opportunity for the examination of unclassified laborers in the division of statistics and to restrict competition to competitors who had actual experience in statistical work in Government employ. Second. That unclassified laborers of the division of statistics had a decided and unfair advantage in the examination as a result of their assignments of work. Third. That employees of the division of statistics were improperly and unfairly assisted in their preparation for the examination by disclosures made by Mrs. Bertha Burch, stenographer to the statistician, who, in pursuance of her work, copied the examination questions and had them in her custody, the statistician having instructed her to give all the help in the examination she legitimately could. The examination was therefore canceled, and no subsequent examination under this designation has since been held. THE CIVIL SERVICE IN PORTO RICO. In the civil service of Porto Rico there are three classes of positions, namely, insular, municipal, and Federal. The insular government, which controls the insular and municipal positions, was created by an act of Congress approved on April 12, 1900, providing revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico. This act is, in its effect, the organic law of the island, bearing substantially the same relation to the governmental system and jurisprudence of the island as the Constitution of the United States bears to our Union. The insular positions are, in the main, those which pertain to the several departments of the insular government, such as the positions connected with the offices of the insular secretary, the attorney-general, the treasurer, auditor, commissioner of the interior, and commissioner of education, who, with five native members, compose the "executive council," which constitutes the upper house of the legislative assembly and which assists the governor in the performance of his executive duties. The municipal positions are similar to those found in the corporate towns and cities of the United States, such as those of policemen, firemen, hospital and jail attendants, and persons engaged upon city improvements. The persons employed in the insular and municipal positions are paid out of the revenues of the island. Up to the present time such employees and positions have not been placed under a competitive civil-service system. While the commission that was appointed to compile and revise the laws, codes of procedure, and systems of municipal government of Porto Rico was in session, Dr. Rowe, a member of said commission, prepared and submitted a civil-service bill. Messrs. Lopez and Keedy, forming a majority of the commission, were of the opinion that it would be better to postpone the operation of such a law until the administrative system of the island was fully organized. It was submitted as a minority recommendation, but the legislative assembly agreed with the majority of the commission that the government service was not sufficiently organized to justify the application of the civil-service system. The Federal positions, i. e., those belonging to the executive civil service of the United States, the occupants of which are paid out of the United States Treasury, are classified under the civil-service act of 1883 and are subject to its provisions and the civil-service rules. These positions are, in the main, those attached to the island post-offices having free delivery, the custom-house, post-office inspection, railway mail, light-house, marine hospital, and weather-bureau services, the experiment station of the Department of Agriculture, the San Juan naval station, and several field branches of the War Department. It is only with these Federal positions that the Commission at present deals. Their number is approximately 301, of which 152 are subject to competitive examinations which include scholastic tests; 81 are trades positions subject to competitive registration tests; 15 are excepted from the require ment of competitive examination by Civil-Service Rule VI; 5 are excluded in part from the operation of the civil-service rules by section 8 of Rule III, and 48 are unclassified. The following table shows these positions by branches of the service and divisional offices: During the first three years of the American occupation of the island no steps were taken by the Commission toward applying a civil-service system to these Federal positions. This was principally due to the important questions that arose respecting the rights of the natives to United States citizenship, and to the inadequacy of the Commission's appropriation for traveling expenses. On March 1, 1902, Dr. George W. Leadley, the chief of the service record division, proceeded to San Juan under instructions from the Commission to visit the headquarters of all services belonging to the Federal Government and procure service records of the employees, to obtain sufficient data to enable the Commission to properly fix the status, with regard to classification under the civil-service act, of such Federal employees as were in the service under appropriations made for civil duty, to organize and instruct such local boards of civil-service examiners as the needs of the service seemed to require, and to supervise the holding of such examinations as the Commission might order. The preceding table, showing the status of the positions by services and offices, is based upon data obtained by Dr. Leadley in the prosecution of the duties to which he was assigned. Now that the status of all of the positions has been fixed and a knowledge of the requirements of each position and the general needs of the service obtained, the Commission is prepared to apply the civil-service system to the Federal service on the island, following the same general principles that obtain with similar positions in the United States. Following the recommendation made by its representative, the Commission has organized a board of civil-service examiners, with headquarters at San Juan and with auxiliary membership at Ponce and Mayaguez. The central board at San Juan is composed of 7 Federal employees, each of whom was selected because of some particular qualification, fitness, or equipment which rendered appointment on the board desirable. With one or two exceptions, all of the regular and auxiliary members are conversant with both English and Spanish. The president of this organized body is a native Porto Rican. The personnel of this board and its ability to perform the civil-service work will, with perhaps three or four exceptions, compare favorably with any similar body in the United States. Two hundred and twenty-seven persons, the majority of whom were Porto Ricans, responded to the Commission's invitation to take the civil-service examinations. The applicants represented all types of citizenship, although the humbler classes, many of whom came barefooted when they appeared for the preliminary blanks, predominated. Probably not more than 1 out of 25 who took out these forms and received the pamphlets of instruction actually filed the papers and appeared for examination. In the main, those who presented themselves for the examination were an orderly, well-behaved, and intelligent set of young men, who apparently belonged to the middle classes. They appeared to experience but little difficulty in comprehending the instructions and in answering the questions according to established form and customary usage. The blank forms of application and pamphlets of instruction were printed in both English and Spanish, and the examinations, with the exception of those given for filling professional and scientific positions in the United States, were given in both languages. The applicants were allowed to compete for positions in the Federal service of the island and the executive civil service of the United States. One noticeable feature in connection with the holding of these examinations, and, in fact, with all of the civil-service work, was the entire confidence of the competitors and citizens in the absolute honesty of the examinations and the good faith of the Commission. It seemed to be accepted as a fact that the rules and regulations would be lived up to and that political considerations would be excluded. The greatest surprise furnished in connection with the introduction of the civilservice system on the island was the appearance in the examination at Ponce of five Porto Rican señoritas as competitors for positions in the post-office service. Probably no one in Porto Rico, even in moments of idlest fancy, had conceived the idea that native women would aspire to positions in the public service. The following table shows the result of the initial series of examinations: It will be seen from this table that in the examinations for the Departmental and Government Printing services those who took the examinations in English excelled the native Porto Ricans, who took them in Spanish, 64.4 per cent of the former passing the examinations, as against 42.9 per cent of the latter. For the Custom-House service, however, the Porto Ricans surpassed those taking examinations in English, the percentage of successful competitors being 70.4 as against 56.3 per cent. In the Post-Office service also the Porto Ricans excelled, the percentage being 65.2 as against 55.5 per cent. In the trades positions over 93 per cent of the competitors passed. The result presents a highly satisfactory showing for the Porto Ricans, and may well be a source of much gratification to them. Within two months after the papers of this examination were graded quite a number of persons who passed had received appointments, some in the Federal service on the island and others in the Departmental and Government Printing services at Washington. Future examinations, except those given for scientific and professional positions in the executive service of the United States, may be taken in either English or Spanish, at the option of the competitor. The feature of the service which Dr. Leadley found least promising, and indeed deplorable, was the utter lack of ambition on the part of some of the native Porto Rican officials, formerly employed under the Spanish régime, and now continued in the service, toward familiarizing themselves with the language and practices of the Government which they now represent, in spite of the palpable gain to the service and to themselves which such familiarity would bring. In both the Post-Office and Custom-House services there were found persons who, after four years' service as officers of the United States, have made no attempt to learn the English language, or in other ways to equip themselves for rendering better service to the new Government. A comparison of the examination papers of the Porto Ricans now in the service with those outside of the service shows that it is the latter class that aspires to the higher ideals of American citizenship. EXAMINATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY. In June, 1901, at the instance of the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, the Navy Department requested the Commission to arrange for holding examinations for admission to the Academy at Washington and various other points convenient to candidates throughout the United States. In compliance with this request the Commission held the first examination of this kind in August, 1901, and a second examination in April, 1902. The regulations of the Navy Department, in which the Commission has concurred, provide that examinations for admission to the Naval Academy shall be held in April, August, and September of each year, the April and August examinations being held at various points throughout the United States and the September examination at Washington only. The questions are furnished and the papers rated by the academic board of the Naval Academy, the Commission simply placing at the disposal of the Department its local boards of examiners and other portions of its organized system for holding examinations. THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM IN STATES AND CITIES. In the Fifteenth Report (pp. 489-502). some account is given of the growth of civil-service reform in States and cities. As supplementary thereto, Mr. Henry G. Chapman, assistant secretary of the National Civil Service Reform League, has compiled the following information as to the progress of the reform in several States: CALIFORNIA. “ Los Angeles.-The citizens of Los Angeles have started a movement for the revision of the charter of that city, which is to include provisions for the introduction of the competitive system. San Francisco.-Important civil-service provisions were introduced into the charter of San Francisco, which was adopted in 1900. The mayor of the city, Mr. Phelan, appointed a commission friendly to the act, with the late Mr. J. Richard Freud, as chairman. Suits were immediately begun to test the constitutionality of the civil-service law. The boundaries of the city and county are coterminous, and the charter provided that the rules should apply to the city and county offices alike. The point, however, was made that under the constitution they could not be applied to the latter, and it was finally so decided. About five a See also p. 499, Fifteenth Report. county departments. with pay rolls of 1,000 employees, were taken out from under the operation of the law. The present situation in San Francisco shows a decided improvement over the conditions of last year, and the police and the civil-service commissioners are working in unison under the law. CONNECTICUT. « New Haven.-The act under which the competitive system was introduced in the city of New Haven went into effect in January, 1898, with a civil-service board composed of the superintendents of the police and fire departments and three citizens appointed by the mayor, serving without pay, and not more than two being members of the same political party. The board adopted rules providing for competitive entrance examinatiosn and competitive examinations for promotion in the police and fire departments. But certifications for appointment to all classified positions, except that of laborer, were made of all the eligibles on a given register, and the appointing officer was not limited as to his choice. It is unlawful for the controller of the city to make payments of salaries to persons not appointed in accordance with the civil-service rules. The report for the year ended December, 1901, shows that the board held 16 meetings, at which it received and took action on 175 applications in the classified service. One hundred and fifty-five of these applicants passed the examination with a record of 70 per cent or over; 18 of the applicants failed to receive that percentage; 15 were rejected on account of physical disqualification. In the labor service there were 220 applications, making a total of 395 applications of all classes received during the year. ILLINOIS. Chicago. The civil-service law which was adopted by the legislature of Illinois in 1895 applied to those cities which should adopt it, and it was adopted by the cities of Chicago and Evanston. The act was tested in the State courts, which decided in favor of the application of the rules to the department of education and the police. In Chicago many attempts were made to cripple the merit system. In 1899 the party in power specifically declared against it and lost the election. Within six months it changed its attitude and the enforcement of the law was placed in the hands of a friendly commission. The constitutionality and popularity of the system were established. In 1900 the commission was reorganized by the appointment of Col. John W. Ela, at one time president of the local civil-service reform association. The civil-service law of Chicago is one of the strictest that exists. The civilservice board is empowered to administer oaths and summon witnesses and to make investigations, and all trials which involve the dismissal of employees are held before the board. In this respect the powers of the Chicago commission are practically unique. Much of the time of the commission, it is true, is taken up by these trials, and many cases have been taken to court by dismissed employees who have been dissatisfied with the results, but the courts have so far sustained the commission in a very large majority of the cases that have been decided. They have held that the facts can not be reviewed by the court in mandamus or certiorari; they have sustained the right of the commission to cancel examinations after investigation and before posting the list, and they have denied injunctions restraining the operations of the commission's orders removing persons as a result of trials held by them. Another important feature of the law is that the commission has no power to a See also p. 499, Fifteenth Report. |