If allowed, it might result in the appointment of a person whose term of eligibility had expired, as in fact is the case with Mrs. B.; secondly, it might result in giving the State to which the appointee belonged more than its lawful quota of appointments, and such, we are informed, would be the result of Mrs. B.'s appointment at this time; and thirdly, it might result in the appoint ment of a person over the heads of others of higher standing on the same register, whose names had been added since the appointee's name had been certified, and who would have been certified to the appointing power if the Commissioners of the civil service had been applied to for the usual certificate. (20 Op. A. G., 64.) appointment. par. 4. pointment. (c) The person selected for appointment shall be duly Probationary notified by the appointing officer, and upon accepting and Act. sec. 2, cl. 2, reporting for duty shall receive from such officer a certificate of appointment for a probationary period of six months. If the conduct or capacity of the probationer be Absolute apnot satisfactory to the appointing officer the probationer shall be notified in writing that at the end of such probationary period he will not receive absolute appointment; otherwise his retention in the service shall be equivalent to his absolute appointment. A probationer separated from the service without delinquency or misconduct may be restored to the register of eligibles, in the discretion Restoration to of the Commission, for the remainder of his period of eligibility. The probation is a particular trial, ordinarily continued through six months, in the work which the appointee is to do. After examination and appointment it is to be presumed that the appointee is worthy of a trial. The conclusion should not be hastily reached that the probationer is incapable or inefficient; but it seems clear that when he has served sufficiently long to satisfy the appointing officer that he is inefficient or incapable, and that the public service would be materially improved by his removal, such removal may be made at any time during probation in accordance with the civil-service rules and the regulations of the department governing removals. The probationary period for postoffice clerks and carriers begins upon their promotion to the regular roll and not at the date of original appointment as substitutes. The period of probation is limited to six months and can not be extended. At its close the probationer must either be absolutely appointed or else dismissed. Where the probationer is so register. situated that a report concerning his conduct and capacity during probation can not be received in season, his absolute appointment or dismissal may be effected when such report is received. A name restored to the register after the separation of the person during probation will be certified only to departments and offices other than the one from which the person was separated. The fact that an employee is on furlough at the end of his six months' probationary period will not serve to ex tend it. The only questions to be considered by the proper officer before he decides to recommend a probationer for absolute appointment are those concerning his demonstrated character and fidelity, and the practical qualifications he has shown for performing the public work in a satisfactory manner. No examination, therefore, can be required as a condition precedent to absolute appointment. Irregularity in certification cured by absolute appointment.-An irregularity in the certification of the name of an eligible for appointment under the civil service is cured by the probational and absolute appointment of such a person. (21 Op. A. G., 289.) Appointment prior to classification absolute when first made.-A person appointed to a position not in the classified Apportionment, Act, sec. 2, cl. 2, par. 3. apportionment. service at the time of his appointment, but which was subsequently classified by the executive order of May 6, 1896, was retained in the service absolutely, and not subject to a probation of six months, and is entitled to all the rights and benefits of persons of the same class or grade under the civil-service act, and may be transferred. (21 Op. A. G., 534.) 2. Certification for appointment in the departments or independent offices at Washington shall be so made as to maintain, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, the apportionment of such appointments among the several States and Territories and the Exceptions from District of Columbia upon the basis of population: Provided, That appointments to the following-named positions shall not be so apportioned, viz: Plate printer, printer's assistant, skilled helper, and operative in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; positions in the field service of the military staff departments and at Army Headquarters, mail-bag repair shop and mail-lock repair shop, Government Printing Office, Pension Agency, and As amended Dec. local offices in the District of Columbia; apprentice, student, gardener, engraver, carpenter, cabinetmaker, painter, plumber, plumber's helper, electric wireman, electric lineman, electrician's helper, and messenger boy. 19, 1905, and Sept. 18, 1909. Validity of appointment contrary to apportionment. While it is the undoubted duty of the executive branch to give effect to the requirement of Congress for an apportionment, it is a very different thing to say that an appointment made in disregard of this rule of apportionment, through a mere inadvertence, is to fail entirely and be treated as a nullity. Congress did not intend that where everything was done in good faith an inadvertent disregard of the rule of apportionment in making an appointment should annul that appointment. The statute is directory only in the above particular. (20 Op. A. G., 274.) districts. No change will be made in the apportionment as a result of a change of legal residence after appointment. An eligible who has been allowed preference under section 1754, R. S., will be certified without regard to the apportionment. Reinstatements to apportioned positions are charged to the States in which the persons reinstated prove legal residence at the time of reinstatement, regardless of their legal residence at the time of their separation from the service. Certification by 3. The commission may arrange the territory of the United States into appropriate districts for the purpose of certification to positions in parts of the service not subject to the apportionment, and certification to any such position may be confined to residents of the district in which such position is located. RULE VIII.-TEMPORARY APPOINTMENT. 1. Temporary appointment without examination and Appointment pending regular certification by the Commission shall not be made to a filling of vacancy. competitive position in any case except when the public interest so requires, and then only upon the prior authorization of the Commission; and any appointment so authorized shall continue only for such period as may be necessary to make appointment through certification of eligibles, and in no case without prior approval of the Commission shall extend beyond thirty days from receipt by the appointing officer of the Commission's certificate; and when a vacancy is to be filled by promotion or transfer for which the Commission's certificate is not required and a temporary appointment is authorized by the Commission under the provisions of this section pending the promotion or transfer, such temporary appointment shall in no case continue beyond the period of thirty days, without prior approval of the Commission. In positions outside of Washington which are not under the district system and which are not provided for by special regulations, general authority to constistute the prior authorization of the Commission is given for making appointments under the terms of section 1 for periods not to exceed thirty days, and in the Forest and Indian services for an extension for a similar period of thirty days. The prior authority of the Commission is required for any extensions beyond those here enumerated. All such appointments and extensions must be reported by letter when made. In positions in the departments in Washington, appointments under section 1 can only be made with the prior consent of the Commission and from the Commission's eligible lists when there are eligibles available for temporary service, and in case there are no eligibles the Commission may require the person proposed for temporary appointment to pass an appropriate examination prior to the authorization of his appointment. The passing of such examination shall not, however, give such person a status in the classified service, but shall be regarded simply as a test of fitness for the position to be temporarily filled. Such examination shall be made special, with a view to an immediate determination of eligibility. 2. When there are no eligibles upon a register for any Anding register, grade in which a vacancy exists and the public interest when there are no requires that it be filled before eligibles can be provided by the Commission, then the Commission may authorize temporary appointment without examination. Such appointment shall continue only for such period as may be necessary to make appointment through certification and in no case without prior approval of the Commission shall extend beyond thirty days from the receipt by the Services for which special regulations have been adopted are governed by those regulations. Appointment eligibles. appointing officer of the Commission's certification of eligibles. Temporary appointments pending the establishment of a register when there are no eligibles available for certification for filling a vacancy outside of Washington, D. C., in services not under the district system and not covered by special regulations, may be approved in each case on condition that the person so appointed enter the examination when an Appointment from registers of bles, pending full certification. nounced and that each such appointment be promptly reported to the Commission as made. When the position is in Washington, the prior consent of the Commission must be obtained for a temporary appointment and the person temporarily appointed must enter the examination. 3. When there is at least one eligible and not more one or two eligi- than two eligibles on a register for any grade in which a vacancy exists, the Commission shall, upon requisition from the proper appointing officer, certify the name of the one eligible or the names of the two eligibles, which shall be considered by the appointing officer with a view to probational appointment; and if the appointing officer shall elect not to make probational appointment from such certificate of less than three names, then if temporary appointment is required it shall be made from such certificate unless reasons satisfactory to the Commission are given why such appointment should not be made. Such temporary appointment may continue until three eligibles are provided. If selection is not made from the certificate for either probational or temporary appointment under the provisions of this section, then temporary appointment, if required, may be made under the provisions of section 2 of this rule. Job employment. 4. When there is work of a temporary character, at the completion of which the services of an additional employee will not be required, a temporary appointment may be made with the prior consent of the Commission for a period not to exceed three months, and may with like consent of the Commission be extended for a further period of three months. Such temporary appointment shall be made through certification from the Commission's eligible registers unless the Commission shall decide in any case that there are no available eligibles. Such temporary appointment shall not extend beyond six months unless there are no eligibles available for the additional period or under unusual circumstances which seem to the Commission to justify an extension beyond six months; and in no case shall such temporary appointment extend beyond six months for any purpose other than to complete the job of work for which the person was originally employed. The Commission may restrict certification for temporary appointment to such eligibles as by reason of residence or other conditions are immediately available. The procedure in making temporary job appointments under section 4 is not varied in any way by the amendment to the rules from the procedure in vogue under section 3 of the rule prior to its amendment on January 27, 1908. For every appointment made under this paragraph of the rule, prior authority of the Commission must be obtained except in those cases where general authority is granted by the regulations. In positions in the departments at Washington the Commission will certify eligibles for a temporary appointment whenever they are available. In all outside services or offices for positions for which registers are not maintained by local boards, but for which certification is issued directly from the Commission, where a special work or job will be completed in thirty days or less, general authority to constitute the prior consent of the Commission is given for temporary appointment, but such appointments must be reported by letter to the Commission when made. All temporary job appointments for more than one month outside of Washington can only be made by prior approval of the Commission unless general authority has been given by regulations. General authority is given for the extension beyond three months for an additional period not to exceed three months of all original appointments made through certification from the Commission's register or authorized by the Commission for three months in the absence of eligibles, for service outside of Washington, D. C.; but all such extensions beyond three months shall be reported to the Commission by letter when made, and in no case shall any such appointment extend beyond a period of six months unless prior consent of the Commission is secured. Three months' appointments made under section 4 of Rule VIII in Washington, D. C., may be extended for an additional period of three months only by the consent of the Commission previously given in each case. Temporary employment without certification.-Under sections 2621 and 2630 of the Revised Statutes, which authorize a collector of customs, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, to employ deputies and inspectors, a collector can not be allowed credit for amounts paid as salary to a person temporarily employed as an inspector after the period of ninety days for which the employment is authorized by the Secretary. Such employment for more than ninety days, without examination and certification by the Civil Service Commission, is in violation of the civil-service rules, which have the force of law. (3 Dec. of Compt. Treas., 294.) eligibility for appointment. 5. The acceptance of an eligible of a temporary ap-appointment pointment shall not affect his standing on any register does not affect for permanent employment, and experience gained as a permanent temporary appointee shall in no way vary the order of certification for permanent appointment. A temporary appointment may be made permanent when the temporary appointee is within reach for permanent appointment at the time of his temporary appointment or in case he is so within reach during his temporary service. In such case the probational appointment may date from the time when he became within reach for probational |