The Commissioner of Highways, who is in charge of State roads and improvements, serves for two years with a salary of $12,000 a year.
The Department of Labor, which is a very important branch of the State government, works to improve the conditions of labor. There are five commissioners who serve six years, each with a salary of $8,000. In this department are several bureaus: viz., Inspection, Employment, Workmen’s Compensation, Mediation and Arbitration, Statistics and Information, Industries, and Immigration.
The Conservation Commissioner controls departments for preserving and propagating fish and game, for protecting lands and forests, and the control of inland waters. He appoints a head for each division. (Forests owned by the State must be kept wild. They may not be loaned, sold, or exchanged, and no wood may be cut.) He serves six years, with a salary of $8,000 a year.
The Civil Service Commission consists of three commissioners who have the duty of determining the rules with which to test the fitness of applicants for employment under the civil service laws. The civil service is intended to prevent the appointment of men to government positions through partisan politics or personal “pull.” Positions are classified, competitive examinations are held, and appointments made in order of merit. The custom has usually been to have separate lists made out of men and women, and it has been complained that preference has been given to the men’s lists.
There is a Superintendent of Public Works, with a salary of $8,000; a Superintendent of Prisons, salary of $6,000, and a State Commission of Prisons of seven members who get $10 a day each for each day of service; a State Board of Charities; a State Hospital Commission in Lunacy of three members, the president of which is paid $7,000, and other members $5,000.
There is also a State Food Commission of three members who serve without pay, appointed only for the period of the war, and a recently created Farms and Markets Council.
While most of the heads of the administrative departments of the State government are appointed by the Governor, the terms of office of many of them are longer than the term of the Governor who appoints them. As a consequence, a Governor may be in office, and important departments like the Excise Commission, the Public Health and Public Service, and Industrial Commissions, may be in the hands of appointees of a preceding Governor. They can be removed from office only by preferring charges and after a hearing. Also certain other important State officials, including the Comptroller and the Secretary of State, are elected by the people, and may differ radically from the Governor on questions of public policy. They may even belong to a different political party.
It is by some considered a weakness in the management of the affairs of the State, that the conduct of some of the most important departments of an administration may be out of the control of the Governor who is responsible for them.
The business of the State requires about 17,500 regular employees, and the payroll is about $22,250,000. It is probable that some of these public officials in the service of the State might be dispensed with if they were required to work as many hours a day and as many days a year as they would be obliged to do in any private business.