per cent. of complete proficiency, the lowest grade for going on a register and consequently for getting an appointment, and 100, which is the highest grade attainable. It is plain that a certification for appointment will be relatively early or late for each competitor according as his or her marking is near 100 or near 65. The Commission has no discretion in that regard. As the competition for the departmental service is practically between applicants from the same State, obviously the greater the numbers who compete in any State the smaller the chances for an appointment.

It will require more experience under the new system before all those who have little or no chance of success will cease to try the examinations, or the whole number who apply will be duly proportioned to the chances of an appointment; but experience, in countries where the system has been long tried, has shown that this adjustment is sure to be made. The law which tends to adjust supply to demand in due time prevails everywhere.

PROBATION.

We have considered two of the three tests of merit for which the rules make provision: First. The application paper in which it must be shown by statements under oath that the applicant possesses several of the essential qualities for entering the public service, and in which his vouchers must set forth their knowledge that he is a person of good character, habits, and reputation. Second. The examination in which his information and the quickness and accuracy of his mind are made to appear. But there is a third test for ascertaining whether the applicant has good business capacity. That test is a probationary service of six months before an absolute appointment. If at its termination the appointing officer is not so well satisfied as to be willing to make an unconditional appointment, the probationer is absolutely out of the service without any action on the part of the Government. If it should clearly appear during the probationary period that he is seriously lacking in business capacity or fidelity, he may be at once removed; but after passing the examination he is to be presumed worthy of a six months' trial until the contrary shall be decisively proved.

This practical test in actually doing the public work is not only an integral part of the merit system, but originated with it. If these facts were generally understood, they would doubtless be regarded as a full answer to the oft-repeated criticism of that system to the effect that mere information is not proof of business capacity.

Experience, however, has shown, not only under the merit system, but generally in business life, that the best informed are the most successful men of business of every grade. As a rule the best-informed boy in the class has been the most faithful and industrious, and is more likely to succeed in business than the stupid or ignorant. The best-informed mechanic is generally the most trustworthy and success

ful. If it were not so-if, on the other hand, uninstructed men were just as useful to the community-there would seem to be little to say in defense of universal taxation imposed for educating all the children in the very subjects which the civil service examinations cover. The experience of the Commission has shown how great is the majority of those having passed the examination who have proved themselves to be persons of good business capacity. In the departmental service, for example, 109 persons appointed under the rules have served their probationary term. In all of these cases except 2 the appointees have been given a permanent appointment. The significance of this is all the greater in view of the fact that perhaps one-half of those appointed were not adherents of the party controlling the administration, and that very few, if any of them, were protégés of persons of influence who have helped to keep them in their places. The results, indeed, go far toward showing that a probationary term is not essential, though unquestionably useful.

WOMEN IN THE SERVICE.

The

The civil service law makes no distinction on account of sex. examinations under it are open alike to men and women, and if, in the long run, any inequality shall be found in the numbers appointed to the service, such inequality will arise from the needs and conditions of the service itself, and not from any provisions of the civil service rules or any restrictive action of the Commission.

It is now generally recognized that women can successfully perform the duties of many of the subordinate places under the Government. In many cases they have shown eminent fitness for the places they have held and high qualities in their work. There is simple justice in allowing them to compete for the public service, and to receive appointments when, in fair competition, they have shown superior merit.

But the determination of the question whether a woman or a man shall be selected to fill any given vacancy must be left, under the law as it existed before the civil service act, to the appointing officer, who alone knows the conditions and who is responsible for the successful administration of his office. The Commission can do no more than send the names of the sex asked for. It would be inexcusable to continue to invite to examinations hundreds beyond the needs of the service, and thus to hold out to them hopes that cannot be realized. For example, the appointments which would fall to the female applicants of the State of Maryland within the next six months, supposing the appointments to continue to be made at the rate of the past year and to be equally divided between the sexes, would be only two; but the number of women from that State who have passed the examinations and now stand on the register of eligibles is 39, or more than 19 times the number of those who can hope for appointment, even if as many women were appointed as men, whereas the female appointees thus far bave been less than one-sixth of the number of males.

In November last, the Commission, finding that the registers of some of the States were becoming crowded with a much larger number of eligibles than can hope to be appointed before their names will be dropped, adopted, with the concurrence of the President, the following resolution:

"Resolved, That in order to avoid the examination of numbers of applicants greatly in excess of the needs of the service, and the imposition of useless labor on the boards of examiners, whenever there shall be on the register of any State or Territory more persons of either sex, of any grade or class, than are likely to be required for certification during the next six months, no more applicants of that sex and grade or class will be examined for that State or Territory till such excess has ceased, unless otherwise ordered by the Commission."

Under this resolution the Commission has deferred for the present the holding of examinations of both men and women in several of the States in which the eligibles are already largely in excess of the numbers needed for appointment within the next six months.

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

Every provision of law favorable to those who have rendered honorable service in the Army or Navy of the United States is preserved in the civil service act and the rules; and in the latter (see Rule XI) these patriotic privileges have been in the matter of age and otherwise somewhat extended. Every person honorably discharged from such service by reason of disability incurred in the line of duty, if he shall exhibit the measure of capacity found to be essential in the civil service, is allowed a preference in certification for appointment.

RESIDENCE.

"In the application paper the residence of all applicants must be stated under oath. The question whether legal or mere temporary residence is intended arises under this law as well as under so many others, but the Commission assume that legal residence is meant by the act. If mere present residence should be treated as the intention of the act, an applicant might fix such residence in any State to which he may go perhaps for the very purpose.

"The custom of officers of the Government retaining for years a legal residence in the States from which they came leads others not in Government employ to suppose that they too may continue to claim a legal residence in the States in which they or their parents formerly lived, though they may long since have established permanent homes here.

"It is natural that at the seat of Government a large excess of applicants for the public service shall be found. Under the old system the District of Columbia supplied numbers of clerks greatly disproportioned to its population. The requirement by Congress that new appoint

ments shall be apportioned to the States and Territories on the basis of population has diminished the chances of residents of Washington to secure Government places in the same ratio that it has increased the chances of those who reside elsewhere."

Some further considerations bearing on this subject may be found in the Appendix under the head of Instructions to Applicants.

PROMOTIONS

In its first report the Commission considered this important subject, in reference both to its necessities and its principles. The observations of another year have shown more conclusively the need of interposing some examination or tests, both to secure to the most meritorious their proper claims to advancement as opportunities occur, and also to shut out the solicitations and influence of outside parties from securing or attempting to secure promotions without merit. It has been seriously complained that not a few clerks and other employés, finding this door of "influence" still open, have persistently urged their members of Congress and other influential friends to visit the Departments and offices to obtain their advancement in rank or salary, and that patronage has been lavishly and successfully employed to secure the promotion of the less worthy over more experienced and more deserving associates.

It has thus become obvious that, notwithstanding the difficulty of devising a system which shall give merit its just reward, and shall yet leave the appointing officer his full right and responsibility for his office, some rules upon the subject ought to be promulgated at the earliest day practicable.

The Commission's work has been so exacting during the past year that, contrary to its expectations, it has not been possible for it up to this time to treat the subject of promotions practically.

REMOVALS.

The bearing of the new system upon removals was set forth in the First Annual Report and it need not be enlarged upon here. But it may be stated that the small number of removals during the past year has tended to confirm the view therein expressed that, when a removal cannot be followed by the appointment of a favorite pressing for the vacancy to be made, most of the temptations to make unjustifiable removals are themselves removed.

THE COMMISSION HAS NO PATRONAGE.

It seems almost superfluous to say that the Commission does not dispense patronage, and that it has no power or opportunity to influence appointments or promotions. But many letters show that the writers think otherwise. This misunderstanding arises from the old system,

which made the belief almost universal that all appointments and promotions go by favor or influence.

Even if it be conceded that a commissioner might be dishonest and bold enough to violate the eighth rule, and to incur the severe penalties of the fifth section of the act, for party or personal ends, it is plain that no applicant could be unjustly refused an examination, that none could be notified for examination, or certified for appointment, out of the proper order, without the knowledge of the three commissioners and the secretary, of whom two are adherents of one party and two of the other.

Nothing, therefore, can be more unfounded than the belief, still entertained by some, that the civil service law and rules have but transferred patronage from members of Congress to members of the Commission. The simple fact is that within the classified service patronage has been suppressed.

POLITICAL ASSESSMENTS.

The opinions of the heads of offices as to the effect of the civil service law and rules upon the collection of political assessments from their subordinates are stated elsewhere. They make it plain that this kind of extortion has been in very large measure suppressed, and that those in the public service are beginning to feel the independence and liberty in that regard which their fellow-citizens in private life enjoy. Only one case of an alleged collection of assessments within a public office has been brought to the attention of the Commission. It arose at the Oakland post-office, California. Pending an investigation by the Commission information has come that proceedings for an indictment before a grand jury for the offense have failed.

The Commission has reason to think that the political contributions made by those in the Departments at Washington during the past year have been many times less than under analogous circumstances in former years. But very persistent attempts were made to extort money by unjustifiable appeals to the fears and hopes of the clerks at Washington, without violating the penal provisions of the civil service act. There have been some attempts to exact assessments under the form of annual dues to associations, but apparently without success.

The requests for contributions since the act went into effect have not employed the language of menace or demanded definite amounts or a percentage of salaries. In most cases they have distinctly recognized the freedom of the public servant by appealing to him, not as a member of a class of annual rent-payers, but respectfully, as if he had the same liberty, rights, and duties as any other citizen.

These changes, and the undiminished vigor and enthusiasm of parties at the late elections, have made clear the truth that a party, whether in power or out of power, may not only maintain a vigorous life, but may effectively present its just claims for support without extorting the ex