ineligible for appointment. Of those examined over 65 per cent. sueceeded;* 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 Repub licans 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.

ary rules of arithmetic, are required. A promotion, however, beyond a salary of $900 a year cannot be made without passing the general examination.

But it should be observed in regard to the general examinations that they include no foreign language, no technical word, no terms of art or science, no problem in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, or astronomy, no question concerning the history or geography of any foreign country, nothing, in short, beyond, and not everything within, the teaching of a good public school; facts which should silence much of the criticism of the ignorant, even if they do not meet the approval of the educated. In Appendix No. 7 may be found examples of the questions of various grades which are fair specimens of those which have been used.

SPECIAL DEPARTMENTAL EXAMINATIONS.

For the State Department, the Patent Office, the Pension Office, the Geological Survey, and the Signal Office, special examinations are held. Examinations in special subjects are also held, supplementary to, and commonly at the same time with the general and limited examinations, for places in which a knowledge of law, medicine, stenography, typewriting, book-keeping or of the French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian language is required.

BOARD OF EXAMINERS.

The members of the boards, all selected by the Commission from those in the public service, for conducting these various examinations are given in Appendix No. 4.

QUESTIONS.

In order to secure uniformity and justice, the questions for all these examinations, as well as for all examinations for the postal service and the customs service, are prepared at Washington under the supervision of the Commission, and the examination papers of all applicants for the departmental service, are marked by the proper examining Board at Washington.

THE NUMBER EXAMINED FOR THE DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE.

The whole number examined for the Departmental Service during the past year has been 2,276, of whom 1,742 were males, and 534 were females. Of the males 965 attained the grade of sixty-five or upwards; of the females 373 attained that grade.

Further particulars of these examinations, and of the special examinations can be found in the tables in the Appendix No. 6.

APPOINTMENTS TO THE DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE.

The whole number of appointments during the past year to the departmental service from those examined has been 438, of whom 391 were inales, and 47 were females. The residence and apportionment of those

appointed under the rules appear in Table No. 4 of Appendix No. 6; except that the original appointments to the pension service, under the act of July 7, 1884, were apportioned separately. This apportionment appears in Table No. 5 of that Appendix. Special Rule No. 3, under which the apportionment was made is given in Appendix No. 2. PERMANENT APPOINTMENTS AFTER PROBATION, PROMOTIONS, RES IGNATIONS, AND REMOVALS IN THE DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE.

(1.) The distinction of classes or grades is not sufficiently defined in the postal service to constitute a common basis of comparison in making promotions, and owing to the different arrangement in different offices in the customs service, promotions there cannot be very definitely tabulated for a comparison.

(2.) It is only in the classified departmental service that the facts in regard to permanent appointments and promotions can be set forth with sufficient precision to aid much in forming correct conclusions as to the effects of the new system. The number of promotions of those appointed under the rules in this service during the year has been 55.

(3.) There have been during the year 109 cases in which the probationary appointments of six months have expired, and in every instance, except 2, a permanent appointment has been made.

(4.) There have been during the year three removals among those appointed to the departmental service who had been examined under the Commission. To these must be added a single case of discharge from the service, in conformity with section 9 of the civil service act, by reason of more than two members of the same family being in the service. The just inference in favor of the good character and efficiency of those appointed under the new system to be drawn from this very small number of removals would seem to be obvious.

EXAMINATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS IN THE CUSTOMS SERVICE.

(1.) The whole number examined during the past year for the classi fied customs service was 838, all of whom were males. The whole num. ber who passed at a grade of sixty-five and upwards was 541.

(2.) The whole number appointed during the past year to the classified customs service was 119. Most of the customs offices do not find it practicable to employ any females. Further particulars of these examinations and of the appointments will be found in Table No. 3 of Appendix No. 6.

EXAMINATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS IN THE POSTAL SERVICE.

(1.) The whole number examined for the postal service during the past year, was 3,233, of whom 2,945 were males, and 288 were females.

(2.) The whole number employed (or appointed) during the past year for the classified postal service, was 1,249. There are no carriers, and very few clerks at the post-offices who are females.