The Portland daily press., 1883-08-08
THE CIVIL SERVICE LAW.
Candidates Soon to be Reformed of Their
gtnndiub


WASHINGTON, August 7.--Tomorrow the
Civil Service Commission will inform candi-
date for departmental clerkships throughout
the country of their standing, and will inform
heads of departments that they are now ready
to certify candidates on reqGisitons to Oil va
cancies There were 800 applications for de-
partmental places, all of whose papers have
now been examined and their absolute and
relative standing determined. Each candidate
will be informed respecting his absolute stand
ing only, and the relative position of each on
the list will not be published. The commits
sion choose this policy in order to protect the
department officers from pressure, for those
who stood high on the list would be apt to do
what they could to find and even force vacan-
cies by personal solicitation and the assistance
OF influential friends. As 1t is now, candi-
dates Will be held somewhat In suspense,
though they will be able to surmise about
whore they stand when the appointments be-
gin to be made by noticing the marks of those
who receive them. Chief Examiner Lyman,
who had charge of the papers. says that the
larger number of applicants passed above the
minimum limit OF 65 per cent, and that the
average IS very good. Some of the candidates
on the other hand, were curiously ignorant.
The papers were examined with extI eme care
and fairness on rigid system, and one which
maui CoiluSiun itnpo6SlDI6. Ou6 curious ihUt
brought out by the examination Is that many
OF the highest candidates are colored persons.
This is perhaps to be explained ON the ground
that the salaries offered for the clerkships are
more OF an object and attract better class Of
men, comparatively, among colored people
than white men. SALARIES in the postal ser
vice, for instance, begin at $400, and do not
get much above $800.or $1000 and in cons6-
quence the commission find that fewer candi-
dates OF good parts and education apply than
tlaslxrf Axrt.ut 1trws H.
much greater attraction to educated colored
than to white men and are sought by them
with greater keenness The same may be
said of female applicants.
Up to the present time there have been only
one or two calls upon the commission from the
departments for clerks. When the reform gets
into proper running order, however, it is sup
posed that there will be 800 or 400 department.
al vacancies annually to be filed on requisi-
ton. This, however, is only a rough esti-
mate, gauged upon the working Of the Curtis
rules in 1873 and 1874. 1t is thought that one
effect of the change in the service will be to
make the departments slow to call for new
clerks. There will then be no necessity of
filling vacancies to please politicians or infu-
ential friends, and clerks will only be asked
for as they are really needed. Mr.. Lyman
says he remembers that under the Curtis rules
there were sometimes 80 or 40 vacancies in the
Treasury. Work was slack, and there being
30 pressure for the places the desks were al
lowed to remain vacant. Mr.. Lyman found
the popular feeling in New York State and
New England very strongly in favor of the
reform. In some parts of the West, In Indi-
ana, for instance, the people showed less inter-
est. He found more friendly spirit in the
South than he had expected The examina-
tions had been carefully and, in the main, sat
isfactorily, conducted. The papers were not
stolen, bat once-in Philadelphia. 1t was, of
course, difficult matter to avoid accidents of
this sort, but they hdd exercised all possible
care, and experience would supply new safe
guards. In this matter, as in many others,
there would be some difficulty and friction at
first, but when the reform was once smoothly
in operation, its benefits would be SO apparent
that no backward steps would be possible.