The Portland daily press., 1883-08-02
CIVIL SERVICE PR oBLEMS.
Questions Which the Commission Must
Soon Act Upon.

Questions Which the Commission Must
Soon Act Upon.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.-Now that appoint
ments under the civil service act are about to
be made, some talk is heard in the depart
ments about the failure of the law to direct
whether appointments should be made 10 the
lower grade, or whether they can be made to
fill any vacancy that may occur, whether in
the lower or higher grades. Under the old
civil service rules two groups Of clerks were
made and an examination required of all ap-
plicants to each grade. Under this arrange
ment, persons who applied for examination,
with the view Of being admitted to the nine
hundred-dollar class of clerkships, the inferior
group which was established especially to ac-
commodate women applying for admission to
the service, were obliged to undergo another
examination before they could be admitted to
the superior group, including clerks receiving
from 81 200 up. While Deither the new civil
service law nor the rules direct grouping of
clerkships, the Civil Service Commissioners
have indirectly, by providing two sorts of ex-
aminations some for applicants for nine hun
dred and one-thousand-dollar positio ps, and
ognized the convenience of the grouping pre-
scrihed under the old civil service rule. The
question is now being asked whether, if va
cancy should occur in an eighteen-hundred-
dollar position, the Secretary of the depart
ment in which the vacancy occurs ought TO
make requisition upon the Civil Service Com
missioners for a clerk or whether be NAV
promote a sufficient number of clerks already
employed, to make it necessary that the va
cancy to be filed shall be one of the lowest
MIA int fka disipi Inv -
asked, whether, II this plan of promotion is
adopted it must apply to per-
sons now holding nine hudred dollar po-
sitions without requiring such person to
undergo competitive examination before pass
ing from the lower to the higher group. The
friends of civil service reform here who have
talked about the matter say that in order to
test the value of the examinations made by the
commissioners, the acquisitions of department
officers should be made for clerks as soon as
vacancies occnr, and that some person
who has passed an examination be immediate
ly appointed to the vacant place. As for the
proposition to promote $500 clerks--they are
principally women, copyists and counters, who
secured employment without careful examina-
tion to ascertain their qualifications--without
requiring them to undergo new examination
to test their business capacity, that would be
regarded as not only an evasion of the spirit of
the civil service law, but serious injury to
the service. The female clerical force cannot
De bdlu 10 ue Hidue up On DuSluSSS principles.
1t is asserted by those who are in position 10
know that large proportion of them secured
their places because their husbands or sons or
fathers left them in destitute or difficult cir
cumstances and that they have been pro-
vided with places because it was believed that
they had some sort of claim upon the govern
ment to support them. In many instances
women have been employed who could scarce
ly write their names legiblv. who know moth
ing about figures, and who have manifested
little or no capacity for improvement. Yet
rule 10 of the civil service regulations says
that promotions may be made without ex-
animation in Offices in which examinations for
promotion are not now held until rules on the
subject shall be promulgated" This permits
the "pass" examination in vogue in the de-
partments to be continued, and opens the way
for the promotion, If the heads OF departments
desire it, of persons in the nine-hundred-dol-
lar positions to the twelve-hundred-dolla
places, and even to higher ones II there APP
pears TO be any urgent reason, personal or po-
litcal Why such promotions should be made.