Senior Stenographer:
Kathleen Collins Baltimore

Junior Typist:
Ruth Engel Baltimore

The Governor, without Senate confirmation, appoints one State Em-
ployment Commissioner for a term of six years from October 1, 1926.
The others of the staff of the Commission are in the classified service.

The State Employment Commissioner is charged with administering
the Merit bystem Law of the State, (Art. 64A, page 2160, Annotated
Code of Maryland—Bagby.) The law gives the Commissioner general
control of employment and personnel matters so far as the classified
service is concerned.

The Merit System Law of Maryland, creating the State Employment
Commission, was passed during the first legislative session of the first
administration of Governor Ritchie. It embodies advanced principles
of personnel legislation which have made possible the inauguration in
Maryland of a progressive personnel program based upon the most
favorably accepted practices in both the public and private fields of
employment.

Large business organizations, public and private, have found it desir-
able to establish a central agency to handle certain kinds of employ-
ment matters. The reasons for this are obvious. In large organizations,
the management cannot hope to maintain a close personal touch with
the large number of employes on the payroll and must, therefore, set
up certain administrative machinery to secure the degree of control over
the personnel, policies, and administration that is desired, and to bring
to bear, through the central agency, scientific methods which have been
developed for dealing with personnel problems.

With the enactment of the Merit System Law and by subsequent
executive orders, Maryland has been given a rank among the highest
of governmental jurisdictions of the country in the percentage of posi-
tions of the executive division of its government under the classified
service. These embrace positions from the lowest paid employes in the
institutions to the bureau and division chiefs of the various depart-
ments. Under the personnel program of Maryland, more has been done
to aid the management of State institutions to secure and retain a
high-grade working force than has been done in other jurisdictions.

The testing processes used in selecting employes for entrance to and
promotion in the service have been kept up to the highest standard by
a careful study of the development of tests used both in the field of
employment and in the educational field. During the last few years,
no feature of personnel management, perhaps no governmental activity,
has been subjected to so close a scrutiny, has been given a greater
analysis, has made greater progress than has the technique of testing
for employment. In this research work, many of the teats used by the
Maryland Commission have been analyzed and made the basis of tech-
nical articles and experimental tests, and have been used by personnel
agencies in both the public and private field throughout the country.

A scientific duties classification has been developed and is currently
in use in the Maryland service. Positions having substantially similar
duties are grouped together under a descriptive title, with a detailed
statement of the duties and responsibilities of each position. This
classification serves as a basis for the handling of many of the employ-
ment problems. In addition, it has brought about, to a considerable
degree, an equalization of the salaries of those doing the same kind of