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this subject very extended or technical would give to those who had had an opportunity to acquire such knowledge an undue advantage over those who might possess superior general intelligence and capacity. This branch of the examination has, accordingly, been very elementary, having been confined to the statement of a simple account, requiring merely a knowledge of its proper form and the ability to correctly enter the debits and credits, and to strike and carry forward the balance. In examinations for promotion, the remark just made concerning the inexpediency of introducing technical arithmetical questions holds good in regard to accounts, since comparatively few persons in an office have an opportunity to acquire a knowledge of its accounts.

The eighth sheet is devoted to questions in history, government, and geography, only two or three questions usually being set under each of those heads. The rules require that only "general questions" in history and geography shall be asked, and that these shall be "principally such as relate to the United States;" and they limit the questions in government to the "prominent features of the Government of the United States." Pains have been taken to keep within this range, and no questions upon any of the above-mentioned subjects are now used which do not relate to this country.

The questions upon the Government of the United States have been confined to the salient features of the Constitution. It might naturally be supposed that every one desiring to enter the service of the United States would, make himself familiar with the provisions of the fundamental instrument upon which our form of government rests; but the examinations have brought to light an amazing degree of ignorance, on the part of many, of the most general features of the Constitution. This branch of the examination is the one usually selected as the target of ridicule, and is often derided as useless and devoid of power to test the fitness of any one for clerical service. But it has been found that knowledge of the government, geography, and history of our country generally goes hand in hand with proficiency in what are considered the more practical branches of the examination, proving that, in the long run, general intelligence is the best guarantee of capacity. So far from being disposed to tone down or do away with this branch of the examination, the Board is convinced that it is one of its most necessary features. Although it might not be practicable under the present system to enforce such a provision, the Board is of the opinion that it would be a wise requirement to exact from every one seeking to enter the service of the Government under the Civil Service rules familiarity with the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, as a condition precedent to his admission to the competitive

examination. Under the present plan, the weight given to this branch of the examination is so small as to give it control of the result only when the standing in the other branches is nearly balanced.

The ninth sheet contains an exercise in the correction of false orthography and punctuation. The practice has been to select an extract of moderate difficulty from some standard work, or from an official report, to misspell a large portion of the words and to misplace the punctuation marks, and to require the candidate to copy the passage clearly and legibly, correcting mistakes in orthography and punctuation, but not otherwise altering the words or their order. This plan has been preferred to that sometimes followed, of giving the candidates a number of extremely difficult and rarely-used words, because it is believed that it furnishes a far better test of their general knowledge of orthography. At any rate, the test is quite severe enough to determine their relative knowledge of orthography.

The candidate's knowledge of the syntax of the English language is tested by the tenth sheet. Agreeably to the general plan of the Board, to make the examination a test of practical capacity, and not of mere scholastic attainment or knowledge of book rules, this test consists simply in the correction of eight or ten simple examples of false syntax, interspersed, it may be, with a few correct sentences. The candidate is not asked whether he knows anything about the formal rules of grammar, but is simply tested as to his ability to use the English language correctly, or, what is substantially the same, to detect its incorrect use. No examples are given for correction that do not plainly violate the accepted rules of grammar, and nice or doubtful points are carefully excluded.

The eleventh and last sheet contains the letter and brief. In examinations for admission, the candidate is merely required to write a letter of a prescribed length upon a set subject in some cases, and upon one chosen by himself in others, and to fold and brief it. In examinations for promotion, questions pertaining to the organization, practice, and duties of the office in which the vacancy exists, are given, frequently in the form of a letter to the head of the office. These inquiries the candidate is required to answer in the form and style of a letter, folding and briefing his reply. These questions are usually prepared by the head of the office or the chief clerk, in the same manner as the arithmetical examples already referred to. In order to avoid giving an undue advantage to any one employed in a special line of duty, it is the practice to give one or two questions relating to each branch or division of the office. Here, however, the Board was confronted with

the difficulty that a large proportion of candidates, especially in large offices, have had little opportunity to learn much about the functions. of other divisions than the one in which they have been employed. To examine each candidate upon merely the duties of his own division, besides adding largely to the labor of preparing questions and of making up the results of the examinations, would be to test only his knowledge of subjects with which he is brought into daily contact and is presumably well acquainted; while, on the other hand, to give the questions pertaining to the rest of the office equal weight with those pertaining to his own division, would place the candidate who had served faithfully in but one division at a disadvantage, as compared with one who had been shifted about from one division to another on account of incapacity, or who had had the good fortune to be a signed to duty where he could obtain a general knowledge of the organization, practice, and functions of the office. This difficulty is met by ascertaining in which division of the office each candidate is employed, and by giving, in his case, three-fourths of the whole weight assigned to the questions pertaining to the office to the questions relating to the duties of that division.

To guard against candidates' gaining any advantage by ascertaining the questions used in previous examinations, and preparing themselves with reference thereto, the Board has made it a rule to entirely change the questions for each examination, preserving, however, as nearly as possible the same general range. This course, although it imposes on the Board a large amount of additional labor, has effectually prevented successful "cramming."

Two criticisms will naturally be made by the advocates of higher standards of capacity in public offices, upon the nature and scope of the examinations as presented above; first, that the standard is too low in examinations for admission; and, second, that the examinations for promotion are too similar in scope to those for admission, and give too little place to questions pertaining to the practical duties of the office.

In answer to the first criticism, it may be said that experience has shown that the standard is quite high enough to test the relative attainments and capacity of the candidates who present themselves. All of the members and officers of the Board had been connected, to some extent, with the system of pass-examinations formerly in vogue. Although it was hoped that candidates of superior intelligence would be secured under the new system, their experience under the old one warned them that it would be imprudent to set up a very high

standard of acquirement, and it was agreed that the one adopted was quite as high as prudence would warrant. This conclusion has been fully justified by experience, and the Board has thus far seen no occasion for making the examinations for admission more severe. It may also be said that, as the examinations are competitive, failure to bring to light all the acquirements of the candidates is immaterial, so long as their relative proficiency in the essential requirements is shown, as it is by the present system.

To the second criticism there are several answers. In the first place, a very large proportion of the persons now employed in the Department were appointed either without examination or under a very lax system of examination. To promote such persons without any guarantee of their proficiency in subjects with which candidates for admission are required to be familiar, would involve a manifest incongruity, while a higher degree of attainment from those thus appointed than from competitors in open examinations under the present system could scarcely be expected. On the points not pertaining to the duties of the office, the Board, therefore, has not made the range in examinations for promotion much higher than that in examinations for admission. This range has thus far been found quite high enough to test the relative capacity of all the candidates for promotion who have come before the Board.

The failure to give greater prominence to technical questions has been in part due to this necessity for the elementary examination, and in part to the difficulty of devising a just and practicable mode of testing the relative familiarity of candidates with the functions of their offices. All of the larger offices are divided into divisions, the duties of which are frequently quite distinct from each other, so that a person skilled in one may have no knowledge of any other. These divisions are not recognized by law and the clerks employed in them are simply clerks of such and such a Bureau. The Civil Service rules not recognizing any distinction between divisions, all of the clerks employed in any office or bureau constitute a single group, any vacancy in a grade of which, above the lowest, must be filled by competition among the clerks of lower grades in the office. If each division constituted a group there would be no difficulty, but under the present system the only course seems to be to give the greatest prominence in the examination to the elementary branches. In those offices which are based upon a fundamental act or group of acts, such as the offices of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and of the Comptroller of the Currency, the difficulty is not so great, and accordingly, in the examinations to fill

the positions of Deputy Comptroller of the Currency and of Head of Division in the Internal Revenue Office-the only examinations for promotion thus far held in those offices-prominence was given to questions pertaining to the law, and the practice of the office thereunder. Were it not for these difficulties the Board would be disposed to recommend that examinations for promotion should be divided into two branches-the elementary and the technical-to each of which a day should be given. It is, however, almost uniformly found to be the case that candidates who excel in the elementary branches of the examination, show equal excellence in the technical part; and that those who are ignorant in the common branches of an English education have failed to acquire a knowledge of the duties of the office; thus confiraing the opinion already ventured that general intelligence and information are the best guarantees of capacity for clerical service.

This conclusion is in strict accordance with the theory on which Civil Service reform is based-a theory which is often overlooked by the opponents of the system of examination. The idea is prevalent that the system is intended to reward mere literary or scholastic excellence, without regard to efficiency at the desk. No error could be grosser. The system is founded on the belief that a thorough practical examination, such as the Board aims to give, is the best test of capacity for actual service—that it presents the fairest and most rational mode of determining the relative qualifications of candidates. To the common assertion that the head of the Bureau is the best judge of the relative qualifications and efficiency of his clerks, it may be replied, without any reference to the influence of personal or political considerations upon promotions, that as a matter of fact, in the larger offices at least, it is impossible for the head of the office to personally acquaint himself with the exact capacity of each of his clerks, and that in making promotions he must rely to a large degree upon subordinates, whose standards of efficiency and capacity may be essentially different. That this is the case, has been demonstrated in the marking of the efficiency of candidates under the present system. Moreover, the class of work to which a clerk is assigned is largely a matter of chance. Clerks are taken on as occasion arises, and assigned to that class of work which happens to be most pressing. It might happen that a most competent man would be assigned to an inferior class of work, which would give him no opportunity to display his talents, and he might thus have failed of promomotion under the former system simply because his qualifications were unknown or untested. Both of these defects are removed by the present plan of impartial examinations, from which no one within the group is excluded.

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