tional institutions and also to the appropriate department heads, for the information of students and others. But the commission has felt the lack of personal contact and has had no means of effecting it through its own organization.

The advance referred to was an arrangement made with a number of the departments and independent establishments of the Government to have certain of their employees act as recruiting agents for the commission when visiting educational institutions in connection with their regular work for their respective offices. The commission made it clear that no travel was to be undertaken especially for this recruiting work and that no additional expense would be involved.

Approximately 200 Government employees, men and women, have been designated to assist the commission in recruiting. They are currently supplied with examination announcements and other printed matter and are given such instructions or suggestions as they appear to need. While the plan is new, the results have more than justified the effort.

A part of the plan is a series of annual examinations early in the year for most of the junior technical, professional, and scientific positions, in addition to such other examinations as may be necessary. There is a distinct advantage in being able to inform students that the examination in which they may be interested will be held at a definite time each year. Senior students are admitted to examinations but they can not begin work for the Government until they have been graduated.

VETERAN PREFERENCE

Important changes in the veteran preference regulations were made by an Executive order of March 2, 1929. This action was a result of long deliberation of an advisory committee appointed by the President on June 9, 1928, for the purpose of studying veteran preference laws and rules with a view to liberalizing the preferences allowed, the chief purpose of the study being to make more Government positions available to disabled veterans. The advisory committee consisted of Representative Hamilton Fish, jr., chairman; Brig. Gen. Frank T. Hines, director of the Veterans' Bureau; William C. Deming, president of the Civil Service Commission; and Col. John Thomas Taylor, representing the American Legion.

The effects of the Executive order are as follows:

(1) The addition of 10 points to the earned rating of a disabled veteran is continued, but under the new order the names of disabled veteran eligibles are certified ahead of veterans not disabled and nonveterans, regardless of their ratings.

(2) Widows of veterans, and wives of veterans who themselves are physically disqualified for Government employment, are allowed 10 points added to their earned ratings, instead of the 5 points formerly allowed. Wives and widows of veterans who are allowed the 10 points will also be certified ahead of veterans not disabled and nonveterans.

(3) A Government employee entitled to preference under the law and rules is given more liberal preference in retention in the service when reduction of force becomes necessary.

Other appointment preferences allowed under the former regulations are not affected by the order. These are as follows:

(a) The veteran is released from all age limitations.

(b) The veteran is released from the operation of the apportionment provision of the civil service act.

(c) The veteran is released from height and weight requirements, except in a few positions where rigid physical requirements are essential.

(d) The veteran who is not disabled has 5 points added to his earned rating and therefore need make only 65 per cent to gain a passing grade of 70.

(e) Under certain conditions, time spent in the World War is counted as training and experience where such elements are rated.

(f) If an appointing officer passes over the name of a veteran eligible and selects that of a nonveteran with the same or lower rating, the appointing officer must place in the records of the department his reasons for so doing.

(g) The commission is authorized to waive physical requirements in the case of disabled veterans.

(h) The veteran may have closed examinations reopened to him under certain conditions.

The practical results of the veteran preference regulations are indicated by the following figures:

During the three years ending June 30, 1929, 154,064 applicants entitled to preference entered examinations. Of these, 90,952 qualified for appointment and 30,733 were appointed.

From the passage of the veteran preference act of July 11, 1919, to June 30, 1929, 134,813 persons entitled to preference were appointed.

From the issuance of the Executive order of March 3, 1923, which first provided for a 10-point preference for disabled veterans, to June 30, 1929, 7,366 disabled veterans were appointed, 1,637 having been appointed in the last year. The change in the regulations made by the Executive order of March 2, 1929, will materially increase the number of disabled veterans appointed. The next annual

report of the commission will give the figure for a full year. It will be noted that on June 30, 1929, the order had been operative only four months. For this reason comparative figures showing the full effect of the change can not be given in this report.

Further evidence of the practical effect of veteran-preference regulations is the result of an interesting survey recently made by the commission. In this survey, junior engineer, junior chemist, junior architectural draftsman, messenger, skilled laborer, carpenter, editorial clerk, departmental guard, file clerk, typist, and stenographer registers were selected as representative of the more active employment lists. A tabulation of the veteran eligibles on these registers showed that 22 per cent of the 5-point veterans and 30 per cent of the disabled or 10-point veterans had won their places on the eligible list because of the addition of the 5 or 10 points to the earned rating. In the case of disabled veterans this is especially interesting in view of the Executive order of March 2, 1929, which requires that disabled veterans be certified for appointment ahead of all nonveterans and veterans not disabled.

TOTAL NUMBER OF PREFERENCE COMPETITORS, ELIGIBLES, AND APPOINTEES OF THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE, COMPARED WITH THE TOTAL NUMBER OF NONPREFERENCE COMPETITORS, ELIGIBLES, AND APPOINTEES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1929

An analysis of the chart on this page shows that during the year ending June 30, 1929, 238,009 persons entered examinations for the classified service, of whom 55,120, or slightly more than 23 per cent, were given preference. Of 44,817 appointments, 11,578, or nearly

26 per cent, were of preference eligibles, whereas little more than 23 per cent of all the applicants were in the preferred class. The number of preference eligibles appointed during the year is more than 20 per cent of all preference applicants, whereas the number of nonpreference appointees is slightly more than 18 per cent of the whole number of nonpreference applicants.

TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS

There has been some decrease in the total number of temporary appointments made during the past year as compared with the number made during the previous year. The decrease, which has been in the number of temporary appointments made pending the filling the vacancies permanently, was due, no doubt, to the increase in salary as provided by the Welch Act, which became effective July 1, 1928. Although this act applied only to persons in Washington, it carried with it a provision that the Personnel Classification Board make a survey of all field services and a number of the departments increased the salaries of their field employees to conform with those paid employees in Washington.

In carrying out the provisions of the so-called Welch Act, the Classification Board, in making a survey of the field positions, found it necessary to employ temporarily a number of persons designated as "field agents " to gather data on the compensation paid to persons in private employment. This information was desired for purposes of comparison with the rates paid to analogous positions in the field service of the Federal Government.

A large number of temporary appointments were made during the months of February, March, April, and May in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to meet the emergency in connection with the production of small notes. The bureau was authorized to appoint former employees, familiar with the work of the bureau, but whose eligibility for regular reinstatement had expired.

Due to the failure to secure sufficient eligibles for prohibition agent positions, the necessity continues for the Bureau of Prohibition making temporary appointments to such positions. The appointments have been limited, however, to those competitors in the last examination who have passed the written test and those in the service covered by the Executive order of December 21, 1928.

A large number of forest guards and fire fighters are employed intermittently during the summer months in the Indian field service. These men are needed to supplement the regular force during the fire season. Local men are employed in this capacity because of the impracticability of bringing employees from a distance for intermittent employment at daily rates of compensation.

The following table shows the distribution of temporary appointments during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, exclusive of those made under the district system. Very few of these appointments extended beyond six months. They constitute a trifling proportion of the whole number of appointments.

1 Includes Indian field service, in which service it is frequently necessary to make several temporary appointments to a position before it is filled permanently.

Includes forest guards in the Indian field service who are employed intermittently during the fire These are chiefly doctors and nurses in the Public Health Service and hospitals of the Veterans' Bureau.

season.

THE DISTRICT SYSTEM

The decentralization of the commission's operations through the adoption in 1904 of a system of field administration whereby the country was divided into 13 administrative units or districts, each in charge of a district secretary, is known as the district system. These decentralized operations are coordinated and supervised by the chief examiner of the commission, whose duties thus correspond to those of the general manager of a large corporation.