that all positions in the newly created bureau, excepting that of Commissioner of Prohibition, shall be filled through examinations by the Civil Service Commission.

ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS

The first efforts of the commission were centered upon the examination and certification of applicants for the various administrative positions in the prohibition organization in order that when attention was later directed to the recruiting of eligibles for the lower grade positions the bureau might at that time be manned by a staff of administrative officers already serving under appointment by

examination.

Examinations were held accordingly for assistant commissioner, chief of field division, zone supervisor, prohibition administrator, assistant prohibition administrator (both enforcement and permissive), and deputy prohibition administrator throughout the United States. These examinations were of the unassembled type. Competitors were not required to submit to written tests but were rated primarily upon sworn statements respecting qualifications, training, and experience set forth in their formal applications and accepted subject to verification by the commission. The examinations also included an oral test and a thorough investigation of the character, qualifications, experience, record, and general fitness of each candidate, supplemented by reference to fingerprint and police records through cooperation with the Department of Justice.

The commission had previously made no extensive use of tests involving personal investigation of character and suitability, except in the examination of candidates for the position of presidential postmaster. The personnel situation in the prohibition service suggested the necessity of subjecting those candidates who met the prescribed entrance requirements, to a thorough investigation of their experience, character, and general fitness, in order that the commission might thus assure itself that all persons certified as suitable for responsible employment in the Bureau of Prohibition had demonstrated the required measure of ability and a conformity to acceptable standards of honesty and morality. The examination for administrative positions included an evaluation of past training and experience evidencing the possession of the required administrative ability; second, an appraisal, through personal interview, of the competitor's appearance, temperament, personality, and mental aptitude; and third, a personal investigation of each competitor's record for accomplishment and behavior.

The progress of the examining program was materially delayed by the failure of the Sixty-ninth Congress to pass the second deficiency bill, in which measure provision had been made to finance the cost

of this unusual undertaking, and it was not until December 22, 1927, that funds were appropriated.

In the interval examination announcements had been issued for all classes of positions, examinations for the administrative positions had been largely completed, and substantial progress had been made in the examination of applicants for the lower-grade positions. The investigation and oral examination of applicants for administrative positions were carried forward as rapidly as possible with the personnel available.

A new section charged with the handling of the marked volume of work associated with the prohibition examinations was established in the examining division. When the field work had been sufficiently advanced, a board of examiners was assembled to analyze the records in each case and to rate the qualifications of competitors. Certification of eligibles for administrative positions was begun on January 3, 1928.

In certain prohibition districts it was found necessary to reannounce the examinations for administrative positions for the reason that the first examinations failed to produce a sufficient number of qualified persons. Work could not be materially advanced on this second series of administrative examinations because the commission's forces were by this time concentrated upon the examination, investigation, and rating of competitors in the original series of examinations for the lower-grade positions. As soon as the field staff had completed the examinations for the lower-grade positions it was reduced and the remaining field staff was assigned to the examination of competitors under the second series of announcements for administrative positions. It is anticipated that before the close of 1928 the administrative staff of the Bureau of Prohibition will be largely, if not entirely, recruited according to the requirements of the act of March 3, 1927. It will, of course, be necessary to reannounce examinations in the future to fill vacancies on the administrative staff as they occur.

VALUE OF CHARACTER INVESTIGATION

The relation, on the one hand, of competence and integrity on the part of those in executive authority in the Bureau of Prohibition to a conscientious and effective enforcement of the eighteenth amendment, on the other hand, is immediately apparent. The commission has accordingly looked upon the selection of capable and dependable persons for appointment to administrative positions in the prohibition service as a problem of paramount importance. The work of examining into the qualifications and past record of candidates for these positions in particular has been exceedingly painstaking and thorough.

The commission's experience in this phase of personal selection has unmistakably demonstrated the pronounced merit of the character investigation. Notwithstanding its added cost and relative difficulty of administration, the instances brought to light of utter unfitness for Government service, which in the absence of careful investigation would have gone undisclosed, point to the desirability of an extension of this test procedure to appropriate positions in other branches of Federal employment. A study of the results of this recent experience warrants the commission in urgently recommending that there be extended to other law-enforcement agencies the system of investigations of character and fitness now followed for positions in the Bureau of Prohibition.

AGENT, INSPECTOR, AND INVESTIGATOR POSITIONS

The examinations for positions other than administrative presented a somewhat different problem. For these lower-grade positions executive experience was not an element requiring consideration. Moreover, it was deemed necessary to avoid any prerequisite of specialized experience in the examination plan because of the manifest intention of Congress that persons having no previous connection with the prohibition service should enjoy the same opportunities to qualify through competitive examination as were permitted to persons theretofore employed in the old Prohibition Unit.

Effort was made to develop an examination which, while possessing qualities of a practical nature, would be just and effective in the selection of suitable eligibles from the general field of competition and from the narrower group who had theretofore been identified with the prohibition service in one capacity or another. It was decided that the examination for agent, inspector, and investigator should consist of mental tests designed to disclose the necessary intelligence; second, an oral examination directed to appearance, personality, mental and temperamental aptitude; and third, an inquiry into character and general suitability.

For this undertaking it was found possible to give the examinations adequate publicity and to hold the written examinations on June 4, 1927. The written tests were not scholastic and were not directed to the competitors' education or knowledge of academic facts. On the contrary, the tests were merely designed to ascertain the necessary practical intelligence.

In brief, it may be stated that the written examination consisted of two parts. In one part of the examination competitors were required to prepare in writing brief narrative reports, such as might be expected from an employee actually on the job, based upon facts set forth in the examination paper and involving imaginary situations of a practical nature which might confront an appointee in the

actual performance of his duty. The remaining part of the examination consisted of a series of questions relating to matters having direct relation to prohibition enforcement and to the duties of employees engaged in that work. These written tests have since been given to the press.

As stated above, the written examinations were held and the papers rated prior to the passage of appropriations. When the commission had progressed to this stage in its consideration of applicants for the lower-grade positions it became necessary to await the action of Congress in order that funds might be available to care for the more expensive and time-consuming processes of oral examination and character investigation.

When funds were made available in the latter part of December, 1927, the commission recruited a field force of examiners which later varied in number between 40 and 50. This staff was supplemented by the assignment from each of the commission's 13 district offices of at least one qualified member. This field staff, especially assigned to prohibition examinations, was assembled in Washington, where each member received intensive training in the procedure to be followed in conducting the oral and character tests. Before the 1st of February, 1928, this force was in the field engaged in examinations for positions below the administrative grade. The completion of these examinations has been expedited in every possible way, and certificates of eligibles were issued to the Bureau of Prohibition about the middle of August, 1928.

ATTORNEY POSITIONS

Examinations for all grades on the legal staff of the Bureau of Prohibition were prepared, announced, and held with due regard to the practice relating to examinations for attorney positions in general throughout the classified service. Inasmuch as examinations for positions of this type have been held for other branches of the Government over a period of years, the commission was able to depend in some measure upon its experience. The previously developed practice was followed with the additional requirement of an investigation of character and general fitness.

The written tests for the several grades of attorneys consisted of series of legal questions graduated in scope and difficulty to accord with the relative grade and importance of the several positions, touching those branches of the law which are of especial significance in prohibition work. The rating of these written tests alone necessitated the creation of a board of six attorneys who were engaged in an examination of the very considerable number of applicants for four and a half months. Those competitors who passed the written tests, or, in the case of the examination for senior attorney, those

who were tentatively rated eligible on the basis of experience were given an oral test by a group of attorney examiners who were trained for this purpose and who traveled to interview candidates. Following the oral test this group of applicants was investigated by the field force engaged in the investigation of competitors for agent, inspector, and investigator positions, the two groups of competitors being joined for this purpose.

Reference to the following table shows widespread interest in the examinations for the legal staff. There is reason to believe that these examinations will furnish an ample supply of qualified eligibles.

OTHER POSITIONS

In addition to the positions already mentioned by title, there are other positions, either of lesser importance or of such nature as to require only a small number of appointees. Examples of these are senior prohibition investigator, field office inspector, associate field office inspector, warehouse watchman, pharmacist, etc. In each case a study was made of the duties and responsibilities of the position and an assembled or unassembled examination was provided. A uniform requirement was made for all positions that a thorough investigation of character, qualifications, and general fitness be made of each competitor. The consideration of competitors for this miscellaneous group of positions has proceeded in conjunction with other examinations and the commission established eligible registers for all positions below the administrative grade during August, 1928.

The personnel of the new prohibition organization has been to a limited extent recruited through the reinstatement and transfer of persons already having an examination status in the classified service. The commission has, however, even in these noncompetitive cases, felt it necessary to insist upon the requirement of an investigation of character and suitability.

MANY APPEALS

Because many competitors, including persons previously identified with the prohibition service, as well as persons having no such connection, were unsuccessful in the written examinations, and because the commission's confidential investigations in many instances showed the unfitness of competitors, there have been many appeals from the marking. The growth in number and complexity of the questions presented has made necessary the creation of boards of appeal. Where ineligibility has been founded upon unfitness for Government employment, as disclosed through character investigation, the applicants so eliminated have, upon their request, been informed of the nature of the unfavorable findings in order that they might proceed intelligently in the preparation of appeals.