Schoolmaster's test Schools and the merit system.. Soldiers and sailors.... Solicitation for office South Carolina, resolutions of Special departmental examinations, Appendix No. 2, Rule 7, page 80, and......... Time and place of holding examinations Views of committee of House of Representatives as to Commission. Waiting for appointments. Women in the service.... Page. 66 64-70 51 .16-20, 44 70, 126 13, 14 70 7,41 48 49 .8, 14, 15, 50 APPENDICES. Instructions to applicants, Appendix No. 5 Political assessment and bribery law of New York and Massachusetts, Appendix No. 8.... 101 124 Questions used, Appendix No. 7 .. 116 Statistical tables, Appendix No. 6.. 107 Views of governor of New York and South Carolina resolutions, Appendix 125 During the year covered by this report, from January 16, 1885, to January 16, 1886, the Civil Service Act has been found practical and effective for its purpose, and no need of further legislation on the subject has appeared. The act contains provisions for the extension of the rules, and the examinations for which it provides, to other parts of the executive civil service in the discretion of the President, without the need of further action by Congress, except such increase of salaries and of clerical force as the extension of the examinations might make necessary. The experience thus far gained seems to warrant such extension in that gradual manner which alone is wise in the enforcement of a new system concerning which lack of information has unfortunately allowed much suspicion and distrust. WORK OF THE LAST YEAR. Applicants have been examined within the year from every State of the Union and from every Territory except Utah. From three to six different examinations have been held in each of seventeen States. In all sections of the Union examinations have been conducted at points most convenient for applicants without controlling regard for State lines. The intrinsic difficulty of arranging for examinations at points over so vast a country, which should be satisfactory to all those desiring to attend them, was apparent from the first. The Commission is therefore well satisfied with that success, in this particular, which enables it to *It is entitled "An act to regulate and improve the Civil Service of the United States," approved January 16, 1883. The direct purpose of the act, so far as political assessments are concerned, was to protect those in the public service from demands of assessments made by other persons in that service. The eleventh section of the New York Act of May 24, 1884, and the Massachusetts Act on the same subject, wisely go further and prohibit such demands or requests from those in the public service being made by any persons whatever—a much more adequate safeguard against extortion. The section of the New York Act referred to is given in the Appendix No. 8. say that only in a very few instances have there been any complaints that the examinations have not been convenient for applicants. The whole number of persons examined under the Commission during the year covered by this report has been 7,602, of whom 6,872 were males and 730 were females. The whole number of examinations held within the year has been 150, all of which have been competitive except 5, and at these five examinations only 8 persons were examined.* If to those examined during said year the number examined during the periods covered by the first and second annual reports be added, the whole number thus far examined will be shown to be 17,491. Of the 7,602 examined during the past year, 5,034 attained the minimum of 65 per cent., which makes them eligible for appointment, and 2,568 failed to show that degree of proficiency, and consequently are ineligible for appointment. Of those examined, a trifle less than twothirds (66.22 per cent.) succeeded. The average age of all those examined was 30 years.‡ The education of those examined during the year covered by this report (exclusive of the 477 who took the SPECIAL examinations) was as follows: 6,053, only in the Public Schools, 758 in part in Colleges, and 327 in part in Business Colleges.§ * In addition to the examinations included above, there have been a considerable number of cases where persons residing in remote sections of the Union have been separately examined in Washington while temporarily there, but these are in no sense either special or non-competitive examinations. The questions are the same which would haye been used had the examination taken place in the respective States of the applicants' residence, and they go on the proper State register in conrpetition with all others examined from the same State. There have also been a very few persons, separately, examined (1) under Special Rule No. 1, to be found in the Appendix, (2) under clause 1 of Rule 21, (3) under Rule 22, for a transfer, and (4) under the last clause in Rule 19; each for the purpose of carrying those parts of the rules into effect. Of the five non-competitive examinations, one was made necessary by reason of a residence being required in a particular place, one by reason of a skilled botanist being suddenly required, one by reason of the need of promptly filling a post-office clerkship where very rare qualifications were essential, one by reason of peculiar capacity and attainments needed on the part of a private secretary, and the other by reason of the failure of competent persons to attend the competitive examination. There were, however, about 125 applicants who passed special examinations of a peculiar character, as to which the minimum grade for going on the register was fixed at 50. The facts shown under the head of “The Public Schools and the Merit System" make it quite clear that the older and the younger applicants have nearly equal chances of passing the examinations. In making up these statistics, academies have been counted as a part of the Public School system. It seems to be quite impossible to draw any clear line of distinction between high schools and academies as they are understood and referred to in the application paper in which the education of the applicant is stated by himself. In some sections there seem to be academies which are not in any strict sense a part of the Public School system-that is, of the system of education supported by public Of the 477 who passed the special examinations, the education was as follows: 220 only in the Public Schools, 247 in part in Colleges, and 10 in part in Business Colleges. If, from the 7,602 examined during the year, the 327 educated in business colleges (which are more like high schools than colleges) be deducted, it will be seen that of the residue over 86 per cent. were educated in the public schools only. If we count those educated in business colleges with the other applicants who had been in colleges, the ratio of those who have had only a public school education to all others will be found to be that of 82.6 per cent. of the former to 17.4 per cent. of the latter. APPOINTMENTS. The whole number of appointments made during the past year from those examined, each being for the probationary period of six months, has been 1,876. If to those we add 2,300, the number appointed from the examinations during the previous eighteen months (it being borne in mind that appointments from the examinations did not begin until July 16, 1883), it will be seen that 4,176 have been appointed in two years and a half from those examined under the Commission. This is between one-third and one fourth of the whole number of places to which the examinations extend, and indicates that those in office when the Civil Service Act took effect will be replaced by applicants examined under it in from eight to ten years. Every one of these examinations has been open to all alike, without regard to political or religious opinions. As required by Rule 8, no question and no action of the Commission has imposed any political or religious test or called for the disclosure of any political or religious opinion. No facts have come before the Commission which tend to show that within the year more adherents of one party than of the other have attended the examinations or secured appointments. No complaint has been made to the Commission by any person examined, or desiring to be examined, that any discrimination has been made on political or religious grounds, or that he has suffered any prejudice by reason of his affiliation with any church, party, or faction. The adherents of each of the great parties being nearly equal in number, it would seem to be a just inference that about 2,000 Republicans and about 2,000 Democrats have secured places in the public service under the Civil Service Act. The most significant evidence bearing upon such discrimination appears in the facts that 385 of the appointees to the Departmental servtaxation; but they are few, and the number of those who attend them is too small to materially affect the figures stated. On the other hand, every institution referred to by an applicant as a college has been counted as such, though it be in part or wholly, as is sometimes the fact, supported by public taxation. Every such applicant is counted among those having a college education, even though he had been only a single month in a college of any sort. ice, and generally selected, as the Commission believes, without knowl edge of their politics, have had their probation of six months expire in the past year, during which their political opinions might have become known; yet, in every case except eleven these probationers have been given permanent appointments. In one of these eleven cases the dis charged probationer has been restored. Out of 109 whose probationary terms expired during the last preceding year all but two were permanently appointed, and one of these two exceptions was a case of resignation. PARTS OF THE SERVICE WITHIN THE EXAMINATIONS. Before entering into details concerning the examinations, it will be convenient to have a clear view of the extent of their application. It hardly need be said that examinations are not applicable to any elective officer or to any laborer; and, without some special action by the Senate, they cannot be extended to any officer subject to its confirmation. In entering upon a new experiment in the Executive service, it was desirable to give it breadth enough to test its value in each of the three great branches of that service, that is, the Departmental serv ice at Washington, the Customs service, and the Postal service, without extending it beyond the possibility of efficient supervision and control by the Commission. If success should be achieved within such limits, it would be very easy to extend the new system under the ample provisions of the Civil Service Act to offices for which it is appropriate. These limits were secured by making the examinations in the outset extend to a little more than 14,000 places. These places were originally distributed as follows: 5,650 in the Departmental service at Washington; 2,573 in the Customs service; 5,690 in the Postal service. They are enumerated in Rule 5, to be found in the Appendix. This rule further provides that whenever a post-office or a customs office shall have as many as fifty officials, within the meaning of section 6 of the Civil Service Act, it shall become at once subject to the examinations without any action by the President; and under this provision the postoffices at Jersey City, New Haven, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis have become subject thereto since the adoption of the rules. Several other post-offices are likely to come under the examinations during the present year. The Department of Agriculture has been made subject to the examinations since the rules went into effect.. THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE. That part of the service just mentioned to which the examinations extend is designated the Classified service.* *The places mentioned in Rule 19, which are specially excepted from the examinations, are also within the Classified service, as they are within the general outline of both the classification and the examinations. Some misconception is liable to arise from the use of the word classification in a |