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now included in this category, and the object of this recommendation is to place all the Departments on the same footing with respect to these places.

The occasion for the recommendation at this time is the receipt by this Commission of a request from the Secretary of the Interior for a noncompetitive examination of a person named by him for appointment as captain of the watch in the Interior Department.

The place is now subject to competitive examination, but the Commission sees no good reason why one rule should not apply to all the Departments; hence this recommendation.

If you approve the recommendation, your indorsement of approval on this letter and its return to the Commission is requested. As it is not a change of rule, it does not require to go to the Department of State for record.

We have the honor to be, your obedient servants,

CHAS. LYMAN,

HUGH S. THOMPSON,
Commissioners.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 25, 1892.

The within recommendation is approved.

BENJ. HARRISON.

AMENDMENTS OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.

FEBRUARY 23, 1892.

Indian Rule VI is hereby amended by inserting after the word “appointment" the following: "from one agency to another;" so that as amended the rule will read:

Subject to the conditions stated in Rule IV, transfers may be made after absolute appointment from one agency to another, from one school to another, and from one district to another, under such regulations as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, may prescribe.

Indian Rule IV, section 1, clause (b), is hereby amended by inserting after the word "averages" the following: "who have not been three times certified;" so that as amended the clause will read:

If fitness for the vacant place is tested by competitive examination, the Commission shall certify from the proper register of the district in which the vacancy exists the names of the three eligibles thereon, of the sex called for, having the highest averages, who have not been three times certified: Provided, That the eligibles upon any register who have been allowed preference under section 1754 of the Revised Statutes shall be certified, according to their grade, before all other eligibles thereon: And provided further, That if the vacancy is in the grade of matron or teacher, and the wife of the superintendent of the school in which the vacancy exists is an eligible, she may be given preference in certification if the appointing officer so requests.

Section 5 of the same rule is also hereby amended by inserting after the word "vacancy" the following: "in any agency or;" so that as amended the clause will read:

In case of the sudden occurrence of a vacancy in any agency or in any school during a school term which the public interest requires to be immediately filled the

Commissioner of Indian Affairs is authorized, in his discretion, to provide for the temporary filling of the same until a regular appointment can be made under the provisions of sections 1, 2, and 3 of this rule, and when such regular appointment is made the temporary appointment shall terminate. All temporary appointments made under this authority and their termination shall at once be reported to the Commission. BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D. C., May 5, 1892.

In the exercise of the authority vested in the President by the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised Statutes

It is ordered, That the office of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries be, and the same is hereby, classified as a part of the classified departmental service and for the purpose of applying the civilservice rules thereto the officers, clerks, and other employees of said Commission are hereby arranged in the following classes, viz:

Class A.-All persons receiving an annual salary of less than $720, or a compensation at the rate of less than $720 per annum.

Class B.-All persons receiving an annual salary of $720 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $720 or more, but less than $840 per annum. Class C.-All persons receiving an annual salary of $840 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $840 or more, but less than $900 per annum. Class D.-All persons receiving an annual salary of $900 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $900 or more, but less than $1,000 per

annum.

Class E.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,000 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,000 or more, but less than $1,200 per

annum.

Class 1.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,200 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,200 or more, but less than $1,400 per

annum.

Class 2.—All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,400 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,400 or more, but less than $1,600 per

annum.

Class 3.-All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,600 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,600 or more, but less than $1,800 per

annum.

Class 4.-All persons receiving an annual salary of $1,800 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,800 or more, but less than $2,000 per

annum.

Class 5.-All persons receiving an annual salary of $2,000 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,000 per annum.

Provided, That no person who may be appointed to an office by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and that no person who may be employed merely as a messenger, laborer, workman, or watchman,

shall be considered as within this classification, and no person so employed shall be assigned to the duties of a classified place.

Provided further, That no person shall be admitted to any place not excepted from examination by the civil-service rules in any of the classes above designated until he or she shall have passed an appropriate examination under the United States Civil Service Commission and his or her eligibility has been certified to by said Commission.

BENJ. HARRISON.

CIVIL SERVICE.-AMENDMENT OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS.

MAY 7, 1892.

Executive orders heretofore issued declaring the places subject to noncompetitive examination under clause (d) of section 2 of General Rule III are hereby amended so as to include among said places the following:

In the Commission of Fish and Fisheries: Fish culturists and machinists.

BENJ. HARRISON.

AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.

MAY 7, 1892.

Special Departmental Rule No. 1 is hereby amended so as to include among the places excepted from examination therein the following:

In the Commission of Fish and Fisheries: Ichthyologist and editor, one scientific assistant, captains, officers, ships writers and crews on vessels of the Commission, and pilots.

BENJ. HARRISON.

SEPTEMBER 16, 1892.

In order that the members of the Grand Army of the Republic employed in the public service in the city of Washington may have the opportunity of joining in the parade arranged for Tuesday, the 20th of September instant, and that all others may unite with the citizens of the District of Columbia in showing honor to the Union soldiers and sailors to be gathered in the national capital on that occasion

It is hereby ordered, That the several Executive Departments and the Public Printing Office be closed on that day. By the President:

BENJ. HARRISON.

AMENDMENT OF CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, September 23, 1892.

Departmental Rule X, Customs Rule VII, Postal Rule VII, and Indian Rule VII are hereby amended by inserting in the proviso of each of said

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rules, after the word "therefrom," the words "or the widow of any such person," and after the word "he" the words "or she;" so that as amended the proviso of each of said rules will read:

Provided, That certification may be made, subject to the other conditions of this rule, for the reinstatement of any person who served in the military or naval service in the late War of the Rebellion and was honorably discharged therefrom, or the widow of any such person, without regard to the length of time he or she has been separated from the service.

BENJ. HARRISON.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 6, 1892.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In submitting my annual message to Congress I have great satisfaction in being able to say that the general conditions affecting the commercial and industrial interests of the United States are in the highest degree favorable. A comparison of the existing conditions with those of the most favored period in the history of the country will, I believe, show that so high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffusion of the comforts of life were never before enjoyed by our people.

In

The total wealth of the country in 1860 was $16,159,616,068. 1890 it amounted to $62,610,000,000, an increase of 287 per cent. The total mileage of railways in the United States in 1860 was 30,626. In 1890 it was 167,741, an increase of 448 per cent; and it is estimated that there will be about 4,000 miles of track added by the close of the year 1892.

The official returns of the Eleventh Census and those of the Tenth Census for seventy-five leading cities furnish the basis for the following comparisons:

In 1880 the capital invested in manufacturing was $1,232,839,670.
In 1890 the capital invested in manufacturing was $2,900,735,884.
In 1880 the number of employees was 1,301,388.
In 1890 the number of employees was 2,251,134.
In 1880 the wages earned were $501,965,778.
In 1890 the wages earned were $1,221,170,454.
In 1880 the value of the product was $2,711,579,899.
In 1890 the value of the product was $4,860,286,837.

I am informed by the Superintendent of the Census that the omission of certain industries in 1880 which were included in 1890 accounts in part for the remarkable increase thus shown, but after making full allowance for differences of method and deducting the returns for all industries not included in the census of 1880 there remain in the reports from

these seventy-five cities an increase in the capital employed of $1,522,745,604, in the value of the product of $2,024,236, 166, in wages earned of $677,943,929, and in the number of wage earners employed of 856,029. The wage earnings not only show an increased aggregate, but an increase per capita from $386 in 1880 to $547 in 1890, or 41.71 per cent.

The new industrial plants established since October 6, 1890, and up to October 22, 1892, as partially reported in the American Economist, number 345, and the extension of existing plants 108; the new capital invested amounts to $40,449,050, and the number of additional employees to 37,285.

The Textile World for July, 1892, states that during the first six months of the present calendar year 135 new factories were built, of which 40 are cotton mills, 48 knitting mills, 26 woolen mills, 15 silk mills, 4 plush mills, and 2 linen mills. Of the 40 cotton mills 21 have been built in the Southern States. Mr. A. B. Shepperson, of the New York Cotton Exchange, estimates the number of working spindles in the United States on September 1, 1892, at 15,200,000, an increase of 660,000 over the year 1891. The consumption of cotton by American mills in 1891 was 2,396,ooo bales, and in 1892 2,584,000 bales, an increase of 188,000 bales. From the year 1869 to 1892, inclusive, there has been an increase in the consumption of cotton in Europe of 92 per cent, while during the same period the increased consumption in the United States has been about 150 per cent.

The report of Ira Ayer, special agent of the Treasury Department, shows that at the date of September 30, 1892, there were 32 companies manufacturing tin and terne plate in the United States and 14 companies building new works for such manufacture. The estimated invest

ment in buildings and plants at the close of the fiscal year June 30, 1893, if existing conditions were to be continued, was $5,000,000 and the estimated rate of production 200,000,000 pounds per annum. The actual production for the quarter ending September 30, 1892, was 10,952,725 pounds.

The report of Labor Commissioner Peck, of New York, shows that during the year 1891, in about 6,000 manufacturing establishments in that State embraced within the special inquiry made by him, and representing 67 different industries, there was a net increase over the year 1890 of $31,315,130.68 in the value of the product and of $6,377,925.09 in the amount of wages paid. The report of the commissioner of labor for the State of Massachusetts shows that 3,745 industries in that State paid $129,416,248 in wages during the year 1891, against $126,030,303 in 1890, an increase of $3,335,945, and that there was an increase of $9,932,490 in the amount of capital and of 7,346 in the number of persons employed in the same period.

During the last six months of the year 1891 and the first six months of 1892 the total production of pig iron was 9,710,819 tons, as against

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