year, which certainly can
be cut 5% without seriously affect-
ing them.

Dr. Fox: Our radio time is about
gone. Before we close, however, we
wish to invite our radio listeners to
write us their opinions of these week-
ly Empire State Town Meetings
which we have been promoting as
part of a broad education program
in which an earnest effort has been
made to obtain authoritative speak-
ers to discuss problems of general in-
terest, problems which affect each in-
dividual and are therefor of vital
concern.

The Annual Dinner
(Continued from page 64)

giene Employees Association; John
Livingston, Poughkeepsie, Vice Pres-
ident, Mental Hygiene Employees
Association; Miss Lucy Baumgrass,
Marcy, Secretary-Treasurer, Mental
Hygiene Employees Association;
Herman Redmont, St. Lawrence,
and Louis Selig, Wingdale, members
of the Executive Committee, Mental
Hygiene Employees Association.

Fred Walters, Middletown State
Hospital Chapter; Wilfred Denno,
Attica State Prison Chapter; Ken-
neth Borey, Kings Park State Hos-
pital Chapter; Sgt. Anthony Stan-
wix, Troop G, Division of State Po-
lice; Frank Fetter, Poughkeepsie
District, Public Works Department.

John W. Gould, Hornell District,
Public Works Department; William
Gorman and Fred Burke, Travelers
Insurance Company and Charles A.
Carlisle, Jr., Ter Bush & Powell, Inc.

APARTMENTS
NEARING COMPLETION
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2 Blocks from State Office Building
Completely Modern Throughout
May Ist Occupancy PHONE 3-4195

Classification
(Continued from page 65)

The matter of full understanding
and close cooperation between the
Division of the Budget and the
Classification Board is brought home
in the power which rests with the
Governor to reject the classifications
filed with him by the Classification
Board. It must be assumed that the
Classification Board is the final
agency for determining the scope of
duties and responsibilites and a uni-
formly desirable title for each po:
tion, This is done only after full in-
quiry within the department where
the position is located and after care-
ful study of the qualification require-
ments, When the Classification Board
has established the class of a posi-
tion and the Salary Standardization
Board has established a salary scale
for that position, the only conceiv-
able grounds for rejection is the in-
ability of the State to pay for the
services in question. It is, of course,
possible to achieve complete harmony
as to facts where either of the boards
err as to individual cases and to se-
cure correction of such situation by
conference and mutual cooperation
between the department concerned,
the budget division, the Salary Stan-
dardization Board, and the Classifi-
cation Board. Having certified a re-
classification to the Budget division,
the work of the Classification Divi-
sion is finished so far as that title is
concerned. The certificate stays on
file with the budget office until such
time as that division corrects the
budget with the inclusion of the new
title.

The great objective of efficient
State government and of good em-
ployment procedure was gained with
the passage of the career service law.
As with all important forward steps
there remains the development of
refinements of methods and proce-
dures to assure the maximum of
good. Surmountable difficulties face
the agencies concerned with apply-
ing the merit system in the State. Co-
operation is necessary. The employ-
ees will do their part and they rely
fully upon the State to provide the
good will and the financial support
necessary for the functioning of the
Civil Service Department in its classi-
fication work,

The State Employee
Reduction in Personnel in
An Institution Is False
Economy and Dan-
gerous Practice

When a person becomes a ward
of the State for any reason and is
confined in an institution it is as-
sumed that the State is qualified and
prepared to give that individual the
care, attention and protection which
commitment indicated was _neces-
sary. That this ideal is not an actu-
ality is manifested in several recent
occasions, as serious as they are re-
grettable and uncalled for.

We cite three cases on which
claims presented the State are based.
For the loss by fire of Dover Plains
property there is a demand for $14,-
259.35. It is alleged an escaped Was-
saic State School inmate caused the
damage. Injuries said to have been
inflicted by an escaped Hudson
River State Hospital patient have
brought a demand for $35,000. The
sum of $25,505 is asked for the death
of a patient in the same institution
said to have been fatally beaten by
an attendant. Just these few cases,
considered in money value alone,
bring before the Court of Claims de-
mands for the award of $74,764.35.
The recent Wingdale tragedy when
an inmate suffered fatal injuries
while presumably attempting to es-
cape is to be added to the above
cases.

An investigation by an unbiased
commission is the solution offered
by one authority, Any investigation
by any commission would cost
money and considerable money. No
investigation is necessary, A thor-
ough survey, a comprehensive, an
exhaustive, investigation would dis-
close what is already apparent—a
lack of manpower.

Why have tragic things happeaed
to wards of the State?

Why has responsibility that can-
not be delegated been neglected?

Why has adequate control and
sufficient care been absent in vari-
ous cases?

Lack of manpower and lack of
personnel properly to care for the
State’s wards because of lack of
funds by reason of reduced appro-
priations is the ready reply of insti-
tutional heads.

“Superintendents of State institu-
tions in Dutchess County have a
story to tell of their problems of ad-
ministration, created by reduced al-

March

» honor.

lowances, but they have difficulty in
finding the proper place to tell it,
where the account will be most ef-
fective,” the Poughkeepsie Evening
Star states editorially, suggesting a
fact finding commission as the
proper audience for a thorough re-
view of institutional circumstances
created by the reduced allowances.

“Tf,” states the editorial, “lack of
manpower is the reason for this
growing list of claims, unquestion-
ably it would be better business for
the State to provide the necessary
help for the proper operation of its
own institutions.”

In these times when economy
must be observed is it economy to
allow the institutions to reach the
danger line of diminished staffs? In
the matter of dollars and cents
wouldn’t it have been cheaper to
have provided funds adequately to
have cared for the inmates cited than
to pay the substantial claims arising
out of only these few tragedies?

The State of New York has in-
vested many millions of dollars in
building and modernly equipping
institutions wherein to house and
provide treatment for its mentally
sick. This vast investment of the
taxpayers’ moneys should be pro-
tected. However, if proper supervi-
sion over mental patients cannot be
exercised because of lack of sufficient
personnel, it can readily be realized
that destruction of equipment and
furnishings of institutions might
easily over-balance the supposed say-
ings accomplished through reduc-
tions in personnel.

Tribute Dinner

Fellow workers in the mainte-
nance division of the State Educa-
tion Building gave a farewell dinner
to John Neary March 5. Mr. Neary,
who had been with the State for
more than ten years, retired after
reaching the statutory age limit.

‘A native of Hudson, Mr. Neary
was a blacksmith in the West Al-
bany railroad yards for fourteen
years before entering State service.
He plans to live with two daughters
on Lincoln Avenue, Albany, and
hopes to pursue his hobby of attend-
ing all major baseball games pos-
sible. During the dinner at which
Arthur Giles, general mechanic of
the department acted as toastmaster,
a purse was presented the guest of
Tt was the first testimonial
dinner the maintenance men had
ever given.

Court Decision
(Continued from page 71)

term of three months.” "The accep-
tance by appellant of the proposal
made by the respondent Ahern and
the approval thereof by respondent
Reavy, et al. is without significance.
These parties may not act in civil
service appointments in violation of
the constitution, statutes and rules,
for other qualified applicants and
the people at large are interested
and their rights in the premises may
not be disregarded. An intention to
continue appellant's “temporary ap-
pointment” indefinitely and in vio-
lation of the plain terms of the sta-
tute and rules is indicated by the
offer of the commission in its letter
of December 15, 1937, to extend it
to whatever length the respondent
Ahern wished.

The May, 1937, appointment was,
under the statutes and rules, pro-
bationary untill three months had
passed, then it became permanent
and she could be removed only after
notice and an opportunity to be
heard. (Civil Service Law, Sec. 22,
subdiy. 2; Matter of McNeles v.
Board of Supervisors, 173 A. D. 411,
aff'd 219 N. Y. 578; Rick et al v.
The Board of Education, 245 id,
729; Weishar v. Thayer, 245 id, 893;
Burch v. Finegan, 248 id, 561; Mat-
ter of Voll v. Helbing, 256 id, 44;
Hilsenrad vy. Miller, decided here-
with, .........id, e

The order should be reversed and
the prayer of the petition granted.

JOIN NOW

A New Charge
Convenience
You'll Welcome

Plan -A-Charge

e No Coupons to Buy
e No Gadgets to Carry
e No Red Tape

John G. Myers Co.

9
“For Distinguished
Service”

(Continued from page 66)
Guard of the State, his services to
both the State and the Nation were
marked by his great devotion to duty
and a sense of loyalty that has been
unexcelled. No man could be richer
in his sympathy toward his subordi-
nates nor more genuine in his fidel-
ity to his superiors. Throughout his
entire service, he won the respect and
admiration of those who were priv-
ileged to be his associates.” One sen-
tence evidences so noble a record as
to merit emphasis: “No man could
be richer in his sympathy toward his
subordinates nor more genuine in
his fidelity to his superiors.”

He was a graduate of the Army
War College. He served in the 2nd
Infantry and Ist Pioneer Infantry,
A. E. F., and was Colonel of the
latter regiment at the close of hos-
tilities. He participated in the Marne
Offensive and the Oise-Aisne and
Meuse-Argonne operations.

Truly “an officer and a gentle-
man” he was widely loved and will
be keenly missed.

The State Employee takes great
pleasure in the recent promotion of
John Thomas Higgins to the posi-
tion of Deputy Superintendent of
Purchase after ten years of State ser-
vice. He represents the Executive
Department on the Association Ex-
ecutive Committee and is an ardent,
hard-working champion of Civil
Service.

Mr. Higgins, a native of Cohoes,
attended the local schools, the Whar-
ton School of Finance and Com-
merce of the University of Pennsyl-
vania and the Albany Law School,
gaining a well-rounded preparation
for a post of great responsibility such
as his present position, which covers
all the purchases for the State insti-
tutions and agencies and involves
the annual expenditure of approxi-
mately $30,000,000. In making the
appointment, Joseph V. O'Leary,
Superintendent of Purchase, ex-
pressed his confidence that merit and
fitness had been justly rewarded.

Mr. Higgins’ industry, ability and
genial qualities have given him a
rapid rise which affords us all a
shining example of the possibilities
for a career in State service for per-
sons of genuine qualifications. His
youth gives promise of many years
of further attainment, years which

80

we hope will be blessed with happi-
ness and health.

Major Daniel A. Ruddy, State
Staff, N. Y. N. G., an employee of
the Adjutant General’s Office and a
resident of Schenectady, has been
awarded the State Long Service
Medal of the First Class in recogni-
tion of twenty-five years of service
with the armed forces of the State.

Lieutenant Colonel Patrick H.
Clune, who has a brilliant record for
service to the State, both in the At-
torney General’s Office by virtue of
his legal ability, and in the National
Guard, where he has had a long and
honored career, was tendered a din-
ner by his fellow officers of the 10th
Infantry on March second. Many
prominent officers from various parts
of the State assembled to honor
Colonel Clune on this the occasion
of his retirement from the Guard.
One of the happy moments of the
evening was the receipt by Lieuten-
ant Colonel Clune of a commission
conferring upon him the rank of
Colonel.

HRSH Notes

Employees of the Hospital gave a
surprise party at noon, March 13, to
Walenty Kusmercyk, fireman of the
engineering plant of the institution,
who retired upon reaching the sta-
tutory age limit of seventy years. He
had to his credit eighteen years of
faithful service.

Guy de Cordova, President of the
Employees Association, presided at
the gathering and presented a gold
watch to Mr. Kusmercyk on behalf
of the members. The watch carries
a dedicatory inscription.

William Herring, on behalf of
George Magee, chief engineer, who
was out of town, spoke briefly of Mr.
Kusmercyk’s service. The amuse-
ment hall, where the meeting took
place, was decorated with masses of
spring flowers grown in the hospital
conservatories.

George Magee was elected com-
modore of the Hospital Yacht Club
at the annual dinner meeting, March
4, in Ryon Hall. More than thirty-
five members attended in spite of
the inclement weather.

Other officers named were: Paul
R. Leonard, vice commodore; James
Connelly, rear commodore; Wilfred
Pae, secretary; and Robert Tillman,
treasurer.

The slate of officers was presented
by a nominating committee com-

posed of David Jones, Miss Wilma
Reynolds and Arthur Marx. Unani-
mous election followed presentation
of the slate.

Retiring Commodore, H. P. Car-
penter, M.D., will be given a com-
modore’s supper at the next meeting
of the Club. He was also made
honorary commodore. The entertain-
ment committee named by Commo-
dore Magee is composed of Miss
Reynolds, Mrs. Anna Leonard and
Mrs. Wilfred Pae.

Capping exercises were conducted
March 6 at the Hospital Training
School for Nurses when thirteen pro-
bationers were advanced to the junior
class. Nine girls were given caps
and four boys received surgical shirts
and stripes.

Members of the class are: Helen
Dudek, Marie Opitz, Marian Walley,
all of Poughkeepsie; Catherine Bal-
lard, Albany; Miss Chutka, Amster-
dam; Mary Sipso, Millbrook; Char-
lotte Weeks, Newburgh; Miss Wad-
lin, Rhinebeck; Gloria Swanson,
Yonkers; Mr. Cuda, Utica; Harold
Hodder, Wappingers Falls; Francis
Leedecke, Saugerties; and Leo Dar-
mody, Chauteaugay.

Miss Gladys E. Russell, principal
of the school, presided. Mrs. Edward
A. Conger of Poughkeepsie was
guest speaker. Awards were pre-
sented by Mrs. Herbert Jerrell, assis-
tant principal. Miss Leona Wood,
instructor, was hostess.

Prizes were won by Miss Wadlin,
Miss Chutka and Mr. Cuda.

Dr. Charles Solon Wolff, psychi-
atrist at the Hospital, was guest
speaker at the fourth mid-week
Lenten service at the First Presby-
terian Church, Poughkeepsie. On
the general topic of “Meeting the
Challenge of Life,” Doctor Wolff's
theme was “The Problem of Ner-
vous Instabilities.”

The State Employee
Summary of Legislation Pending

The following is a complete list
of bills which have been intro-
duced in both houses of the Legis-
lature which affect State workers
and are of interest to them, since
the publication of the February
issue of this magazine. This sum-
mary will be continued in future
issues so that a complete record
may be had. Record of legislative
action on these measures is also
noted.

IN SENATE

Int. 879, Print 978—Senator Riley—In-
cludes with powers and duties of super-
intendents of State correctional institu-
tions those powers and duties prescribed
for the New York State Vocational In-
stitution. Referred to Assembly Penal In-
stitutions Committee. 3rd reading.

Int. 891, Print 1688—Senator Hammond—
Provides that service of any teacher who
has attained age 69 on July 1, 1940, 68
on July 1, 1941, 67 on July 1, 1942, and
66 on July 1, 1943, may be terminated
at discretion of employer at end of the
school year in which specified age is at-
tained; after July 1, 1944, service of all
teachers shall be terminated at end of
school year in which they become 65
years of age, except on application of
‘employer with consent of education com-
missioner, competent and efficient per-
sons in proper physical and mental con-
dition may be retained until age 70.
Referred to Education Committee. 3rd
reading.

Int. 892, Print 1856—Senator Hammond—
Provides that any member of State teach-
ers’ retirement system who has attained
age 69 on July 1, 1940, 68 on July 1,
1941, 67 on July 1, 1942, and 66 on July
1, 1943, instead of at age 70 as at pres-
ent, may be retired at his own request
or at request of employer; after July 1,
1944, at request of member or of em-
ployer, retirement board shall retire at
end of school year members who have
attained age 65, except that any member
may be retained until age 70, at discre-
tion of employer. Referred to Pensions
Committee.

Int. 909, Print 1035 — Senator Egbert —
Continues State board of mediation in
the labor department, increases members
from five to not more than seven, to be
appointed by governor, provides for ap-
pointment of deputy commissioners who
shall be exempt from Civil Service ex-
aminations, and appropriates $5,000.
Referred to Labor Committee, and Labor
Law.

Int. 924, Print 1050 — Senator McCall —
Repeals provision for payment of fees
by applicants for Civil Service examina-
tions. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 942, Print 1068 —Senator Phelps —
Provides that at least two members of
Whiteface Mountain highway commis-
sion, shall be honorably discharged World
War veterans and that in employment of
personnel, preference shall be given to

March

veterans. Referred to Finance Commit-
tee and Public Authorities Law.

Int. 943, Print 1653 — Senator Egbert —
Provides that veterans in public office or
on public works shall be entitled to leave
‘of absence with pay on Memorial and
Armistice days. Referred to Finance
Committee and Public Officers’ Law.

Int. 945, Print 1072—Senator Feinberg—
Fixes salary schedules for prisons’ safety
service in State correctional institutions.
Referred to Finance Committee and Cor-
rection Law and Civil Service Law.

Int. 950, Print 1077—Senator Hampton—
Provides that any veteran, veterans’ wife
or widow, who has served continuously
in a veteran relief agency since July 1,
1937, in a similar position to ‘the one
now held, shall be appointed to the Civil
Service without further examination. Re-
ferred to Assembly Civil Service Com-
mittee.

Int. 956, Print 2000 — Senator Martin —
Extends to all Civil Service positions and
offices provision which prohibits employ-
ment of persons advocating overthrow
of government; present restriction is lim-
ited to classified Civil Service. Referred
to Civil Service Committee and Civil
Service Law.

Int. 962, Print 1089 — Senator Nunan —
Allows credit to members of New York
City retirement system for services dur-
ing World War of honorably discharged
veterans and nurses who were residents
at time of entry into service. Referred
to Pensions Committee and New York
City Administrative Code.

Int. 964, Print 1091— Senator Page —
‘Authorizes legislature to grant prefer-
ences to honorably discharged veterans
in original appointments to Civil Service
but not in promotions, similar but subor-
dinate to preference granted to disabled
veterans; veterans are required to be citi-
zens and residents for five years imme-
diately preceding application. Referred
to Judiciary Committee.

Int. 967, Print 1094— Senator Page —
Authorizes veterans and volunteer fire-
men formerly employed under Civil Ser-
vice to receive information contained in
public records to determine existence of
vacancies in positions similar to those
from which they were suspended. Re-
ferred to Civil Service Committee.

Int. 968, Print 2036 — Senator Phelps —
Provides that after July 1, 1941, instead
of 1940, it shall be unlawful to practice
nursing without being duly licensed and
registered, increases from 7 to 12 the
minimum membership of State board of
examiners for nurses, with four to be
selected from each of three lists sub-
mitted by certain nurses’ organizations,
and makes other changes. Referred to
Education Committee and Education

Law.

Int. 992, Print 1125—Senator Pack—Pro-
vides ‘that employees of State hospitals
after one year's service shall be allowed
sick leave with pay of not more than
fourteen days a year. Referred to Penal
Institutions Commitee and Mental Hy-
giene Lai

* Int. 1001, Print 1134— Senator Nunan—
Fixes five-day week for certain officers
and employees of State hospitals, Re-

ferred to Penal Institutions Committee
and Mental Hygiene Law.

Int. 1004, Print 1137—Senator Hampton
—Provides that application for removal
‘of town, village, improvement or fire
district officers may be made by district
attorney of the county. Referred to As-
sembly Excise Committee.

Int. 1006, Print 1139 — Senator Griffith —
Extends to March 15, 1940, time for re-
port of commission studying application
of Civil Service provisions of constitu-
tion to political subdivisions, Referred
to Finance Committee.

Int. 1010, Print 1143 — Senator Condon —
Authorizes industrial commissioner to
collect from employer amount equal to
10 per cent of moneys collected for em-
ployee on each wage claim and to pay
the sum into the wage enforcement con-
tingent fund for paying expense and costs
of proceedings. Referred to Labor Com-
mittee. 3rd reading.

Int. 1013, Print 1146 — Senator Martin —
Extends to officers and members of State
police force provisions for one day rest
in seven now allowed to other State em-
ployees. Referred to Assembly Labor
Committee.

Int. 1044, Print 1210—Senator Hammond
—Appropriates $22,000 from conserva-
tion fund for traveling expenses and uni-
forms for regular game protectors. Re-
ferred to Finance Committee.

Int. 1058, Print 1224—Senator Mahoney—
Allows credit to members of State em-
ployees’ retirement system for service as
employee of U. S. government with Civil
Service status or of a U. S. government
agency or board. Referred to Pensions
Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1067, Print 1242 — Senator Egbert —
Provides that suspension of salary incre-
ments in State service shall not apply to
employees whose salaries are less than
$3500 if minimum prescribed salary and
increments exceed that sum. Referred to
Finance Committee.

Int. 1084, Print 1259—Senator Swartz—
Extends preferences allowed veterans
and exempt volunteer firemen as to re-
movals from positions in Civil Service
to include Civil Service positions in any
other political or civil divisions of the
State or municipality or in any public
or special district or in service of any
authority, commission, board or other
branch of public service, Referred to
Civil Service Committee.

Int. 1108, Print 1288—Education Commit-
tee — Fixes grades and salaries for su-
perintendents, instructors and employees
of the New York State Merchant Marine
‘Academy and provides that instructors
may be allowed leave of absence for
travel or study with partial salary, Com-
mitted to Finance Committee,

Int. 1122, Print 1304—Senator Coudert—
Provides for examination and disability
retirement of mentally or physically in-
capacitated persons in positions under
New York City education board, with
right of court review. Referred to Edu-
cation Committee and Education Law.

Int. 1175, Print 1357—Education Commit-
tee — Provides that State Civil Service
commission shall establish an eligible list

(Continued on page 82)

81
Summary of Legislation
Pending
(Continued from page 81)

for district superintendents of school and
for appointments from such list by boards
of school directors; provision for election
of district superintendents is stricken out.
Referred to Education Committee. 3rd
reading.

Int. 1176, Print 1358—Senator Coughlin
—Provides that employees in the veteran
relief division of New York City wel-
fare department and of committees of
organizations assisting in administration
of veteran relief may hold temporary
positions in competitive Civil Service
class until June 30, 1941, and thereafter
there shall be Civil Service examinations
to establish cligible lists for appoint-
ments. Referred to Cities Committee.

Int. 1205, Print 1405—Senator Martin—
Prohibits removal except for incompe-
tency or misconduct, shown after hear-
ing, of veterans and volunteer firemen
from temporary or provisional positions
in State or municipal welfare depart-
ment or emergency relief bureau, if em-
ployed on or before December 31, 1937.
Referred to Assembly Civil Service Com-

mittee,

Int. 1211, Print 1416—Senator Mahoney—
Provides that credit unions shall not pay
fees to committee members unless divi-
dends paid during previous fiscal year
equalled 4 per cent instead of 5 per cent,
or unless total fees and compensation to
officers, committee members, counsel and
employees for fiscal year will not ex-
ceed 33% per cent of gross earnings for
preceding fiscal year. Referred to Banks
Committee and Banking Law.

Int. 1217, Print 1422—Senator Mahoney—
Allows credit to members of State em-
ployees’ retirement system for service
within the State as an employee in U. S.
postoffice department. Referred to Pen-
sions Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1221, Print 1426 — Senator Egbert —
Provides that choice of method of treat-
ment by a teacher, janitor or other per-
son affected by requirements for medi-
cal inspection and health service in pub-
lic schools, and in case of a child by the
parent or guardian, must be in accord-
ance with Health Law provisions relat-
ing to dentistry and chiropody as well
as the practice of medicine. Referred to
Education Committee and Education

Law.

Int, 1225, Print 1430—Senator Kleinfeld—
Provides that member in New York City
service on attaining age of 70 must be
retired on last day of December in year
of attaining such age, instead of forth-
with or on first day of calendar month
next succeeding, Referred to Pensions
Committee.

Int. 1228, Print 1689 — Senator Egbert —
Requires board of education of New
York City to provide after July 1, 1941,
for appointment of a teacher librarian
in each high school, Referred to Educa-
tion Committee.

Int. 1238, Print 1443 — Senator Swartz —
Gives volunteer firemen, citizens and
residents of the State, disabled during
actual performance of duties and as
members of an organized volunteer fire
company, the preference in Civil Service
appointment now given to veterans. Re-
ferred to Judiciary Comimittee.

82

Int. 1274, Print 1494—Senator Twomey—
Extends for not less than three years
eligible list for supreme court attendants
for Ist and 2nd judicial districts, promul-
gated July 10, 1936, and expiring July
10, 1940. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1282, Print 1502—Senator Twomey—
Provides that assignment by board of jus-
tices of New York City municipal court
of stenographers, interpreters and at-
tendants shall not be limited to the re-
spective districts within borough for
which they have been appointed. Re-
ferred to Codes Committee.

Int. 1284, Print 1504— Senator Joseph —
Provides that employees mentally dis-
abled as result of accident arising out of
employment shall be entitled to receive
medical care and maintenance in public
hospital or institution at expense of em-
ployer and without deductions from com-
pensation payable to him. Referred to
Labor Committee and Workmen's Com-
pensation Law.

Int. 1285, Print 1505 — Senator Joseph —
Extends for two years eligible lists of
candidates for appointment as draftsman,
structural steel and reinforced concrete
design, in Westchester County, promul-
gated in 1932. Referred to Civil Service
Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1307, Print 1538—Senator Hampton—
Changes grades and salaries of positions
in insurance examining groups, including
insurance examiners and auditors and
other similar positions, minimum being
raised from $2,400 to $3,000 a year and
maximum being reduced from $9,500 to
$9,000. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1310, Print 1541—Senator Kleinfeld—
Extends for not less than two or more
than three years duration of eligible list
for clerk, grade 7, supreme court in
Kings County, promulgated April 8,
1936. Referred to Civil Service Com:
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1361, Print 1619 — Senator Wicks —
Provides that mounted patrolmen in
State prisons and in Napanoch and
Woodbourne institutions shall receive
the same compensation as that received
by guards in State prisons. Referred to
Finance Committee and Correction Law.

Int. 1368, Print 1626 — Senator Condon —
Provides for retirement of war veterans
and nurses with 25 years’ service in State
retirement system, on pension equal to
one-half of the final average salary, pen-
sion to discontinue through life of vet-
eran; applies only to those disabled in
war duty. Referred to Pensions Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1379, Print 1661—Senator Coughlin—
Provides that any person in the State
Civil Service and every per diem em-
ployee having salary or wages not ex-
ceeding $1,800 a year shall receive for
overtime work double his regular com-
pensation. Referred to Civil Service
Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1381, Print 1663—Senator Coughlin—

Provides for taking over by any mu-
nicipality for employment in a unified
or otherwise acquired rapid transit sys-
tem, of employees who have been in em-
ploy of former owner for three months
or more during year immediately prior
to acquisition, gives alien employee
twelve months after act takes effect with-
in which to apply for a declaration of

intention to become a citizen, protects
seniority rights in appointments, etc.,
provides that hourly and weekly pay of
each employee shall not be less than that
received before acquisition, gives em-
ployees right to self-organization and to
bargain collectively, defines unfair labor
practice by employer and makes certain
other changes. Referred to Public Ser-
vice Committee.

Int. 1406, Print 1701—Senator Hampton—
Prescribes conditions under which tem-
porary appointments in State service
may be made by appointing officer. Re-
ferred to Civil Service Committee and
Civil Service Law.

Int. 1407, Print 1702—Senator Hampton—
Strikes out provision that salaries of of-
ficers and employees in State hospitals
shall be uniform for like service and
provides they shall be fixed in accord-
ance with provisions of Art. 3, Civil Ser-
vice Law. Referred to Finance Commit-
tee and Mental Hygiene Law.

Int. 1415, Print 1710 — Senator Condon —
Provides that all regular employees in
classified Civil Service shall be given sick
leave with pay at rate of fifteen days a
year, no such leave to be in excess of six
months in any fiscal year. Reported to
Labor Committee and Labor Law.

Int. 1433, Print 1729 — Senator Nunan —
Provides that there may be credited to
member of State employees’ retirement
system as prior service, the period of en-
listment during time of war of an hon-
orably discharged member of U. S. camp
for military instruction and training of
citizens. Referred to Pensions Commit-
tee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1453, Print 1749 — Senator Quinn —
Provides that confidential attendant of
New York County general sessions court
judge who has held position for not less
than ten years shall, on death or retire-
ment of judge, be classified as a court
attendant under Civil Service Law, but
succeeding judge shall have right to ap-
point confidential attendant outside Civil
Service list. Referred to Judiciary Com-
mittee and Judiciary Law.

Int. 1474, Print 1782—Senator Kleinfeld—
Provides that no person who because of
employment in Civil Service of State is
located outside a city, town or village in
which he resides shall become ineligible
for employment in the city or civil divi-
sion in which he lives because of tem-
porary change of residence, provided he
does not vote in any other city, town or
village. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1489, Print 1797—Senator Gutman—
Requires that all custodian employees in
New York City schools shall be em-
ployed from appropriated Civil Service
eligible lists established by local com-
mission, fixes hours of employment, de-
fines powers of education board relative
to custodians; requires issue of special
revenue bonds by city authorities for pro-
viding fund for teachers’ retirement sys-
tem necessary for 1941 and makes cer-
tain other changes. Referred to Educa-
tion Committee and Education Law.

Int. 1516, Print 2034 — Senator Condon —
Provides that in villages of Westchester
County having a police department, no
new employees shall be participants in
police pension fund after June 1, 1940,
increases contributions to fund by mem:

(Continued on page 83)

The State Employee
Summary of Legislation
Pending
(Continued from page 82)
bers of a force and makes compensation
for member rendered permanently unfit
for duty because of accident or injury,
not less than one-half of full annual
salary, Referred to Villages Committee.

Int. 1517, Print 2064 — Senator Condon —
Provides that in certain towns of West-
chester County no new employees shall
be participants in police pension fund
after June 1, 1940, increases percentage
‘of monthly pay to fund, of each member
of police force, and makes compensation
fora member rendered permanently
unfit for duty as result of an accident or
injury, not less than one-half of full an-
nual salary and relates to powers of trus-
tees of pension fund. Referred to Pen-
sions Committee.

Int. 1545, Print 1875—Senator McNaboe—
Provides that every registration card of
applicant for Civil Service examination
in this State must have affixed to it a
photograph of applicant. Referred to
Civil fae Committee and Civil Ser-
vice Law.

Int. 1563, Print 1902 — Senator Pack —
Provides where any person holding, posi
tion in supervising or teaching service in
a city is separated from or demoted in
service through no fault or misconduct
on his part, suspension or demotion shall
be in inverse order of original appoint-
ment and his name shall be entered on
preferred eligible list for position. Re-
ferred to Education Committee and Ed-
ucation Law. 2

Int. 1567, Print 1909—Senator Seelye—
Authorizes any town, village or special
police district having a local pension sys-
tem to provide on or before June 1, 1940,
that new employees shall not participate
in such system, this provision to be in
force from July 1, 1940; any non-par-
ticipation ordinance heretofore enacted is
legalized. Referred to Pensions Commit-
tee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1573, Print 1915 — Senator Condon —
Strikes out provision that each district
office for unemployment insurance shall
be in charge of a superintendent and
that each local employment office shall
be in charge of a local manager. Re-
ferred to Labor Committee and Labor

Law.

Int. 1612, Print 1954— Senator Quinn —
Provides that at least one of the deputy.
clerks appointed in New York County
general sessions court, shall be a deputy
law clerk and at least one of the assis-
tant deputy clerks shall be an assistant
deputy law clerk. Referred to Codes
Committee and Criminal Code.

Int. 1613, Print 1955 — Senator Quinn —
Extends for one year from_ respective
expiration dates term of eligibility of
open competitive and promotion eligible
lists established by New York City Civil
Service Commission, and due to expire
prior to July 1, 1940. Referred to Civil
Service Commitee and Civil Service

Ww.
Int. 1629, Print 1971 — Senator Stokes —
Permits a game protector in conservation
department to elect on or before January
1, 1941, to base his contribution to re-
tirement fund on completion of 25 years
of total service as protector or on attain-
ing age of 60, allowance to be one-fiftieth

March

of final average salary for each year of

total service not exceeding 25. Referred
arises Gena on Gal See
Law.

Int. 1634, Print 1977—Senator Page —
Provides that in case of termination of
employment of an employee insured
under a group life policy, insurance ben-
efits shall continue for period of unem-
ployment of thirty days after such ter-
mination, without payment of further
premiums. Referred to Insurance Com-
mittee and Insurance Law.

Int. 1672, Print 2031—Senator Young—
Provides a contractural basis for per-
manent employment for members of su-
pervisory and teaching staffs in schools
in cities, on expiration of a probationary
term and on receiving a permanent ap-
pointment. Referred to Education Com-
mittee and Education Law.

Int. 1676, Print 2047 — Senator Perry —
Provides that domestic workers shall not
work more than six days nor more than
sixty hours a week. Referred to Labor
Committee and Labor Law.

IN ASSEMBLY

Int. 914, Print 930—Mr. Ostertag—(Same
as S. 1084).

Int. 922, Print 938—Mr. Rapp—Provides
that in computing the 25 years of com-
pleted service of a member in State po-
lice division for purpose of retirement
allowance, full credit shall be given for
service in’ time of war and as member
of American Expeditionary Forces sub-
sequent to November 11, 1918, and prior
to June 30, 1919, and also for service on
Mexican border.’ Referred to Civil Ser-
vice Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 930, Print 946—Mr. Wilson—(Same
as S. 741).

Int. 934, Print 955—Mr. Austin—Extends
for one year from respective expiration
dates, term. of eligibility of open com-
petitive and promotion eligible lists es-
tablished by New York City Civil Ser-
vice Commission, and due to expire prior
to July 1, 1940.” Referred to Civil Ser-
vice Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 940, Print 961—Mr. Dwyer—Provides
that every rule, regulation, resolution or
act of a head of a department or agency
relating to persons holding classified
Civil Service positions, except laborers in
exempt class and other exempt employ-
cs, shall be subject to court review both
on law and facts. Referred to Civil Ser-
vice Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 952, Print 974—Mr. Teagle—(Same
as 8. 480).

Int. 953, Print 975—Mr. Wagner—Defines
custodial employees and provides for
their employment, compensation and
supervision by New York City education
board. Referred to Education Committee
and Education Law.

Int. 965, Print 987—Mr. Cariello—Pro-
vides that employees appointed from
lists promulgated by municipal Civil Ser-
vice commissions, except employees of
education boards, shall be considered as
employees of specific city where commis-
sion is authorized to act and shall re-
ceive all rights and benefits granted em-
ployees of such city, in the appointed
positions. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

“Int. 966, Print 988—Mr. Cariello—Pro-
vides where annual salary increments
have been provided for employees in

competitive Civil Service class, salary of
such employees shall not be reduced be-
low minimum of salary grade or salary
at time of original appointment and in-
crements of $120 for each year’s service.
Referred to Civil Service Committee and
Civil Service Law.

Int. 967, Print 989—Mr. Dollinger—Pro-
vides that no persons other than regular
Civil Service employees shall be em-
ployed by cities of 300,000 or more or
by independent agencies thereof or of
the State operating within such cities,
for architectural, engineering or techni
cal service on public buildings or pro-
jects. Civil Service Committee and Civil
Service Law.

Int. 976, Print 998—Mr. E. F. Moran—
(Same as S. 866).

Int. 983, Print 1005—Mr. Quinn—(Same
as S. 870).

Int. 984, Print 1006—Mr. Quinn—(Same
as S. 867).

Int. 993, Print 1015—Mr. Devany—Per-
mits State and municipal officers and
employees who were bers of Na-
tional Guard, naval mi or reserve
corps at time the U. S. was not at war,
and after honorable discharge, to be
absent from duties or service, with pay,
‘on July 4 of cach year. Referred to Mili
tary Affairs Committee and Military

Law.

Int. 995, Print 1016—Mr. Fogarty—(Same
as S. 865).

Int. 1004, Print 1026—Mr. Todd—Gives
to members of teachers’ retirement sys-
tem credit for services rendered outside
State, allows members after 25 years of
combined service, with at least 15 years
within State, or after 15 years of service
if health requires, to receive superan-
nuation retirement allowance based on
accumulated contributions with pension
based on years of service and final aver-
age salary and if member is a present
teacher to a further pension based on
final average salary and years of total
service. Referred to Education Commit-
tee and Education Law.

Int. 1007, Print 1029— Mr. -Conway —
(Same as S. 844).

Int. 1008, Print 1030—Mr. Conway —
(Same as S. 822).

Int. 1017, Print 1044—Mr. Austin—(Same
as S. 175).

Int. 1030, Print 1057—Mr. Thompson—
(Same as S. 723).

Int. 1063, Print 1092—Mr. Crews—(Same
as S. 1251).

Int. 1066, Print 1095—Mr. Downey—In-
creases from $12 to $20 a week the
amount of wages or income allowed to
employees before garnishee execution
can be issued to satisfy judgment. Re-
ferred to Codes Committee.

Int. 1100, Print 1138—Mr. Torsney —
(Same as S. 858).

Int. 1128, Print 1178—Mr. Babcock —
Strikes out from option four allowed
beneficiary of member of State em-
ployees’ retirement system, provision that
any single cash payment shall not exceed
member's accumulated contribution. Re-
ferred to Pensions Committee and Civil
Service Law.

Int. 1186, Print 1238—Mr. Marasco—
Extends duration of eligible list of can-
didates for appointment as court sten-
ographer in supreme and county courts,
New York City, promulgated February

(Continued on page 84)

83
Legislation Pending
(Continued from page 83)

24, 1936, and expiring February 24,
1940, for not less than one nor more
than four years or until new list shall be
promulgated. Referred to Judiciary Com-
mittee.

Int. 1198, Print 1256—Mr. Bormann —
(Same as S. 962).

Int. 1201, Print 1259—Mr. Devany—
(Same as S. 956).

Int. 1213, Print 1271 — Mr. MacKenzie —
(Same as S. 942).

Int. 1217, Print 1275—Mr. Sherman —

(Same as 967).

Int. 1219, Print 2012—Mr. Wagner —
(Same as S. 968).

Int. 1225, Print 1286 — Mr. Burney — Re-
quires governor to submit proposed ap-
propriations and reappropriations for a
State department, by separate bill or bills
appertaining only to such department.
Referred to Judiciary Committee.

Int. 1227, Print 1513 — Mr. Crews — Pro-
vides for retiring citizen resident veter-
ans and nurses, disabled in performance
of duties in any war, and after 20 years’
service in State retirement system, on a
pension equal to one-half of average an-
nual salary for any five-year period and
an annuity based on accumulated con-
tributions at time of retirement. Referred
to Pensions Committee and Civil Service

law.

Int. 1228, Print 1289—Mr. Dwyer—
(Same as S. 978).

Int. 1233, Print 1294—Mr. Fite—(Same
as S. 1006).

Int. 1234, Print 1295 — Mr. Fitzpatrick —
(Same as S. 1001).

Int, 1235, Print 1991—Mr, Fogarty —
(Same as S. 943).

Int. 1255, Print 1319—Mr. Torsney —
(Same as S. 964).

Int. 1267, Print 1335—Mr. Downey —
(Same as S. 950).

Int. 1340, Print 1428 —Mr. Goldberg —
(Same as S. 992).

Int. 1352, Print 1441—Mr. Demo—(Same
as 8. 1044).

Int. 1395, Print 1485—Mr. McLaughlin—
Provides for pensioning Spanish-Ameri-
can or World War veterans employed for
twenty years or more in Civil Service of
New York City with annual sum equal
to one-half highest salary or wages paid
during employment. Referred to Pen-
sions Committee.

Int. 1401, Print 1491 — Mr. Owens — Re-
quires ‘public appointing officers who
pass over an eligible applicant for com-
petitive Civil Service position, in favor
of lower eligible person, to make sworn
certification of reasons therefor and that
such acts were not done by reason of
race, color or creed. Referred to Civil
Service Committee and Civil Service

Law.

Int. 1418, Print 1519 — Mr. Fogarty — Ex-
tends for not less than two years’ dura-
tion of an eligible list of candidates for
appointment as supreme court attendants
in first judicial district, promulgated July
10, 1936, and which expires July 10,
1940; municipal Civil Service commis-
sion may extend list for further period
of one year. Referred to Civil Service
Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1428, Print 1529—Mr. Wadsworth—
Provides that no person, by reason of
age, may be disqualified, from compet-

4

ing for a Civil Service promotional ex-
amination or be penalized in final rating
or barred from a promotion. Referred to
Civil Service Committee and Civil Ser-
vice Law.

Int. 1430, Print 1534— Mr. Babcock —
Provides that member of State retire-
ment system, upon withdrawing election
to contribute on basis of retirement at
age of 55, shall be entitled to refund of
contributions and interest in excess of
amount contributed on basis of retire-
ment at age of 60, unpaid loans to be
deducted from refund. Referred to Pen-
sions Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1439, Print 1543 — Mr. Fite — (Same
as S. 1175).

Int. 1445, Print 1549 —Mr. Goldberg —
(Same as S. 1122).

Int. 1449, Print 1761 — Mr. McCreery —
‘Exempt attorneys and counsellors-at-law
from provisions relating to filing of cer-
tificates of partnership. Referred to Sen-
ate Codes Committee.

Int. 1470, Print 1574—Mr. Devany —
(Same as S. 1205).

Int. 1491, Print 1596—Mr. Boccia—
Limits to eight hours a day and forty-
eight hours a week the hours of labor
of graduate and practical nurses in hos-
pitals in New York City; excepts admin-
istrative officials and members of relig-
ious orders acting without pay. Referred
to Labor Committee.

Int. 1499, Print 1604— Mr. Fite— Au-
thorizes Civil Service commission to des-
ignate a commissioner, officer or em-
ployee of the department to conduct
hearing which commission is authorized
to hold, provided that member of classi-
fication board or officer or employee of
that division shall not conduct hearin;
‘on appeal from determination of cl:
fication board. Referred to Civil Service
Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1535, Print 1654—Mr. Averill —
(Same as S. 1108),

Int. 1536, Print 1655—Mr, Babcock —
‘Authorizes any town, village or special
police district having a local pension sys-
tem to provide on or before June 1, 1940,
that new employees shall not participate
in such system, this provision to be in
force from July 1, 1940; any non-partici-
pation ordinance heretofore enacted is
legalized. Referred to Pensions Commit-
tee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1540, Print 1659—Mr. Fogarty —
(Same as S. 1285).

Int. 1541, Print 1660—Mr. Foy—Provides
that when member of State retirement
system who has served in State service
as civil engineer for thirty years and sub-
sequent to August 1, 1938, applied for
retirement, dies before time specified in
notice, his beneficiary shall be entitled
to optional benefits elected by such mem-
ber. Referred to Civil Service Commit-
tee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1542, Print 1661—Mr. Foy—Autho-
rizes court of claims to determine claim
of Edward C. Peasley. Referred to
Claims Committee.

Int. iss Print i671 —Mr. Crews —
(Same as S. 1489).

y
Allows credit to members of New York
City retirement system for service as paid

officer or employee of the U. S. or any
agency thereof. Referred to New York
City Committee.

Int. 1586, Print 1713—Mr. Pease—
Permits a game protector in conserva-
tion department to elect on ot before
January 1, 1941, to base his contribution
to retirement fund on completion of 25
years of total service as protector or on
attaining age of 60, allowance to be one-
fiftieth of final average salary for each
year of total service not exceeding 25.

Int. 1600, Print 1727 — Mr. Kreinheder —
(Same as S. 536).

Int. 1603, Print 1730—Mr. Steingut —
Permits the payment of death benefits
in the case of a judge of the court of
appeals who died after January 1, 1939,
and more than thirty days before such
death had attained age of 60, had be-
come eligible for retirement and had
advised the chief judge of inability to
continue service. Referred to Civil Ser-
vice Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1615, Print 1743—Mr. Moritt —
(Same as S. 1251; A. 1063).

Int. 1621, Print 1764— Mr. Babcock —
(Same as S. 1460).

Int. 1629, Print 1772—Mr. Rudd—(Same
as S. 1433).

Int. 1651, Print 1802—Mr. Piper—(Same
as S. 1307).

Int. 1682, Print 1848 — Mr. Crews — Ex-
tends for not less than two or more than
three years’ duration of cligible list for
clerk, grade 7, supreme court in Kings
County, promulgated April 8, 1936. Re-
ferred to Civil Service Committee and
Civil, Service Law.

Int. 1683, Print 1849—Mr. Crews—(Same
as S. 1176).

Int. 1706, Print 1881—Mr. Crews—(Same
as S, 1368).

Int. 1716, Print 1891—Mr. McLaughlin—
Provides where rate of compensation paid
to elected officer or employee now in city
service in New York City may have been
reduced or diminished, such reduction or
diminution shall not impair pension or
retirement rights provided the officer or
employee clects to contribute to pension
fund on basis of highest salary rate for-
merly received. Referred to New York
City_ Committee.

Int. 1734, Print 1914—Mr. Conway —
(Same as S. 1361).

Int. 1735, Print 1915—Mr. Dooling —
Defines work week for Civil Service em-
ployees of State or any political sub-
division to mean five days in any calen-
dar week. Referred to General Laws
ty ittee.

1736, Print 1916— Mr. Fite —Pro-
ie that officers or employees in Civil
Service competitive class shall not be re-
moved except for incompetency or mis-
conduct and permits suspension without
pay for not exceeding thirty days pend-
ing determination ot charges; provides
for appeals to State commission or to
the court by one aggrieved because of
penalty or punishment of demotion or
dismissal. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1737, Print 1917 — Mr. Fite — (Same
as S. 1406).

Int. 1740, Print 1920—Mr, Kreinheder—
Provides no person in Civil Service who
attained his position through fraud or
deception shall have his name placed on
preferred list in case of removal from or

(Continued on page 86)

The State Employee
“Racket” Groups Fail
Again
(Continued from page 72)

there is need for only one State em-
ployee organization. Obviously, too,
legislative, executive and adminis-
trative heads have been dealing with
the Association of State Civil Ser-
vice Employees for twenty years now
and they know how well and honest-
ly the Association represents employ-
ees. The only possible result of C. I.
O. activities in State service is to
befuddle the State employees’ pro-
ram for betterment in the minds of
legislators and citizens and to give

those legislators and others who do -

not believe in employee organization
an opportunity to criticize and resist
honest employee efforts. There is
another result and that is the col-
lection of unnecessary dues and the
causing of unnecessary expense and
embarrassment to employees who are
misinformed enough to join with
dissension groups. Surely State
workers should give very careful
thought to the matter of organiza-
tion. Those who ally themselves with
questionable groups not only waste
their good money in dues and pa-
rades and useless propaganda but
they help to bring discredit upon the
State employees’ honestly organized
efforts and make it more difficult
for the Association to carry on its
progressive program on behalf of all
State workers.

The Association of State Civil
Service Employees urges all State
workers to join with the over thirty
thousand workers now enrolled in
it and to resist the futile and harm-
ful activities of those groups which
lend neither help nor dignity to State
service.

Adam Hats
All One Price

$2.95

MYRON’S
3 North Pearl Street
ALBANY, N. Y.

Communication
Editor, The State Employee:
Dear Sir:

As representative of the Association for the Department of Pub-
lic Works, Division of Highways, Babylon, L. I, it gives me great
pleasure to inform you that the efforts of our Association toward
having employees of this District receive their pay-checks when due,
has not been in vain,

To my mind, the efforts of our Association had a great deal to
do with this new procedure, and on behalf of my group I extend
our sincerest appreciation. A special word of thanks goes to Joc
Lochner, our executive secretary, who has always been a willing
helper in our many problems; and to Ed. Ramer, the representative
of our Department on the Executive Committee, who since his
election to this committee has labored tirelessly in his sincere ef-
forts to remedy this delay of employees of our department in re-
ceiving their salary checks.

It is not necessary for me to recall to you the many letters our
Babylon group has written regarding this delay of salary checks.
It is interesting to note, however, that last August a letter and pe-
tition signed by members of our group was forwarded to Association
headquarters, recommending action by the Association on the situ-
ation and that an effort be made to have the auditor's office to allow
our payrolls to be sent to Albany five days prior to the end of the
payroll period and thus allow the main office more time to work on
these payrolls and ultimately end in our receiving our pay checks
when due. ‘

Tt is needless to say that our group is highly elated over this
new procedure and although it has been stated that “this is only an
experiment and if successful will become our permanent procedure,”
we feel that it is going to be the regular procedure in the future and
that we will be receiving our salary checks on the Ist and 16th as
provided by law.

Very truly yours,
FRANCIS P. RYAN,
Association Representative,
Department of Public Works,

Babylon, L. I, N. Y.
February Sth, 1940.

SABOURIN’S

SUNNYSIDE PORT, SHERRY, TOKAY, MUSCATEL
Gallon, $1.28 ¥% Gallon, 79¢ 3 Full Fifths, assorted, $1.00
SUNNYSIDE DRY WINES
CLARET, BURGUNDY AND ZINFANDEL
Full Gallon, 95¢ Half Gallon, 55¢
Ya Quarts (24-02. bottles), 29¢—4 for $1.00

SUNNYSIDE CALIFORNIA BRANDY, 90 Proof
Ya Pints, 49¢ Pints, 89¢ Fifths, $1.49
CREAM OF GRAIN, 46 months old mene $1.89 Quart
S-YEAR-OLD BOURBON, 90 Proof eeemenenen $1.59 Queart
4-YEAR-OLD RYE and BOURBON, 90 Proof.........$1.69 Quart
BOTTLED-IN-BOND BOURBON, 100 Proof....§ .95 Pint $1.85 Quart

269 CLINTON AVENUE

TELEPHONE 5-1969
PROMPT DELIVERY . . . COURTEOUS SERVICE

March

Legislation Pending
(Continued from page 84)
demotion in service; in case abolished
position has been filled by promotion,
person affected shall be demoted to po-
sition held prior to such promotion, pro-
cedure likewise to affect employees in
positions in a lower grade so that person
compelled to leave is the last original
appointee. Referred to Civil Service
Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1743, Print 1923—Mr. Turshen —
Provides that after expiration of a tem-
porary period for which eligible persons
have been appointed from a competitive
Civil Service list and on satisfactory com-
pletion of probationary term they shall
be placed on preferred list for perma-
nent appointment. Referred to Civil Ser-
vice Committee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1751, Print 1947—Mr. Babcock —
Provides that member of State retire-
ment system with more than five years
of allowable service, who has been dis-
continued from State service through no
fault of his own, may elect to keep ac-
cumulated contributions until he is
eligible for retirement, when he shall be
entitled to an allowance based on allow-
able service. Referred to Pensions Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1755, Print 1951—Mr. Ehrlich—Pro-
vides that preference in employment
from list of applicants for labor class,
registered by a city Civil Service cor
mission, shall be given according to fit-
ness for position involved, instead of
date of application. Referred to Civil
Laid Committee and Civil Service

ie 756, Print 1952—Mr. Ehrlich —
Strikes out provision that a person who
has served with fidelity for at least three
years in a similar position may be as-
signed to perform duties of a position
subject to Civil Service competitive ex-
amination, so as to limit provision only
to those who pass such examination. Re-
ferred to Civil Service Committee and
Civil Service Law.

Int. 1757, Print 1953—Mr. Ehrlich—Pro-
vides that the State or a municipal Civil
Service commission must refuse to cer-
tify the estimate, payroll or account of
any persons transferred, assigned or re-
instated in violation of Civil Service Law
or rules thereunder. Referred to Civil
Service Committee and Civil Service

Law.

Int. 1758, Print 1954—Mr. Ehrlich—Pro-
vides that State institutional employees
who have served for at least one year
shall, when incapacitated by accident or
illness, be given a reasonable sick leave
with pay. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee.

Int. 1778, Print 1974—Mr, Wagner —
(Same as S. 1415).

Int. 1805, Print 2008—Mr. Wachtel—Pro-
vides that employees appointed, reap-
pointed or promoted in State service dur-
ing 1939 shall be entitled to a salary
increment during year beginning July 1,
1940. Referred to Ways and Means
Committee.

Int. 1817, Print 2025—Mr. Fitzpatrick—
Prohibits removal of veterans and vol-
unteer firemen holding temporary ap-
pointments in Civil Service of State or
subdivisions except for incompetency or
misconduct shown after hearing, with

86

right to a review by certiorari; also pro-
vides for transfers where positions be-
come unnecessary or are abolished. Re-
ferred to Civil Service Committee and
Civil Service Law.

Int. 1820, Print 2028 — Mr. Goldberg —
Provides that a preferred eligible list cre-
ated under act for protection of rapid
transit employees shall take precedence
over a promotion list only in the depart-
ment or agency which operates the uni-
fied, purchased or otherwise acquired
transit facilities. Referred to Pensions
Committee.

Int. 1844, Print 2052—Mr. Wilson—Pro-
vides that in certain towns of Westches-
ter County no new employees shall be
participants in police pension fund after
June 1, 1940, increases percentage of
monthly pay to fund, of each member
of police force, and makes compensation
fora member rendered permanently
unfit for duty as result of an accident or

jury, not less than one-half of full an-
nual salary and relates to powers of trus-
tees of pension fund. Referred to In-
ternal Affairs Committee.

Int. 1847, Print 2055—Mr, Wilson—Pro-
vides that in villages of Westchester
County having a police department, no
new employees shall be participants in
police pension fund after June 1, 1940,
increases contributions to fund by mem-
bers of a force and makes compensation
for member rendered permanently unfit
for duty because of accident or injury,
not less than one-half of full annual sal-
any Bein Referred to Villages Committee and

i

Int, 1854, Print 2066—Mr, Dooling —
(Same as S. 1453).

Int. 1862, Print 1474—Mr. Wagner —
(Same as S. 1474).

Int. 1867, Print 2079—Mr. Barrett —
(Same as S. 1407).

Int. 1868, Print 2080—Mr. Barrett —
Provides that employees of mental hy-
giene institutions may receive not less
than $32 a month in addition to regular
wages for outside board and lodging
whether or not there is lack of accom-
modations in institution. Referred to
Health Committee and Mental Hygiene

Law.

Int. 1874, Print 2086—Mr. Fite—Autho-
rizes State Civil Service commission to
render service relative to classification of
positions, etc., to a commission of a city
or to governing body of a civil division
for such compensation as may be agreed
upon. Referred to Civil Service Commit-
tee and Civil Service Law.

Int. 1943, Ways and Means Committee—
Directs State education commissioner to
deduct 2 per cent from amounts appor-
tionable as State aid to schools for year
beginning July 1, 1939. 2nd reading.

Int. 1944, Ways and Means Committee—
Provides that all salaries and expenses
of transit commission shall be paid by
the State instead of by New York City.
Referred to Public Service Law. 2nd
reading.

Int. 1945, Ways and Means Committee—
Requires public service commission to
appoint inspectors of gas meters as well
as electric meters. Referred to Public
Service Law. 2nd reading.

Int. 1949, Ways and Means Committee—
Provides that salary and salary incre-
ment of any person employed by New
York City education board, higher edu-

cation board and trustees of public in-
stitutions of higher learning, except
teaching and supervising staffs, shall be
fixed by the employing board or insti-
tution, subject to approval of board of
estimate, salary reduction not to reduce
pension or retirement rights of any per-
son who is a member of a pension sys-
tem. Referred to Education Law. 2nd
reading.

Int. 1951, Ways and Means Committec—
Empowers New York City board of esti-
mate to reduce salary of any person em-
ployed by any court or as member of
teaching or supervising staff of education
board or by trustees of institutions of
higher learning or by any county officer,
whose salary in whole or part is paid out
of city treasury, reduction not to reduce
any salary to a rate less than $3,000 a
year; reduction in no case shall exceed
10 per cent of salary as fixed in budget
of January 1, 1940; during time reduc-
tion remains in force power to increase
salary shall be suspended; pension and
retirement rights are protected. New
York City Administrative Code. 2nd
reading.

Int. 1968, Mr. Lonis — Admits to practice
as a registered professional nurse a per-
son now engaged in practice of nursing,
with three years’ experience therein prior
to 1920, two of which have been spent
in a hospital or an equivalent for such
hospital experience and who applies for
license prior to July 1, 1940. Referred
to Education Committee and Education
Law.

Int. 1984, Mr. Rapp— Provides that spe-
cial act for periodic increases in salaries
of officers and employees in State insti-
tutions reporting to division of standards
and purchase shall not apply to State
employees in competitive and non-com-
petitive classes of classified Civil Service.
Referred to Ways and Means Committee.

Int. 1997, Mr. Steingut — Changes the title
of office of superintendent of standards
and purchase to that of commissioner of
standards and purchase. Referred to
Ways and Means Committee, Executive
Law and State Finance Law.

Int. 2021, Mr. Sullivan — Repeals provision
prohibiting a person while an employce
of New York City education board to
take any other employment with such
board or with the State or civil division.
Referred to Education Committee and
Education Law.

Int. 2069, Mr. Burrows — Provides that do-
mestic workers shall not work more than
six days nor more than sixty hours a
week. Referred to Labor Committee.
(Same as A. 1827 of 1938).

Int. 2071, Mr. Creal — (Same as S. 1634).

Int. 2072, Mr. Fite — Repeals provision ex-
tending for not more than four years
cligible lists, now expired, for certain
clerks in supreme court, first judicial de-
partment. Referred to Civil Service Com-
mittee and Civil Service Law.

Int, 2080, Mr. Pease—(Same as S. 1628).

Int. 2081, Mr. Pease—(Same as S. 1627).

Int. 2104, Mr. Piper—Provides that the final
‘average salary for purpose of determin-
ing pension under State employees’ re-
tirement system shall mean compensa-
tion earned in the State service instead
of as a member of State retirement sys-
tem. Referred to Civil Service Commit-
tee and Civil Service Law.

The State Employee
The
“Civil Service Leader”

An exclusive series of articles on
the Fite Merit Extension Commis-
sion has just started in the Civil
Service Leader, weekly newspaper.
‘Written by members of the Commis-
sion, the series will take up in detail
the many phases of the giant task of
extending Civil Service to 200,000
more employees throughout the
State.

At the same time, Charles A.
Brind, Jr. president of the Associa-
tion, has announced that members
have only unti! ,\pril 20 to take ad-
vantage of the special introductory
subscription rate of $1 a year,
through the coupon on the back
page of The State Employee.

The articles on the Fite Commis-
sion follow in the path of a number
of outstanding series. A few months
ago, The Leader published a group
of articles by experts on Unemploy-
ment Insurance. These were prepa-
ratory for the February series of ex-
ams for positions in the D.P.U.I.
Currently, another series is running
on “How to Get a Civil Service Job,”
written by State Civil Service Com-
missioner Howard P. Jones.

The titles of the series on the Fite
Commission are:

“Problems Facing the Fite Com-
mission,” “Why the Fite Commis-
sion,” “How Civil Service Operates,”
“Work of the Fite Commission to
Date,” “Counties Meet the Fite
Commission,” “’Towns Meet the Fite
Commission,” “Villages Meet the
Fite Commission,” “School Districts
Meet the Fite Commission,” “Rights
Under Civil Service,” “When Civil
Service Workers Organize,” and
“The Meaning of Civil Service.”

They will be written by Grace A.
Reavy, president, State Civil Service
Commission; Prof. Emerson D. Fite,
Chairman of the Assembly Civil Ser-
vice Committee; John T. De Graff,
counsel to the Association of State
Civil Service Employees; State Civil
Service Commissioner Howard P.
Jones; W. Earl Weller, director of the
Rochester Bureau of Municipal Re-
search; Frank C. Moore, executive
secretary, Association of Towns;
Charles A. Brind, Jr., president, As-
sociation of State Civil Service Em-
ployees; H. Eliot Kaplan, contribut-
ing editor of The Leader, executive
secretary, National Civil Service Re-
form League.

March

Rochester Basketball Team

Rochester State Hospital is proud of its basketball team.

In the past two seasons under the guidance of Stan Hampson, manager,
and Don Webb, captain, the team has compiled an enviable record. Of
thirty-one contests played to date, the Hospital Cagers have scored twenty-
seven wins. Among the victims wre some of Rochester's top notch quintets.

r

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87
Accident and Sickness
Insurance

By
C. A. Caruiste, Jr.

In the last few months, great
strides have been made in the Group
Plan of Accident and Sickness In-
surance. The number of persons in-
sured thereunder have now increased
to over 12,000. The amount of bene-
fits being paid out to State Employ-
ces has reached a peak of nearly $15,-
000 per month, so that there are
many State employees now who are
receiving benefits due to their wise
decision some time ago in signing
up for the Group Plan of Accident
and Sickness Insurance.

It is not impossible that anyone of
us can be taken sick or can be in-
volved in an accident which disables
us for a long period of time. It is
only the forethought of taking ad-
vantage of the low-cost Group Plan
of Accident and Sickness Insurance
that makes possible this wonderful
protection in time of need.

Ter Bush & Powell, Inc., who
have handled the Group Plan of
Accident and Sickness Insurance
since its inception, are now sending
out a letter to all those insured and
with it is a circular showing many
thousands of claims that have been
paid to State employees all over the
State. In many cases four or five
claims have been paid to one per-
son. A great many have received
benefits under this Group Plan of
Accident and Sickness Insurance
who had no other income when they
were disabled due to accident or ill-
ness, and it was like a real gift from
heaven to receive that check every
month to help pay the bills at home
—doctor bills, hospital bills, bills for
special medicine, extra help in the
home, special foods, or whatever
the needs might be.

Everyone who has this insurance
is warned not to let anyone influence
them to cancel this insurance for any
other form or any other policy, be-
cause this policy has been especially
prepared for State employees by the
Insurance Committee of the Asso-
ciation and it is the broadest possible
coverage available at anywhere near
the cost.

Tt is very important for anyone
carrying this insurance when they
are off the payroll for any reason
whatever, to immediately notify the

Association Office or Ter Bush &
Powell, Inc., that they are off the
payroll and what the reason is. Also,
when any person insured under this
Plan is transferred from one depart-
ment or division, or institution to
another, it is of utmost importance
that this notification be sent in at
once so that the premiums may con-
tinue under the salary deduction
plan without omission.

To the present assured is being
sent a summary of the history of this
plan and a good many things for the
assured to remember in time of need
so that their claims may be paid
promptly, and correctly.

In addition to the letters and cir-
culars now being sent out to the
persons insured under this plan, a
letter, circular, application and sal-
ary deduction card is also being sent
to every person in the Mental Hy-
giene Department who is not insured
at the present time. This, then,
brings to each individual, in his own
individual way, all the important
facts concerning this Group Plan of
Accident and Sickness Insurance so
that he or she may consider the Plan
and decide for himself, whether or
not this plan will serve that particu-
lar person’s needs.

It is important in the consideration
of the Group Plan of Accident and
Sickness Insurance that every State
employee remember that no one has
to buy the insurance. No one is to
be coerced into even considering the
insurance. It is not a plan evolved
to make money for the Association
or for any individual—it is a Plan
prepared to give you income protec-
tion at an exceptionally reasonable
cost and with very broad coverage.

Legislative Report

(Continued from page 63)

ing to make all the corrections re-
quested by the Association, because
the cost would run into large figures,
and because they felt that new and
old employees should be treated on
the same basis.

The Wachtel Bill, which would
have repealed the suspension statutes
with respect to all appointments in
1939, was killed in Committee on
March 13, Thereafter, on March 15,
Assemblyman Moffat, at the request
of the Association, introduced a bill

drafted by the Association, which
would repeal the suspension statutes
with respect to employees appointed
during the period from January 1 to
July 1, 1939. This bill will correct
a situation under which employees
appointed during this period would
have had to wait two to two and one-
half years to receive an increment,
and will place this group of employ-
ees on a parity with old employees
who also have to work two years to
receive one increment, under the sus-
pension statute. Mr. Moffat issued a
public statement in which he declared
“Necessary money to pay these in-
crements, amounting to about $22,-
000 will be provided for in the sup-
plemental budget.” This bill will as-
sure increments on July 1, 1940, to
a substantial number of employees
appointed between January 1 and
July 1, 1939. Employees appointed
after July 1, 1939, will receive their
increments on July 1, 1941. The As-
sociation has also left with the Ways
and Means Committee for introduc-
tion a bill which will provide incre-
ments for those receiving under
$3,500, whose minimums are fixed
in excess of $3,500, but the future of
this bill is uncertain at the present
time.

The Hampton-Barrett Bill, Sen-
ate 1407, Assembly 1867, extending
the Feld-Hamilton Law to Mental
Hygiene employees, the Rapp Bill,
extending the Feld-Hamilton Law to
Social Welfare Institutions, and
other bills extending the Feld-Ham-
ilton Law to other groups are still
in committee. While the advisability
of the extension seems everywhere
recognized, the economy issue makes
the passage of these bills uncertain
this year.

The Babcock Bill, Assembly In-
tro. 1430, amending the Pension
Law to provide for withdrawals of
contributions in excess of the normal
amount required for retirement at
60 years, in the event employees
change from the 55 year to the 60
year plan, has been reported from
committee and is on the third read-
ing calendar in the Assembly.

The Barrett Bill, Assembly 1868,
liberalizing commutation payments
for Institutional employees is still in
committee.

A complete report of all bills be-
fore the Legislature will be contained
in the next issue,

The State Employee
GROUP BUYING DEMANDS LOW COST

SICKNESS anv ACCIDENT

INSURANCE

OVER $15,000 PER MONTH BEING PAID TO STATE
EMPLOYEES UNDER THE GROUP PLAN POLICIES

Buy only the Genuine Group Plan Policy written in

THE COMMERCIAL CASUALTY INSURANCE CO.
OF NEWARK, N.]J.

No other policy gives you these broad coverages at such ©
a LOW COST on such an Easy Payment Plan.

Do not let anyone convince you that YOU should cancel
your income protection insurance without first getting all
the facts.

PROTECT YOUR INCOME NOW!
SEND NO MONEY—MAIL COUPON TODAY

C. A. CARLISLE, JR., TER BUSH & POWELL, INC. NDOT cenissennnninninsonnnsrinririin ot
423 State Street, Schenectady, N. Y. Division or Instituthon simmimmnnniuonmnnstninnane

Without obligation please furnish me with complete details of the Association's low cost group
plan of Accident and Sickness Insurance underwritten by The Commercial Casualty Insurance Co.

of Newark, N. J. Iam a New York State employee. My work address issu.

iain w_ My duties are as follows:

lam interested in a monthly

indemnity Of Qeennnnnnnnninmnmnnnn ($30, $50, $60, $75 or $100). Age. Salary.
NAME MAIL. ADDRESS.
Remarks:

March 89
New Books

Compiled by the Book Informa-
tion Section of the New York
State Library
FICTION
Children of God, by Vardis Fisher.

Harper. $3.00.

Cast in the form of a novel, this
is essentially an epic picture of the
amazing inception and growth of
the Mormon church under two
great leaders, Joseph Smith, the
prophet and founder, and Brigham
Young, the organizer. The author,
of Mormon descent, glosses over
neither misdeeds of the Mormons
nor the brutality of their enemies,
as he depicts with sweeping strokes
the trek west, or minutely envisages
domestic conflicts resulting from plu-
ral marriage. Map on end papers.
How Green Was My Valley, by

Richard Llewellyn. Macmillan.
$2.75.

Life in a Welsh colliery town from
the good days when the men came
home singing and laughing to throw
their wages, golden sovereigns, into
the laps of their waiting wives,
through years of increasing injustice
and strife, when women mourned
for their sons who left the valley to
seek a living in foreign lands. Writ-
ten with deep feeling, integrity and
an awareness of the beauty as well
as the bitterness in life, and of the
solace and peace of unspoiled moun-
tain and valley.

Moment in Peking, by Lin Yut’ang.
Day. $3.00.

Changing manners and ideas,
changing political and military con-
ditions observed as they affect a large
upper class Chinese family and its
connections by marriage, or liaison,
friendship or work, from the time of
their flight from the Boxers in 1900
to the flight of the family from the
Japanese in 1938. A vital, absorbing
yet leisurely novel. written with un-
derstanding and wisdom.

The Nazarene, by Shalom Asch;
trans. by Maurice Samuel. Put-
nam, $2.75.

In this vivid and powerful picture
of the Roman and Jewish Palesti-
nian world, Jesus, the Jewish rabbi, is
portrayed with profound reverence
and intensity of emotion, from three
points of view, first by Cornelius,
Roman governor of Jerusalem, again

90

in a fragment of a “discovered”
gospel supposedly written by Judas
Iscariot and, lastly and most fully
and movingly, by a student of Nico-
demus, the Pharisee. An exceeding-
ly ambitious work, involving the
mystical reincarnation of the narra-
tors in Poland today.

No Arms, No Armour, by Robert
Henriques. Farrar. $2.50.

Tubby Windrush, second-lieuten-
ant in the British army, as a typical
English soldier, has always accepted
life at its surface value. How he is
brought to a consciousness of life’s
complexities and deeper meanings
through the effects of a painful ac-
cident, his friendships with two un-
usual men, his experiences of love,
losses, loneliness, and danger, is re-
lated in a story which is thoughtful,
moving and absorbing. The settings
are England and the Sudan.

No More Gas, by Charles Nordhoff
& J. N. Hall. (Atlantic Monthly
Press bks.) Little. $2.50.

‘The improvident, irresponsible
Tuttle clan of Tahiti, in whose veins
New England blood is intermingled
with Polynesian live happily in a
rambling, ramshackle dwelling, al-
ways expectant that the next cock-
fight or fishing trip will pay for
their lavish hospitality or buy the
needed gasoline. How fate changes
the fortunes of this lovable but ex-
asperating group and how, charac-
teristically, they react to prosperity
brings the rarely entertaining tale
to a poignant climax.

Portrait of Jennie, by Robert Nathan,
Knopf. $2.00.

A young artist, his courage gone
and desperate at the world’s indif-
ference, meets a little girl in an old-
fashioned dress one night, playing
alone on a New York street, who
asks him “to wait for her to grow
up.” How in the following months,
Jennie, transcending time and space,
and on each visit several years older,
comes to him, waiting and longing,
and how he paints her portrait which
is to make him famous, and how
through Jennie, he finds meaning in
life and love and beauty is delicately
revealed in a fantasy whose gossamer
threads are as real as the realities
with which they are interwoven.

Walk Like a Mortal, by Dan Wick-
enden. Morrow. $2.50.

All his young life, sensitive, ideal-
istic Gabe Mackenzie has been do-
minated by his mother, and now, a
senior in high school, he is aware of
her increasing hostility toward his
easy-going father. In the months of
confusion, worry and suspense, Gabe
adjusts himself to changing human
relationships, keeps his emotional
balance and maintains his place in
sports and scholarship at school.

NON-FICTION,

Land Below the Wind, by A. N.
Keith. (Atlantic Monthly Press
bks.) Little. $3.00.

In this informal and informing
record of four years in North Borneo
as the wife of an Englishman con-
nected with government service, the
American author is equally fascinat-
ing whether commenting on the
high adventure of extended trips into
the jungle, or describing her own
plight when ingloriously dispirited
by the rains, mud, insect bites and fa-
tigue, or gaily recounting the va-
garies of native help, or the ways of
the animals given the freedom of the
house as pets.

Pioneers of Plenty, by Christy Borth.
Bobbs. $3.00.

The modern research chemist’s
discoveries of how varied and invalu-
able products can be made from
milk, corn, soy beans, cotton, coal,
etc., are glowingly described and
evaluated by a journalist who feels
the thrill of these discoveries and
whose keen interest extends as well
to the lives of the “pioneers” who in-
clude William Jay Hale, Charles
Holmes Herty, Leo Hendrik Baeke-
land, George Washington Carver
and others.

Through China’s Wall, by Graham
Peck. Houghton. $3.50.

After idling in Peking, the author-
artist became more venturesome and
traveled far and wide in the interior
in 1936-1937, mingling with the
Chinese in overloaded buses, jour-
neying on foot with native guides or
sailing down the Yangtze in a ram-
shackle sampan always intent on
sketching the pictursque types es-
pecially in the Szechuan, Kweichow
and Yunnan provinces.

The State Employee
A Direct Saving
TO YOU

State employees who make
this hotel their New York
home will be charged the
regular hotel room rate

LESS 10%
DAILY RATES

Single rooms with Bath
from $2.50; Double rooms
with Bath from $3.50. All
rooms with circulating ice
water. Moderate priced bar
and restaurant.

e

HOTEL WELLINGTON|
55th St. at 7th Ave.

NEW YORK CITY

A KNOTT HOTEL

For Gay Evenings . .

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MEN OF NOTE

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4 swing, for dancing . . . ballads,
too . . . you'll love ‘em in the
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*

4 to Closing Daily
Except Sundays

uorer LEM EYUCR axoane

fiLon SRYAQ). Manager

Phone 4-1188

HOLMES BROS.
FLORISTS

15 Steuben Street
ALBANY, N. Y.

GREEN STREET—Just off State

Restaurant and Tap Room
Excellent Food — Moderate Prices

Rooms from $1.25 per Day

Weekly Rates to Permanent Resi-
dents. Rooms with running water
from $4; with private shower and
toilet from $7.

HOTEL CAPITOL

THREE PAYMENT

ACCOUNTS A A Whitney
Charge Account
CONVENIENCE AT is a great convenience.
EASTER TIME <
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% due May 10th ful use of the Charga-
¥ due June 10th Plate when shopping at
* «ee

McManus Whitney’

es ALBANY, N. Y.
Riley
We do appreciate the patronage

“Correct Attire for Men and Boys’? of all State Employees
State St. Phone 4.6103 Albany, N.Y.

EACH WEEK...

sil Seauhet
LEADER
OFFERS STATE EMPLOYEES:

Exam News

Complete Lists

Possibilities of Appointment
Free Job Exchange Ad Service
“State Civil Service News Briefs”

Progress of Exam Ratings

plus
Valuable Special Articles

“How to Get a Civil Service Job”
by Howard P. Jones, State Civil Ser-
vice Commissioner

“The Fite Commission”
by members of the Merit Extension
Commission extending Civil Service
to 200,000 workers

“Work of the DPUI”
by division heads

The Civil Service Leader is New York
State’s foremost Civil Service news-
paper —

MAKE IT YOUR PAPER

*

SUBSCRIBE NOW !

Last Chance to Get the
Civil Sori
LEADER

through “The State Employee”
at the special $1 bargain rate
to Association members

*

By special arrangement with Charles
A. Brind, Jr., members of the Associa-
tion of State Civil Service Employees.
may subscribe for the next 52 issues at)
the special introductory price of $1. The
regular price is $2, or 5c per copy at

your favorite newsstand.

*

This Offer Expires April 20

CIVIL SERVICE LEADER
97 Duane Street
New York, N. Y.

I enclose (check, money order, cash) $1, fof *
which kindly mail the next 52 issues of othe |
CIVIL. SERVICE LEADER to ean

Name.

Address (Office, HOME) aruminnnennniinnn

City.

SEWARD BRISBANE, Editor

JERRY FINKELSTEIN, Publisher
BURNETT MURPHEY, Managing Editor
H. ELIOT KAPLAN, Contributing Editor

97 Duane Street New York, N. Y.