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rules, fractions, and percentage. 3d. Interest, discount, aud elements of book-keeping and of accounts. 4th. Elements of the English language, letter-writing, and the proper construction of sentences. 5th. Elements of the geography, history, and government of the United States.

2. Proficiency in any subject upon which an examination shall be held shall be credited in grading the standing of the persons examined in proportion to the value of a knowledge of such subject in the branch or part of the service which the applicant seeks to enter.

3. No one shall be entitled to be certified for appointment whose standing upon a just grading in the general examination shall be less. than sixty-five per centum of complete proficiency in the first three subjects mentioned in this rule, and that measure of proficiency shall be deemed adequate.

4. For places in which a lower degree of education will suffice, the Commission may limit the examinations to less than the five subjects above mentioned; but no person shall be certified for appointment, under this clause, whose grading shall be less than an average of sixtyfive per centum on such of the first three subjects or parts thereof as the examination may embrace.

5. The Commission may also order examinations upon other subjects of a technical or special character, to test the capacity which may be needed in any part of the Classified Service which requires peculiar information or skill. Examinations hereunder may be competitive or non-competive, and the maximum limitations of age contained in the twelfth Rule shall not apply to applicants for the same. The applica tion for, and notice of, these special examinations, the records thereof, and the certification of those found competent, shall be such as the Commission may provide for. After consulting the head of any Department or office, the Commission may from time to time designate, subject to the approval of the President, the positions therein for which applicants may be required to pass this special examination.

RULE VIII

No question in any examination, or proceeding by, or under, the Commission or examiners, shall call for the expression or disclosure of any political or religious opinion or affiliation, and if such opinion or affili ation be known, no discrimination shall be made by reason thereof by the examiners, the Commission, or the appointing power. The Commission and its examiners shall discountenance all disclosure, before either of them, of such opinion by or concerning any applicant for examination or by or concerning any one whose name is on any register awaiting appointment.,

RULE IX.

All regular applications for the competitive examination's for admission to the Classified Service must be made on blanks in a form approved by the Commission. All requests for such blanks, and all applications for examination, must be addressed as follows: 1. If for the Classified Departmental Service, to the U. S. Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C. 2. If for the Classified Postal Service, to the postmaster under whom service is sought. 3. If for the Classified Customs Service, to the head of either customs office in which service is sought. All officers receiving such applications will indorse thereon the date of the 12435 o s6

reception thereof and transmit the same to the proper examining board of the district or office where service is sought, or, if in Washington, to the Civil Service Commission.

RULE X.

Every examining board shall keep such records, and such papers on file, and make such reports as the Commission shall require; and any such paper or record in the charge of any examining board or any officer shall at all times be open to examination as the Commission shall direct, and upon its request shall be forwarded to the Commission for inspection and revision.

RULE XI.

1. Every application, in order to entitle the applicant to appear for examination or to be examined, must state, under oath, the facts on the following subjects: 1. Full name, residence, and post-office address. 2. Citizenship. 3. Age. 4. Place of birth. 5. Health and physical capacity for the public service. 6. Right of preference by reason of military or naval service. 7. Previous employment in the public service. 8. Business or employment and residence for the previous five years. 9. Education. Such other information shall be furnished as the Commission may reasonably require touching the applicant's fitness for the public service. The applicant must also state the number of members of his family in the public service, and where employed, and must also assert that he is not disqualified under section 8 of the Civil Service act, which is as follows: "That no person habitually using intoxicating beverages to excess shall be appointed to or retained in any office, appointment, or employment to which the provisions of this act are applicable." No person dismissed from the public service for misconduct shall be admitted to examination within two years thereafter, and no person not absolutely appointed or employed after probation shall be admitted to an examination within one year thereafter.

2. No person under enlistment in the Army or Navy of the United States shall be examined under these Rules, except for some place requiring special qualifications, and with the consent in writing of the head of the Department under which he is enlisted.

3. The Commission may by regulations, subject to change at any time by the President, declare the kind and measure of ill health, phys ical incapacity, misrepresentation and bad faith, which may properly exclude any person from the right of examination, grading, or certifi cation under these rules. It may also provide for medical certificates of physical capacity in the proper cases; and for the appropriate certification of persons so defective in sight, speech, hearing, or otherwise, as to be, apparently, disqualified for some of the duties of the part of the service which they seek to enter.

RULE XII.

1. Every regular application must be supported by proper certificates of good moral character, health, and physical and mental capacity for doing the public work, the certificates to be in such form and number as the regulations of the Commission shall provide; but no certificate will be received which is inconsistent with the tenth section of the Civil Service act.

2. No one shall be examined for admission to the Classified Postal Service if under sixteen or over thirty-five years of age, excepting messengers, stampers, and other junior assistants, who must not be under fourteen years of age; or to the Classified Customs Service, or to the Classified Departmental Service, if under eighteen or over forty-five years of age; but no one shall be examined for appointment to any place in the Classified Customs Service, except that of clerk or messenger, who is under twenty-one years of age; but these limitations of age shall not apply to persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the country, who are otherwise duly qualified.

RULE XIII.

1. The date of the reception of all regular applications for the Classified Departmental Service shall be entered of record by the Commission, and of all other regular applications by the proper examining boards of the district or office for which they are made; and applicants when in excess of the number that can be examined at a single examination shall, subject to the needs of apportionment, be notified to appear, in their order on the respective records. But any applicants in the several States and Territories for appointment in the Classified Departmental Service may be notified to appear for examination at any place at which an examination is to be held, whether in any State or Territory, or in Washington, which shall be deemed most convenient for them.

2. The Commission is authorized, in aid of the apportionment among the States and Territories, to hold examinations at places convenient for applicants from different States and Territories, or for those examination districts which it may designate and which the President shall approve.

3. The Commission may, by regulation, provide for dropping from any record the applicants whose names have remained thereon for six months or more without having been reached in due course for notification to be examined.

RULE XIV.

Those examined shall be graded, and shall have their grade marked upon a register after those previously thereon, in the order of their excellence as shown by their examination papers, except that those from the same State or Territory may be entered upon the register together, in the order of relative excellence, to facilitate apportionment. Separate registers may be kept of those seeking to enter any part of the service in which special qualifications are required.

RULE XV.

The Commission may give a certificate to any person examined, stating the grade which such person attained, and the proficiency in the several subjects, shown by the markings.

RULE XVI.

1. Whenever any officer having the power of appointment or employ ment shall so request, there shall be certified to him, by the Commission or the proper examining board, four names for the vacancy specified, to be taken from those graded highest on the proper register of those in his branch of the service and remaining eligible, regard being had

to any right of preference and to the apportionment of appointments to States and Territories; and from the said four a selection shall be made for the vacancy. But if a person is on both a general and a special register he need not be certified from the former, except at the discretion of the Commission, until he has remained two months upon the latter.

2. These certifications for the service at Washington shall be made in such order as to apportion, as nearly as may be practicable, the original appointments thereto among the States and Territories and the District of Columbia, upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census.

3. In case the request for any such certification or any law or regu lation shall call for those of either sex, persons of that sex shall be cer tified, otherwise sex shall be disregarded in such certification.

4. Subject to the other provisions of this rule persons eligible on any register shall be entitled to three certifications only, to the same officer; but, with his request, in writing, there may be a fourth certification of such persons to him, when reached in order. No one shall remain eligi ble more than one year upon any register except as may be provided by regulation; but these restrictions shall not extend to examinations under clause 5 of Rule 7. No person while remaining eligible on any register shall be admitted to a new examination, and no person having failed upon any examination shall within six months thereafter be admitted to another examination, without the consent of the Commission. 5. Any person appointed to or employed in any place in the classified service, who shall be dismissed or separated therefrom without fault or delinquency on his part, may be reappointed or re-employed in the same Department or office at a grade for which no higher examination is required than for the position he last held, within one year next following such dismissal or separation, without further examination, on such certification as the Commission may provide.

RULE XVII.

1. Every original appointment or employment in said classified serv ice shall be for the probationary period of six months, at the end of which time, if the conduct and capacity of the person appointed have been found satisfactory to the officer having the duty of selection, the probationer shall be absolutely appointed or employed, but otherwise be deemed out of the service.

2. Every officer under whom any probationer shall serve during any part of the probation provided for by these rules shall carefully observe the quality and value of the service rendered by such probationer, and shall report to the proper appointing officer, in writing, the facts observed by him, showing the character and qualifications of such probationer, and of the service performed by him; and such reports shall be preserved on file.

3. Every false statement knowingly made by any person in his ap plication for examination, and every connivance by him at any false statement made in any certificate which may accompany his application, and every deception or fraud practiced by him or by any person in his behalf and with his knowledge to influence his examination, certification, or appointment, shall be regarded as good cause for refusing to certify such person or for the removal or discharge of such person during his probation or thereafter.

RULE XVIII.

Every head of a department or office shall notify the Commission of the name of every person appointed to, or employed in, the classified service under him (giving the date of the appointment and the desig nation of the office or place) from those examined under the Commission; and shall also inform the Commission of the date of any rejection or final appointment or employment of any probationer, and of the promotion, removal, discharge, resignation, transfer, or death of any such person after probation. Every head of any office in the postal or customs service shall give such information on these subjects to the Board of Examiners for his office as the regulations of the Commission may provide for.

RULE XIX.

There are excepted from examination the following: 1. The confidential clerk or secretary of any head of a department or office. 2. Cashiers of collectors. 3. Cashiers of postmasters. 4. Superintendents of money-order divisions in post-offices. 5. The direct custodians of money for whose fidelity another officer is under official bond, and disbursing officers having the custody of money, who give bonds; but these exceptions shall not extend to any official below the grade of assistant cashier or teller. 6. Persons employed exclusively in the secret service of the Government, or as translators, or interpreters, or stenographers. 7. Persons whose employment is exclusively professional, but medical examiners are not included among such persons. 8. Chief clerks, deputy collectors, deputy naval officers, deputy surveyors of customs, and superintendents or chiefs of divisions or bureaus. But no persons so excepted shall be either transferred, appointed, or promoted, unless to some excepted place, without an examination under the Commission, which examination shall not take place within six months after entering the service. Promotions may be made without examination in offices where examinations for promotion are not now held, until rules on the subject shall be promulgated.

RULE XX.

If the failure of competent persons to attend and be examined, or the prevalence of contagious disease or other sufficient cause, shall make it impracticable to supply in due season for any appointment the names of persons who have passed a competitive examination, the appointment may be made of a person who has passed a non-competitive examination, which examination the Commission may provide for; but its next report shall give the reason for such resort to non-competitive examination.

RULE XXI.

1. No person, unless excepted under Rule 19, shall be admitted into the classified civil service from any place not within said service, without an examination and certification under the rules; with this exception, that any person who shall have been an officer for one year or more last preceding, in any Department or office, in a grade above the classified service thereof, may be transferred or appointed to any place in the service of the same without examination.

2. No person who has passed only a limited examination under clause 4 of Rule 7, for the lower classes or grades in the departmental or

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