Class 5, all persons receiving an annual salary of $2,000 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,000 or more, but less than $2,500 per annum. Class 6, all persons receiving an annual salary of $2,500 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $2,500 or more per annum. THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE. Notwithstanding the term "classified service" is in everybody's mouth, there is much misconception as to its precise meaning and what it covers. A brief statement on the subject will therefore not be out of place. The term, as used in this report, means that part of the public service classified for the purpose of the examinations provided for by the civil-service law. This service is divided into three branches or parts, viz, the "departmental service," the "customs service," and the "postal service."* The departmental service embraces the eight Executive Departments at Washington, viz, the Departments of State, Treasury, War, Navy, Interior, Post-Office, Justice, and Agriculture, the Civil Service Commission, and the Department of Labor. All the officers, clerks, and other employés in these Departments, except those appointed by the Presi dent, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, on the one hand, and those employed merely as messengers, watchmen, workmen, or laborers on the other, are in the classified departmental service and subject to the provisions of the civil-service law and rules. Certain of the places (few in number) in the classified departmental service are excepted from examination by the civil-service rules and may be filled, in the discretion of the appointing officers, without examination; a few other places may be filled by non-competitive examination, the appointing officer nominating the person to be examined, the commission determining the character of and conducting the examination; but the great mass of the places are filled by competitive examination. The classified customs service embraces those customs districts in each of which there are as many as fifty employés, of which there are eleven, as follows: 1. Baltimore, Md. 2. Boston, Mass. 4. Chicago, Ill. 5. Detroit, Mich. 6. New Orleans, La. 7. New York, N. Y. 9. Port Huron, Mich. 10. Portland, Me. Under the classification now existing all the officers, clerks, and employés in these several districts not appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or not employed merely as workmen or laborers, whose compensation is $900 per annum or over, are in the classified customs service and subject to the provisions of * A fourth branch, the "Railway Mail Service," was added December 31, 1888. the civil-service law and rules. As in the departmental service, so in the customs service a few places are excepted from examination, and a few others, specifically named, may be filled by non-competitive examination. The classified postal service embraces those post-offices at each of which there are as many as fifty employés, now thirty-seven offices,* as follows: 1. Albany, N. Y. 4. Brooklyn, N. Y. 5. Buffalo, N. Y. 7. Cincinnati, Ohio. 10. Denver, Colo. 11. Des Moines, Iowa. 12. Detroit, Mich. 20. Minneapolis, Minn. 34. San Francisco, Cal. 37. Washington, D. C.* All officers, clerks, and employés in these several post-offices not appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and not employed merely as laborers or workmen, are in the classified postal service and subject to the provisions of the civil-service law and rules. A few places in this service are excepted from examination and a few subject to non-competitive examination, the same as in the departmental and customs service. The numbers embraced in these three branches of the classified service are as follows: The departmental service... The customs service... The postal service. Total 8, 212 2,298 +11, 767 $22,277 * Since June 30, 1888, the following-named post-offices have reached the limit of fifty employés and have been brought into the classified service: Atlanta, Ga.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Nashville, Tenn.; Oakland, Cal.; Portland, Me., and Worcester, Mass + This statement includes all the post-offices now classified, forty-three in number. On the 31st of December, 1888, the Railway Mail Service was classified by the Postmaster-General by direction of the President, and at that time the number of employés in that service was 5,320, which, added to the total given above, makes the number of employés now classified and subject to the civil-service rules 27,597. There are several topics not already touched upon, important in themselves, and which, under ordinary circumstances, would be treated at length in a report of the commission, but which, for reasons elsewhere stated, it is not deemed advisable to discuss in this report. In the appendix hereto will be found the civil-service law, the rules and regulations now in force, sample sets of examination questions of all the leading examinations in constant use by the commission, etc., and statistical tables exhibiting the work of the commission so far as it can be shown in tabular form. Respectfully submitted. The PRESIDENT. CHAS. LYMAN, Commissioner. UNITED STATES CIVIL-SERVICE COMMISSION. COMMISSIONERS: CHARLES LYMAN, Connecticut, President. WM. H. WEBSTER, Chief Examiner. On October 10, 1888, John H. Oberly, of Illinois, who had served as commissioner from April 17, 1886, and during the period covered by this report, retired as commissioner, and on February 9, 1889, Alfred P. Edgerton, of Indiana, who had served as commissioner and president of the commission from November 9, 1885, was removed. S. Ex. 145- -4* 49 |