SECOND ANNUAL REPORT

OF

THE UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

The enforcement of the civil service act of January 16, 1883, has been found both practicable and effective for the accomplishment of its purpose. Only the continuing support of the Executive and moderate appropriations by Congress are needed for the extension of the new system which the civil service law and rules have established.

Within the period covered by this report, from January 16, 1884, to January 16, 1885, applicants have been examined from every State of the Union, and from every Territory except Idaho.

In all the States except Oregon and Nevada examinations have been held at one or more places, and in several of the larger and also of the more populous States they have been held at from three to six different places.

The intrinsic difficulty of arranging for examinations at points over so vast a country, which should be satisfactory to all those desiring to attend them, was apparent from the first. The Commission is therefore well satisfied with that success, in this particular, which enables it to say that no complaint has reached it that the examinations have not been reasonably convenient for applicants.

NUMBER EXAMINED AND APPOINTED.

The whole number of persons examined under the Commission during the year has been 6,347, of whom 5,525 were males and 822 were females. The whole number of examinations held has been 162, all of which have been competitive except seventeen, at which only 22 persons were examined. Of the non-competitive examinations eleven were held under Special Rule No. 1, for which see Appendix No. 2, and the residue were held under Rule No. 20, and Regulations No. 36 to 41, and for reasons therein required, except that 2 were held for examining persons for higher positions who had entered the service through limited examinations.

If to those examined during the past year, the number examined during the period covered by the first annual report be added, the whole number thus far examined will appear to be 9,889.

Of the 6,347 examined during the past year 4,141 attained the minimum of 65 per cent., which makes them eligible for appointment, and 2,206 failed to show that degree of proficiency, and consequently are

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ineligible for appointment. Of those examined over 65 per cent, succeeded;* and the average age was nearly 30 years. The education of those examined during the year (exclusive of the 791 who took the special examinations) was as follows: 3,920 only in the common schools, 1,096 in part in high schools or academies, 91 in part in business colleges, 449 in part in colleges. More than seventy per cent. of them, therefore, had only a public-school education. The particulars, which are not now available, of the education of the 791 would not largely change the above proportions.

The whole number of appointments made during the past year from those examined, each being for the probationary period of six months, has been 1,806; during the prior six months it was 516.

Every one of these examinations has been open to all alike, without regard to political or religious opinions. No question and no action of the Commission has imposed any political or religious test or called for the disclosure of any political or religious opinion; and in not more than a dozen instances, and then only by chance, has a commissioner known the political or religious views or affiliations of those examined. The Commission has learned no facts which would justify the inference that any discrimination in selections for appointment has been made on the ground of such opinions or affiliations. In this regard the rules appear to have been faithfully observed. (See Rule 8.) No facts have come before the Commission which tend to show that more adherents of one party than of the other have attended the examinations or secured appointments. No complaint has been made to the Commission by any person examined, or desiring to be examined, that any discrimination has been made on political or religious grounds, or that he has suffered any prejudice by reason of his affiliation with any church, party, or faction. The adherents of each of the great parties being nearly equal in number, it would seem to be a just inference that about 900 Republicans and about 900 Democrats have secured places in the public service under the civil service act during the past year.

The most significant evidence bearing upon such discrimination appears in the facts that 109 of the appointees to the departmental service, -and generally selected, as the Commission believes, without knowledge of their politics-have served out their six months' probation, during which time their political opinions might have become known, yet, in every case except two, these probationers have been given permanent appointments. In one of the two excepted cases, the appointee resigned. The only charge made before the Commission of political discrimination was against a postmaster in Ohio, and that charge, when brought by the Commission to the attention of the postmaster, was by him positively and without qualification denied, and no proof has been brought to substantiate it.

*

The method of marking and grading and the meaning of the percentages of proficiency here referred to, are explained in the Rules and Regulations to be found in appendices No. 1 and No. 2. See Rules 7, 14, and 15, and Regulation No. 32.

GRADES AND SUBJECTS OF EXAMINATION.

It hardly need be said that examinations are not applicable to any elective officer or to any laborer; and, without some special action by the Senate, they cannot be extended to any officers subject to its confirmation. In entering upon a new experiment in the executive service, it was desirable to give it breadth enough to test its value in each of the three great branches of that service without extending it beyond the possibility of efficient supervision and control by the Commission. If success should be achieved within such limits, it would be very easy to extend the new system under the ample provisions of the civil service act which authorize its extension, in the discretion of the President, to every office to which it would be appropriate. These limits were secured by making the examinations, in the outset, extend to a little more than 14,000 places. These places were originally distributed as follows: 5,650 in the departmental service at Washington; 2,573 in the customs service; 5,690 in the postal service.

That part of the service to which the examinations extend is designated the classified service. In the departmental service, it embraces places from and including those giving a salary of $720 a year, to and including those giving a salary of $1,800 or over. But there are yet various exceptions mainly incident to laws prior to the civil service act. In the customs service the places giving $900 a year, and all those giving a larger salary, where the appointee is not subject to confirmation by the Senate, are included. In the postal service, all places above the grade of a laborer are included; but to each of the three branches of the service Rule 19, with its exceptions, applies. The customs districts and the post offices included were those districts or offices in or at which 50 or more officials were in service at the date of the act, thus bringing within the examinations, at the outset, those large departments and offices where it is most difficult for the superior officials to learn the character and qualifications of those seeking places, and where, for that and other reasons, political and social influences are most likely to be vicious and effective.

The customs offices and post-offices subject to the examinations are enumerated in Rule 5, to be found in the Appendix. Those at Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Jersey City, and New Haven having since attained a service of more than fifty officials have become subject to the examinations during the past year, as has also the Department of Agriculture. The number of carriers, clerks, and employés in the postal service now within the range of the examinations is but a trifle less than onehalf of all officials of those grades at the 50,000 post-offices of the Union. And at the customs offices where the examinations are held 95 per cent. of all the customs revenue of the Union is collected and more than five-sevenths of the customs officials are employed. Several other offices are likely for the same reasons to become subject to the examina

tions before the close of the present year. Nothing, therefore, short of a restoration of proscription, favoritism, and patronage, by the exercise of superior authority, can arrest the steady growth of the new system based on competitive examinations.*

In seeking to make the examinations as practical and appropriate as possible for testing the precise qualifications needed in the different branches of the service, the Commission provides a distinct examination for each of these separate branches. No applicant, therefore, whether examined for the departmental, the customs, or the postal service can by virtue of that examination be admitted to either of the other two branches.

Still further adapting the questions to the needs of the several parts of each branch of the service, there are distinct series of questions for the several grades in each of these branches; as for carriers, clerks, porters, messengers, &c., in the postal service; for clerks, inspectors, night inspectors, weighers, gaugers, examiners, &c., in the customs service; and for different grades of clerks and for particular offices needing peculiar capacity in the departmental service; as to which a fuller explanation will be given.

DEPARTMENTAL EXAMINATIONS.

There are two distinct grades of examinations for the departmental service, each of which is common for all the places in each of the Departments at Washington for which it is appropriate. The places to be filled from these two grades of examinations embrace about 90 per cent. of all the clerkships in the Departments. No separate examination is held for any place in either Department which is within the range of either of these two grades of examinations. The other 10 per cent. of the departmental service is reached through various special examinations which are appropriate for testing the peculiar, and in general, the higher attainments which are essential in the parts of the service to which the special examinations extend.

The two grades of examination referred to are designated the General examination and the Limited examination. The subjects covered by each may be found in Rule 7 and in the Instructions to Applicants to be found in Appendix No. 5.

There is a considerable number of clerkships in the departmental service for which only very limited attainments, little beyond penmanship and the capacity to spell ordinary words and to apply the element

* Many persons who see the need of some examination for ascertaining whether applicants are competent for the public work seem to hesitate at competitive examinations, having a vague idea that they are technical, very literary, or peculiarly difficult. The fact is that, so far as questions and subjects are concerned, they are precisely like any other examination. Their peculiarity is their justice. They are open and free to all. Not being confined to favorites or adherents of one party, they show not only the merit of each competitor, but the order of merit and the highest in merit among them.