places has been steadily increased, partly by the growth of the government service, partly by new rules extending the competitive system to new classes of positions. The most notable increase was that made by the "blanket order" of President Cleveland in May, 1896. President Roosevelt, who was a member of the commission for six years, has made important extensions and has greatly strengthened the merit system by other changes in the regulations.

In 1904 there were 135,000 positions subject to competitive examinations, out of 280,000 positions in the executive civil service. The salaries for the competitive positions aggregate about two-thirds of the total expenditure of $180,000,000 for salaries. The non-competitive positions include the presidential offices, certain minor offices, employés whose duties are of an important, confidential or fiduciary nature, the 70,000 fourth class postmasters and laborers.

The classified service is divided into seven main groups; the departmental service, the custom house service, the postoffice service, the railway mail service, the Indian service, the internal revenue service, and the government printing service. The departmental and post-office services each include more than forty per cent. of the total number of competitive positions; while the other five divisions together have less than twenty per cent. The Civil Service Commission also groups the positions into eleven classes on the basis of salary. About one-third of those in the classified service receive less than $720 a year; another third from $720 to $1,200; and the remainder over $1,200. In 1903 there were 1,428 positions (including presidential offices) with a salary of $2,500 or more.

Examinations of applicants for positions are held in every state and territory at least twice a year under the direction of the Chief Examiner of the Commission. Local boards of examiners have been selected from the government employés at each of the places where examinations were held; but since 1902 it has been the policy of the commission to consoli

date local boards in neighboring places and to establish civil service districts, conducting all the examinations in each district from a central point.

There are hundreds of different examinations for the great variety of positions; but these may be grouped into three principal classes. For a considerable proportion of positions, such as janitors, firemen, apprentices, messengers, watchmen and the like, the examinations simply cover physical qualifications and experience, with no educational test. And as this class of employés change very frequently, nearly half of the new appointments each year are to such positions. The largest class of positions are those of a clerical nature, where the examinations require a good common school education, and sometimes-for such places as stenographers, typewriters and bookkeepers-technical training of a simple kind. More than half of the new appointments are to such positions. The third group consists of professional, scientific and technical positions, requiring a high degree of specialized training. This includes patent examiners, engineers, law clerks, and experts in many other lines. Not more than a tenth of the positions in the classified service are in this group; and the new appointments are a much smaller proportion. Examinations for this class of positions cover the technical qualifications, training and experience, and for some of the highest posts the latter are the most important parts of the examination.

Eligible lists of candidates who have passed the examination for each kind of position are prepared, with disabled veterans ranking first, and others in the order of their grades on the examinations. Vacancies are filled by the selection of the appointing officer from the three persons standing highest on the appropriate register, subject to the rules for the geographical apportionment of appointments. When a name has been passed three times it is dropped from the eligible list. Appointments are made first for a probationary period of six months; and at the end of that time the probationer is either removed or receives a permanent appointment.

For a time the rules governing the entrance to the service were evaded by the system of transfers from one office to another. Before a particular class of positions was brought under the competitive system, many political appointments would be made, in excess of the number of employés required. After the places were brought under the competitive rules, the additional appointees would be transferred to other competitive positions. Under the present rules, however, transfers are carefully regulated.

Promotions are now governed by regulations for each branch of the civil service. These regulations provide for further examinations; but also consider the records of efficiency of the candidates, and in some cases seniority of service is given weight.

In the earliest rules the only restriction in removals was a vague provision that they should not be made for political or religious opinions; and no method was provided for enforcing this. President McKinley in 1897 established a rule that no removals should be made from the competitive service except for just cause and for reasons stated in writing, with notice given before removal. President Roosevelt supplemented this in 1902 with an explanatory statement that "just cause" meant any cause not merely political or religious, which will promote the efficiency of the service; and that employés were not guaranteed a trial before removal.

With the new system of appointments, which removes the incentive to removals for the purpose of creating a vacancy for a patronage appointment, there has been a great reduction in the number of removals. Complete records are not available; but in the railway mail service, where the removals almost equalled the whole number of employés between 1885 and 1889, there have been only two per cent. a year since the service has been made competitive.

48. RECENT PROGRESS IN THE MERIT SYSTEM.

The following extract is taken from the Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Civil Service Commission:

On June 30, 1908, the officers and employés of the executive civil service numbered approximately 352,000. Of this number 206,637 are subject to competitive examination under the civil service rules, this being an increase of 12,305 as compared with the number for the previous year. In addition to these classified employés there are about 6,500 laborers subject to examination by the Commission under the labor regulations. There are also 298 positions in the consular service subject to examination under regulations prescribed by the President. Of the 138,500 persons not subject to examination, 8,706 are presidential appointees, 6,846 of whom are postmasters of the first, second, and third classes; 54,312 are fourth-class postmasters; 12,500 are clerks at postoffices having no free-delivery service; 24,192 are minor employés, chiefly laborers on the Isthmian Canal work, and 31,500 are mere unskilled laborers in field services in the United States.

Abuses arising from partisan activity of office holders and political assessments continue to diminish. Very much has been gained in the restriction of such abuses during the year, even in the midst of the presidential campaign. The civilservice act declares that no person in the public service is for that reason under any obligations to contribute to any political fund or to render any political service, and every such person is forbidden to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body. The rules, in affirming these provisions, forbid persons in the service from using their official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with an election or affecting the result thereof, and prohibit discrimination by any person in the service in favor of an applicant, eligible, or employé because of his political opinions. Under the orders issued by several of the Presidents, aiming at the correction

of abuses arising from other forms of political activity, enforcement of the rules was left to the heads of departments until June 15, 1907, when Rule I, section 1, was amended by adding the following prohibition, which gave the Commission jurisdiction over the improper activity of employés in the competitive service:

Persons who by the provisions of these rules are in the competitive classified service, while retaining the right to vote as they please and to express privately their opinion on all political subjects, shall take no active part in political management or in political campaigns.

At the time this order was issued federal office holders had for so long taken an active part in politics that its universal and immediate enforcement was impossible. The Commission, however, on March 25, 1908, addressed a letter to the President which read in part as follows:

The Commission, in recommending punishments for violations of section 1 of civil-service Rule I, has heretofore been guided by the fact that the rule was only adopted in June, 1907; and that, while the President's instructions prohibiting political activity on the part of competitive classified employés have been public ever since 1902, yet in actual practice the effective and thorough-going enforcement of the President's instructions in this connection has only dated from the adoption of the rule in June last, which gave the Civil Service Commission the right to investigate and report on charges of improper political activity on the part of those in the competitive classified service. For this reason the Commission has heretofore been lenient in recommending punishments. But a sufficient time has now elapsed for us to assume that the civil service rules are understood throughout the service, and we believe therefore that the time has also come for a somewhat greater degree of severity in the penalty inflicted, at least in aggravated cases. We recommend, therefore, that the several departments be requested to publish to their employés in the competitive classified service, the fact that any man violating the provisions of the rule in question renders himself liable to punishment by removal. We desire that the subordinates in the several departments be acquainted with this recommendation so that in the event of any misconduct by them in future, the Commission may feel at liberty to recommend their removal.