1 These were transfers and promotions requiring certificate of the commission under the rules. 2 In addition, and upon appropriate official request, the commission examined 1,169 applicants for admission to the District of Columbia service, the Military and Naval Academies, and the Diplomatic and Consular services.

TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS.

An increase of 3,936 temporary appointments to competitive classified positions in the entire service occurred during the year. In Washington, however, there was a decrease of 192, about 12 per cent. In the Railway Mail Service there was an increase of 2,896 over the previous year, in the Rural Carrier Service an increase of 629, and in the Ordnance Department at large an increase of 1,704. Increases in the number of temporary appointments in the Railway Mail and Rural Carrier services were due to extensive additions to the service and to the inability of the commission to furnish eligibles promptly, owing to its inadequate force. Increased activities at the various ordnance establishments necessitated a considerable number of temporary appointments, the majority of which continued only for very brief periods. The Public Health Service undertook several extensive investigations into insanitary conditions, and these necessitated an unusually large number of temporary employees, the work not being permanent. A decrease of 1,441, or about 15 per cent, in temporary appointments in the Post Office Department, partly offset these increases in other departments.

Nearly all of the temporary appointments in Washington were made by selection from the commission's registers of eligibles for temporary employment. Outside of Washington the great majority of these appointments were of persons who had not yet passed an examination, but the duration of such appointments was very brief as a rule, continuing only until eligibles were provided. Because of the local system of examination which applies in most of the field services, eligibles can be secured in a relatively short time. Compara

tively few appointments have continued beyond six months, and these only under unusual circumstances to complete the job of work for which the persons were originally appointed.

LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE.

Legislation affecting the classified service has been confined during the year to provisions in appropriation acts and in the tariff and currency acts respecting the method of appointing employees.

Under the tariff act of October 3, 1913, appointments of agents, inspectors, deputy collectors, and other employees, not including the clerical force in Washington below the grade of chief of division, employed in the assessment and collection of the income tax, are allowed to be made without reference to the civil-service act and rules "under such rules and regulations as may be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury to insure faithful and competent service." In the deficiency appropriation act approved October 22, 1913, collectors of internal revenue and marshals are allowed to appoint bonded deputies without regard to the civil-service act and rules.

Under the currency act of December 23, 1913, the Federal Reserve Board may employ "such attorneys, experts, assistants, clerks, or other employees as is necessary to conduct the business of the board without reference to the civil-service act and regulations," but provided that “nothing herein shall prevent the President from placing said employees in the classified service."

THE DISTRICT SYSTEM.

In the development of the district system it has been the effort of the commission, through its representatives in the field, to secure a more intimate knowledge of the service and by personal contact with appointing officers and employees to bring about a larger measure of cooperation in the application of the competitive system. It is the duty of the district secretary to keep in close touch with conditions in the various offices in his district and to study the needs of the service with respect to personnel in order that the commission may be enabled better to meet those needs. He is expected to be acquainted with the members of the various local boards and, as far as possible, with the personnel of the service in general. He is expected also to familiarize himself with the methods of doing Government business in the offices within his district as well as the conditions of employment outside the Government service so far as they may be comparable with and may affect the personnel of the

service.

As personal representatives of the commission a large degree of responsibility rests upon the district secretaries. They must estab

lish cordial relations with appointing officers and secure their cooperation. Through the reports of the district secretaries the commission is better able to understand the nature of the problems confronting field services and to apply the principles of the competitive system more efficiently to peculiar local conditions and requirements. The problems vary radically in different sections and in different branches of the service, and it is essential that the commission should approach them from an intimate knowledge and a sympathetic point of view.

Some of the field branches are governed by regulations fixing the method of appointment and promotion. These regulations are a constant subject of study and development by the district secretaries and the commission. During the year important amendments were made to the regulations for several of these branches of the service, and a complete revision of the regulations for the Ordnance Department at Large was adopted. These bodies of regulations, while having common principles, are especially adapted to the local needs of the particular branches of the service affected. They are, however, coordinate with the district system and under the supervision of the district secretaries, who are charged with securing uniformity and justice in their operation.

THE POSTAL SERVICE.

Since the establishment of the competitive system the number of positions in the Postal Service subject to competition has tremendously increased. In 1883 only the 23 post offices having 50 or more employees were classified, the total number of employees affected being 5,699. Of the 298,456 positions in the Post Office Department and the Postal Service on June 30, 1914, 189,788 were competitive.

In view of the magnitude of the Postal Service the menace to good administration and efficiency, if used as a partisan instrument, is manifest. The Postmaster General, in his last annual report, said:

The prime consideration in perfecting the personnel of the Postal Service shall be to recognize efficiency and to eliminate partisanship. It is the earnest hope that ultimately all positions will be covered under the classified civil service and that merit and faithfulness will be the sole consideration in making appointments as well as promotions.

The most careful examination has been made of the fitness of all applicants for postmasterships, and appointments have not been made until the department was convinced of the integrity of the appointees selected and of their capacity for efficient service.

It is hoped that by thus maintaining a high standard of efficiency for postmasters and keeping paramount the interest of the Postal Service in making appointments that the way will be made clear for the eventual classification of all presidential postmasters.

The post-office system is essentially a business institution. It touches every home, comes in contact with every commercial institution and with those engaged in every line of industrial enterprise throughout the country, and in the nature of things it is highly important that only the most efficient employees should be in its service. For this reason the merit system should be adhered to in the Post Office Department above all others in order to secure the very highest standard of efficiency in the conduct of its affairs.

FOURTH-CLASS POSTMASTERS.

Under an order issued by President Wilson May 7, 1913, the commission was required to hold competitive examinations for the position of postmaster at about 21,000 fourth-class offices where the compensation is $180 a year or more and where the incumbent was not appointed as a result of competitive examination or under the regulations of 1909 or 1912.1

It is believed that as a result of these examinations a superior grade of postmasters has been secured and the efficiency of the service promoted.

RURAL CARRIER SERVICE.

During the year covered by this report no changes have been made in the regulations governing certification and appointment to this branch of the service. Criticism has, however, been made of the certification of eligibles residing outside of the local territory. The first regulations, adopted in 1902, provided for selection of carriers by rural agents of the department and for a very simple examination given by such agents. Owing to frequent charges that the selections made by the agents were controlled by political considerations the regulations were changed in 1904, with the approval of the President, to provide for the conduct of the examinations by the commission. These regulations provided for a separate eligible register for each post office from which a route started, and certification was confined to the one eligible having the highest rating, instead of three as at present, except that preference was given to bonded substitutes. This plan gave the Post Office Department no choice among eligibles where a new route was established, and the preference to substitute enabled the carrier practically to dictate his

successor.

An amendment to the regulations in 1911 provided for the certification of three eligibles instead of one and abolished the preference for substitutes. Additional safeguards were also adopted to exclude political considerations in appointments. The examination

1 The last of these examinations were held in August, 1914, but the rating of the papers of applicants and certifications for appointment will not be completed until about December 15. In offices for which less than three eligibles were obtained and no selection for appointment was made it may be necessary to repeat the examinations. At these offices the commission has for the time being authorized the continuance of the incumbent without giving him a classified status.

was made the same as that for clerks and letter carriers in classified post offices in order to raise the standard of appointees and to facilitate transfers between these classes of positions. The amendment also provided for certification of the highest local eligible and the two highest eligibles from territory served by the post offices in the county. In the opinion of the commission the administration of the regulations as amended has shown the soundness and wisdom of the changes made.

WORK OF THE EFFICIENCY DIVISION.

Under the acts of August 23, 1912, and March 4, 1913, the duty was laid upon the commission of instituting systems of efficiency ratings for the personnel of the service and also of investigating and reporting to the President, with its recommendations as to administrative needs of the service relating to personnel.

An efficiency division was accordingly organized, and the work has been vigorously carried on during the year. At the outset it became clear that any system of efficiency ratings for the personnel of a given office would be of little value if subsequent investigation of the administrative methods of the office disclosed the advisability of changing those methods. An efficiency rating of the personnel based upon the employees' relative efficiency under the old methods would not in all probability show their relative efficiency under the new. Moreover, time must be given the employees, after the new methods have been introduced, to become adjusted to the changed condition before any system of efficiency ratings can fairly be applied to them. Any attempt to devise systems of efficiency ratings for the personnel of the service was therefore postponed for the time being and the attention of the commission's experts was directed to the problem of the administrative needs of the service. Gratifying progress has been made in this line of investigation, resulting in large and permanent savings to the Government. The fact should be emphasized that any change in methods of administration which reduces expenditures is a continuing benefit, the results accumulating as the years go on.

In conjunction with certain of the departments a study has been made of departmental methods with the objects of eliminating useless red tape and duplication of work, simplifying methods wherever possible, and introducing labor-saving machines and devices.

Progress in the adoption of new methods is necessarily slow. It is often difficult to overcome aversion to radical changes in system. Some of the changes are necessarily experimental and take much time and labor to insure the nearest approach to the desired results. The information and experience thus scientifically and systematically acquired are, however, of great value and are available for all offices