The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-06-19
Civil Service Reform.


ment explains with a newspaper
mans lucidity the effect of the recent
order of the president withdrawing
from the Jurisdiction of the civil SER
vice commission certain subordinates
of the several executive departments,
which has been so sharply criticized
by civil service reform theorists. Says
Mr.. Curtis:
More than half of the persons af-
fectea are in the war department and
comprise casual and temporary en-
ployes Of the engineer corps, and the
quartermaster, commissary and med
ical departments Of the army, such
as carpenters, masons, painters,
blacksmith5, stonecutters, machinists,
teamsters, packers, helpers, laborers,
watchmen, guards, hostlers, etc. After
two years experience it has been
found that the ordinary civil-service
rules cannot be applied to this class
of men for severa! reasons. In the
first place the best OF them will not
submit to examination. They are
usually needed for only a few weeks
or months at a time. They are scat
tered all over the plains and noun
tains of the west, where it is not only
inconvenient but often impossible for
the civil-service commission to hold
examinations, and in almost every
case during the last two years when
a list Of elieibles for such positions
has been called for 1t could not be
furnished and the persons in charge
had to employ such persons as they
could find under the emergency clause
of the old rules. For example, when
one of the embankments of the Mississ-
ippi river breaks it is scarcely prac-
ticable for the engineer in charge to
call upon the civil-service commission
for list of eligibles to repair it. Again
when the quartermaster at an army
post receives telegraphic orders to fit
out his regiment for the Philippines,
he needs Immediately 200 or 800 skilled
or semi-skilled mechanics, teamsters,
packers, carpenters and laborers, and
it would be absurd for him to ask the
civil-service commission to hold an ex-
animation and send him list of eligi-
bles.
Last year thousands of men were
given temporary employment upon
coast defenses and other Notifications,
and when the engineers called upon
the civil-service commissioners for
lists of eligibles none could be furn-
ished, so that the only result was en-
barrassment and delay. Mechanics of
this class will not go to Washington
or anywhere else to undergo an exam
ination, because they do not care to
spend the time or the money that the
journey will require, and they have
natural prejudice against school mas
ters' Experience has also taught that
the efficiency of teamsters, mule pack
ers, blacksmiths and other artisans
employed by the army cannot be de-
termined either by an oral or a writ
ten examination, but as a matter OF
fact this class of employees has not
been entirely exempted from examin-
ations by the new order. Only the
method of their appointment has been
changed. A rule that could not be en-
one that can be applied in almost
every case has been adopted. They
| have been removed from the classified
service, but rule / of the recent order
| requires that the moral character and
| efficiency of employees shall be ascer-
tanned and recorded upon a list of
| eligibles, and that when a quartermas-
requires such assistance the men shall
| be selected from the top of the wait
| ing list.
Another paragraph in the order
which has been severely criticized is
| that all persons serving under tempor-
| approval of this section may be perma-
nently appointed in the discretion of
the proper appointing officers. This ap-
plies to a number of clerks who were
employed under the emergency clause
of the civil service law in the war and
navy departments at the beginning oil
the war. Most of them have served
faithfully and worked night and day
for more than a year, and have thus
proved their efficiency. Another large
class of persons who are made exempt
from civil service examinations by the
recent order are several hundred halt
civilized Indians, employed under the
secretary of the interior as teamsters
policemen, cooks, woodchoppers, and II
similar capacities. Two years Of ex-
perience has demonstrated that the un-
tutored mind of 'Lo, the poor Indian,
is not up to the civil service rules
Special agents of the Indian bureau
and the land office whose duties are
similar to those of detectives, are alsc
exempt because experience has demon.
strated that 80 per cent of the detec.
| tives furnished by the civil service
commission are absolutely worthless
No one will pretend that penetration
of mind or shrewdness of judgment car
be ascertained by a written examlna
tion. The same remark applies to the
employees of the Smithsonian institu.
tion, who are taken out of the classi
ned service upon the recommendation
of Chief Justice Fuller, Prof. Langley
Senator Gray. of Delaware; President
Angel, OF Michigan university; ex
Postmaster General Wilson, Alexander