tee on Reform in the Civil Service proved conclusively that the findings of the special Committee of the League were correct and a bill was introduced in the House and passed the House in the last session which would abolish the Reclassification Board and place the work in the hands of the Civil Service Commission. This bill is now before the Senate and with the able management of Senator Sterling it is hoped it will become law at an early date.

In the federal civil service it is common for officials to allege that certain positions cannot be filled properly through the merit system. Exceptions to the civil service rules are often made by act of Congress and sometimes by executive orders from the President. Often the positions thus excepted are given some high sounding title, such as Special Expert. Without a duties classification system in good working order there is no means of checking this device, which is often deliberately used as a means of evading the merit system. Since the positions are not defined in the terms of the duties they involve a designing administrator can attach to them such duties as he will and give them to favored persons who might not qualify under an open competitive examination. When all positions must be classified on the basis of their duties regardless of their civil service status, and the facts regarding the duties are ascertained and published, such devices will not work. A stenographic position or a routine clerical job masquerading under the high sounding title of Special Expert is then shown in its true colors. With a thorough-going classification system, for example, much of the scandal attendant upon the business of the Veterans' Bureau under the late administration of Colonel Charles R. Forbes might have been avoided. According to General Hines, among the Special Experts appointed by Colonel Forbes without

regard to the provisions of the civil service law were Francis B. Smith, employed at $4,800 a year, and who has done only two hours' work, so far as he (General Hines) had been able to find, and Ralph Tullidge, a brother of Mrs. E. H. Mortimer, mentioned in the hearings as being employed at $3,500 a year as a mechanical engineer, although he had previously been a milk wagon driver.

The League's Special Committee on Reclassification also pointed out that the time has come for a complete exclusion of the Bureau of Efficiency from any business connected with personnel administration in the federal civil service. That Bureau was hostile to the work of the Joint Congressional Reclassification Commission, has been and is hostile to the Civil Service Commission, of which it was originally a part, and has consistently been the means of thwarting the real intent of Congress in the enactment of the reclassification law. Aside, however, from such considerations as these, the splitting up of responsibility for such fundamental personnel matters as reclassification and efficiency records is bound to retard progress if, in fact, any progress can be made at all. Responsibility should properly rest with the Civil Service Commission. Co-operation with other agencies, particularly the Budget Bureau, in matters relating to salaries, should be close and persistent. But a sound personnel policy for the government will centralize responsibility in the Commission as the central employment agency, give the Commission the authority and dignity it deserves, and go a long ways toward assuring the development of a greatly improved personnel system.

To sum up the work which lies immediately before the League, it should devote its efforts to

(1) The elimination of all exemptions, and the classification, subject to competitive examination, of all

positions in the Civil Service other than policy determining positions and unskilled labor;

(2) The reclassification of the Civil Service by title, duties and entrance qualifications, and the standardization of salaries to the end that equal pay may be given for equal work;

(3) The improvement of examinations and examining methods, a work which the Bureau of Public Personnel Administration is now engaged upon with great

success:

(4) The development of an effective system of efficiency ratings under the supervision of the Civil Service Commission;

(5) The development of an improved system of promotion, so that a capable employee may look forward to reaching the highest positions in the classified service;

(6) The granting of authority to the Civil Service Commission to act as, or to appoint from its staff, an administrative trial board to investigate complaints against civil officers or employees of the government, and to report thereon to the appropriate appointing and removing officer;

(7) The extension of the powers of the Civil Service Commission so that it may become the sole governmental personnel agency, with complete jurisdiction and authority, and with adequate appropriations to do its work.

It is the duty of the League, not only to devote all its energy to accomplishing these ends, but also to educate public opinion to their support to such an extent that it will overwhelm the opposition of the politicians. In the words of Grover Cleveland, "In a democracy the campaign of education is a continual duty."

THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM IN JAPAN

By Takashi Taniguchi

Chancellor of the Japanese Embassy

It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to tell you something of the civil service system of Japan. In a short address, there will not be time to go much into detail, but I hope to give you a general idea of the system.

Prior to 1893 the appointment to civil office was largely based upon party influence rather than upon the fitness of the applicant. This condition caused in Japan, as in the United States, the prostitution of public service to purely personal or partisan advantage.

It was at the time of the Ito Cabinet in 1893 that the "Merit System" was adopted for the first time. Ordinance 187 of the year 1893 provided for competitive qualification examinations of applicants for civil service. In order to adopt the "merit system" instead of the so-called "spoils system" Japan was fortunate to have no tragedy such as President Garfield's assassination.

The present examination system for qualification of civil service was provided by Ordinance 7 of the year 1918. It provides for the unification of examination in every branch of our civil service, including the administrative, diplomatic and judicial.

Applicants for examination under this ordinance are required to be graduates of the middle school, which corresponds to your high school. The examination is roughly classified into two divisions-the preliminary test, and the main examination. The preliminary test is an examination which shows the applicant to have the equivalent of a preparatory school education for college. Unless the applicant can pass this preliminary test he will not be given the privilege of taking the main examination.

The main examination is classified into three branches-administrative, diplomatic, and judicial.

The

examination for the administrative branch covers the Constitution, Administrative Law, Civil Law, Criminal Law, International Law, and Economics. Besides these subjects, the applicant is required to select for examination one of the following subjects: Commercial Law, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, or the Science of Finance.

The examination for the diplomatic branch covers the Constitution, International Law, Private International Law, Economics, History of Diplomatic Relations, and one of three languages-English, French or German. And besides these subjects, the applicant is required to select for examination one of the following subjects: Administrative Law, Civil Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, the Science of Finance, the Science of Business Management, or Commercial History. Now we come to the third branch-Judicial. This examination covers the Constitution, Civil Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and Private International Law. For this branch of service an examination must also be taken in Administrative Law, International Law, or Economics.

It must be noted that these are qualifying examinations and not examinations for immediate service. Herein our Japanese system differs widely from yours. From the applicants who have qualified appointments are made, not by grade, but by the Emperor. According to Article 10 of the Constitution the power of appointment is exclusively vested in the Emperor and no interference on the part of the Imperial Diet is permitted. When an appointment is made it at once becomes definite or permanent. As I understand it, in