Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-06-18
Taking the Laborers From the CLASH
fed Service Opposed.
IT WOULD AFFECT OVER l5,0Oo
Workmen Favorable to the Merit
System.
PROPOSED BACKWARD STEP


city circular letter. from which the fol-
lowing extracts are taken:
THE Senate committee on civil service
and retrenchment has been directed to in
qure whether or not the civil service act
should be continued. amended or repealed
II Is now taking testimony. Without wait
ing, however, to conclude its hearing, the
committee has reported the following
amendment to the deficiency bill, proposed
by Senator Gailinger:
THAT no laborers of any class en-
ployed by the government shall be in
cluded in the classified executive civil SER
vice; that all civil service rules heretofore
promulgated with respect to this class of
employees are hereby abrogated.'
1T does not appear from the printed tes-
timony taken by the committee that any
iEqriry has yet been made as TO The
wisdom Of excluding skilled laborers from
the benefits of the civil service law, nor
does it appear that the civil service COM
mission has been consulted or that there
has been any adequate inquiry as to the
extent to which the amendment would cut
down the classified service. Feeling that
&C ton of this character would be back
ward step of very serious character, and a
step the consequences of which the Senate
committee may not have appreciated, we
would urge. therefore. that the subject be
ton of the sort proposed is approved.
There are now $50 places of laborers
and workmen still below the classified ser
vice If, in 1892. there were 2l,7SS l&borers
of all classes employed in the federal ser
vice. the number of places which would be
taken out of the operation of the merit
system by the adoption Of the pending
amendment would certainly exceed $1,000.
The number would probably be much
greater than this, because the pressure for
place, diverted from the clerical service,
would be concentrated on the places of
skilled laborers, and lead to the exclusion
stions which are in fact clerical, but
which are disguised under the Skilled Ia
borer,' and other similar designations
The amendment would chiefly affect the
government printing office, the lazy yard
employees and the engineer department at
large, where the larger 1umi,er Of skilled
latorers and workmen are employed. Tie
classification of the government printing
office was not made at the instance OF the
commission or of the President, but oripi-
rated with the workmen themselves, who
brought to the commission numerous petit
lions and resolutions of the different trades
urions asking that the trade workers be
classified They urged that the govern
ment service would be thereby improved,
and moreover that they should be accorded
the same privileges as were given to CLERKS.
THE President agreed with their views,
and said it would be proper, in his 1udg-
ment, that the classification should he
made, provided the commission could pre-
pare examinations which would not be
academic and which would be confined to
the lines of the respective trades. Skilled
artisans have been consulted in the prepa-
ration Of the examinations, and the tests
established are thoroughly practical. Some
of the persons who have passed are not
able to write. and sign their names with
mark.
WOrkmcn and the Merit System.
amy action Of Congress looking toward
the removal of the places of these skilled
workmen, and denying them the protection
of the civil service law, while allowing that
protection to clerks, would seem inequi-
table, and would naturally be resented by
the laboring classes throughout the coun-
try.
ward the merit system felt by the artisans
and workmen Of the country, the vote of the
people Of Chicago On the adoption of a civil
service act to govern appointments in the
municipal service of that city may be taken
as significant especially as the adoption
of the merit system was a separate and
distinct Issue, to be voted upon indepen-
IDENTIFY of preference fer candidates or party
platforms. The system was approved by
the trades unions of the city. and the
majority of $4,000 given in its favor was
chiefly in the districts of the city where the
workmen mostly lived.
Many employees who have been borne on
the rolls as laborers or workmen have
really performed clerical Waterman, mes
senger or other work of classified char
acter. The number Of these has rapidly
increased since the passage of the civil
service act, in evasion of the requirement
for examination. Orders of classification
were issued both in 1888 and 1896, for the
purpose of correcting this evil and pre-
venting further violation Of the law. These
orders provided that all laborers or work
men who were regularly assigned to work
of the same grade as that performed by
classified employees should be treated as
within the classified service, and that fu-
ture assignments Of unclassifed laborers
or Workmen to classified duty should not
be made. 1t was Inevitable that there
should be some difference of opinion and of
practice in the several departments on the
question of the application of the classi1-
cation to certain places and employmcnts
which were regarded as classified or un-
classified according as the words employed
merely as a laborer or workman were
strictly or literally construed
I'm order that there might be a clear
line of distinction the commission has been
given authority to obtain from each de-
partment a list of all the places and en-
Payments which, in accordance with the
provisions of the rules of May 6, 1895,
should now be regarded as within the
classified service. though excluded pervious-
ly; together with the names, designations.
compensations and dates of employment or
appointment Of the employees. Such lists
nave Deen OBTAINED ana the abuses which
have prevailed in the appointment of per-
sens without examination and their assign
ment to the duties of the classified service
have been greatly lessened.
I'm no other way Is 1t possible to avoid
evasion Of the law in this manner If
within the term 1aborers of any class
there are to be comprahended all persons
borne on the rolls as skilled laborers' and
'laborers,' the effect will be to take from
under the rules a considerable number of
persons who are in fact clerks.
increasing the Unclassified Service.
Since 1888. when the civil service law
was enacted, there has been an increase
Of about 81 per cent in the number, and AZ
per cent in the salaries, of the unclassffied
places, while in the number of positions
originally classified by the civil service act
there has been a slight decrease, as well
as decrease in the appropriations for
their support. The tendency toward in
creasing the number of unclassified posi-.
tons in evasion Of the civil service act. II
may be added, is not peculiar to the federal
service. The same abuses have been prac-
ticed In New York and wherever the merit
system has been established
"A classification to be genuina/shou he
based upon the character of the work per.
formed. and not upon mere designation
which Is often false in fact The places ir
which work relating to the classified sery.
| Ice Is performed should be open to hones
competitive examination. The line of dis
tinction between the classified and tho nm