Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-29
DEFENDING THE EXAMINATIONS.
The Civil Service Commissioner Replies b
the Postmaster General.

the Postmaster General.
A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT IN ANswxR-Mn.
wANAMAKER's sTATEMESrs-FIauRks QUOTED
PoINTEEs.
The civil service commissioners have sent
the following letter to the President:
"Sir; The civil service commission, having
received copy Of the annual report of
the Postmaster General. wishes to call your at
tention to the portions of the report dealing
with the appointments made under the COM
mission to the Post Office Department These
portions are 20 be found on pages 4, 81, 50 and
SO Of the report and read as follows:
" 4 hope to see the civil service examina-
tons, especially with reference to the railway
mail, improved, for only in proportion as these
yield the most efficient civil servants can the
benefits Of the civil service system be extended.
"a years experience confirms me in the
judgment formed twelve months ago that the
civil service system, as applied to the rosters
Of the Post Office Department. is susceptible of
improvement The examinations for the in
spector force and for the railway mail service
ought to be made more difficult, so that the
for places will better stand the test
OF actual work. The practice Of the depart
ment shows that the inspector force, for ex-
ample, is more efficient as q whole if eligibles
who have seen public service are selected in
stead of those who have simply been examined.
This means either that the examinations are
not thorough enough or that examinations
never can result in the selection of the proper
proportion of efficient inspectors "a thing
which do not believe. 1t is estimated by the
railway mail Office that the proportion of rail-
way mail eligibles who fail to fill the require
ments of that exacting employment is quarter
or third of all those examined. This means
either that the examinations are not thorough
enough or that it is impossible suitably to
examine candidates for the railway mail
service a thing which is certainly
not true. The railway postal clerk cannot be
most efficient unless he has physical endurance.
The inspector cannot be most capable unless he
Is full OF resources and alertness. Perhaps
these observations seem trivial, but if may be
permitted to make the statement ii is just in
proportion as the examination system (Which
intends to be merit SYSTEM provides candi-
dates who succeed not only in holding their
places, but in adding to the efficiency of the
public service that the reform can hope to
gather momentum.
Nor is it truth-and it will not stand the
test of time-to reiterate over and over again
that the railway mail service, which had been
made the most effective body of civil servants
in the United States under an old established
merit system of its own, was basely prostituted
the Post Office Department was busying itself
with putting back these trusty and tried men in
the places OF persons whose room was more
valuable than their bungling assistance and
with waiting for the tardy certifcation Of ell
gibles."
These utterances of the Postmaster General
are apparently in the nature of q criticism on
the examinations of the civil service commits
sion, and having been thus publicly made it is
due to the commission that they should be as
publicly answered.
NEVER RECEIVED HINT.
In reference to the first sentence, in which
the Postmaster General says that he hopes to
see the civil service examinations, especially
those for the railway mail service, improved
the commission can only say that it will heartily
welc me the cooperation of the Postmaster
General to this end. The COMMISSION has
never received a hint from the Post
master General that its examinations were
not proper and the individual commissioners
have repeatedly told various subordinate chiefs
of the Post Office Department. including the
general superintendent of the railway mail
service, that they were anxious to get any ad-
vice from the Post Office Department about
these examinations and would at once remedy
any defect in them that was pointed out or
adopt any new suggestions of value that were
made. The commission has Just written to the
Postmaster General specifically asking for any
suggestions he has to make about improving
the examinations, for the commission takes it
for granted that the Postmaster General would
not thus publicly comment upon the shortcom-
ings of the examinations unless he had some
definite proposition to make looking to their
As a matter of fact the system
of examinations and tests applied after ap-
pointment under which the Postmaster General
says the railway mail service had become the
most effective body Of civil servants in the
United States has been preserved intact, with
out an iota Of change under the civil service
rules and IN addition an entrance test has been
prescribed in the form of an open, competitive
examination, which takes the place of the prac-
wero applied to this service of allowing
members of Congress and others to nominate
to the department the persons to be APP
pointed. These examinations have been made
as practical in character as possible. The COM
mission has no doubt that, as the Postmaster
General says, the system OF examinations is
susceptible of Improvement; but it would like
a little more definite information as to the kind
of improvement to which the Postmaster Gem
eral alludes. The Postmaster General says that
the examinations for the railway mail service
ought to be made more difficult. The COM
mission will gladly make them SO if it isdesired
but this is the first intimation to this effect
which has been received from the department
AN UNUSUAL COMPLAINT.
always been not that our examinations were
too easy, but that they were too severe. Ap-
parently the Postmaster General desires some
physical test for the railway postal clerk exam
inatiOn. We require now surgeons certificate
as to the applicants good health and strength.
Moreover part of the examination is, as the
Postmaster General doubtless knows, the six
months probationary test. The commission
believes that this probationary test in doing the
actual railway mail work affords the best possi-
BILE means Of finding out the clerks physical
and that it affords a much more
test than could be devised in any
other way. But if the Postmaster General will
suggest to the commission any plan for afurther
physical test it will receive prompt and full con-
sideration. The commission desires to point
out. however, that if complicated tests are
needed the commission must have force suffi-
Client to make them. Under the law the civil
service examiners are detailed to the COM
mission from the various departments. The
Post Office Department until within the last
two months has been very backward in thus
detailing examiners. Not an examiner was de-
tailed to the commission from the railway mail
service had been classified, and only then when
the commission, after repeated requests for the
detail, was obliged to notify the department
that it would no longer be able to do the work
for the railway mail service unless the detail
was given it. Thus for year and half the
entire work of the commission for this branch
of the service was performed by men detailed
from other departments of the government
who had to neglect the work of the depart
ments from which they we're detailed in order
to perform the work of examining. marking
and certifying applicants for positions in the
postal service.
WHAT FIGURES SHOW