Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-19
CIVIL SERVICE LAW EVADED
REFORM LEAGUE MAKES COMPLAINT
OF THE ADMINISTRATION.
Alleged to Have Been
Made without Examination as to
Fitness Of Appeintees.

The committee of the National Civil Ser
vice Reform League appointed to investi-
gate the condition Of the federal civil ser
vice and the enforcement Of the reform
law and rules under the present admins
tration has submitted 4 report and con-
illusions.
The report says in part: cit might natu-
rally have been expected that proper COM
pliance with the law and recognition OF
its principles on the part of both Congress
and the heads OF departments would,
at this stage. have secured through com
petition almost all the greater number
required for service in offices and positions
of the sort that are classified. The COM
mittee. however, from the data 1t has at
hand, reports surprisingly different results.
During the first year following the order
Of May 20, 1899, that ended on June last,
the appointments made within these class
es were as follows:
Through competitive tests - Appoint
ments from competitive eligible lists, full
returns for last month Of 1899 lacking, A.,
$40.
without competitive tests - Appoint
ments to excepted positions not subject to
examination. 254; appointments to excepted
positions subject to'non' competitive exami
nation 500: appointments under Temporal
ry certificates, 2.242; temporary ap-
pointments made permanent without ex-
animation. 973: reinstatements without ex-
animation, Ito; transfers of uneXamined
persons within the service. 107: unexamined
persons having special qualifications Z:
appointments to clerical positions in the
departments under the war appropriation
acts. 1.2OO; appointments to clerical posi-
lions In the census office, 400 Total,
9,153
"Whie direct violations Of the rules have
been more or less common, indirect evasions
have been more So Temporary appoint
ments' are an instance in point Under the
rules. persons may. be appointed without
examination for ninety days temporary
service. in the absence of an eligible list
for emergency work. 1t is required that
these shall be permitted only when the civil
service commission has given its certificate
that there Is no adequate list. In practice
the vast majority Of these appointments
have been made at pleasure and without
inquiry as to the state of the lists, continu-
ed indefinitely, and reported long after
ward as the appointing officer chose. This
practice, moreover, has grown alarmingly.
Another common method of evasion is
the appointment Of persons generally
womeD as 1aborers'-in which class eX-
animation is not required-and their as
signment Immediately to duties of higher
class.
THE Post Office Department has adopted
a device for evasion that the committee
deems peculiarly reprehensible. When a
small post office is about to be given free
delivery (Which of itself brings the office
force into the classified service), persons
from other states, to take positions in such
offices just before they enter the free de-
livery class, to be transferred Immediately
afterward to the Office for which they are
really destined, thus escaping examination
altogether. Nearly hundred appointments
of this sort have already occurred despite
the earnest protest of the civil service COM
mission. Five of those so appointed pre-
sumably without the least experience) have
been transferred to the important and high
salaried office of post Office inspector
proceeding which has been made easily pos
sible by the change in the transfer rule
contained in the Presidents order Of May.
1889.
Zone of the most serious features Of the
situation is that, no matter how plainly or
how frequently appointments may be
made in violation Of the law. the civil ser
vice commission Is poweress to prevent
them. The commission may protest to the
department involved. or appeal from its de-
ciSiOn to the President, but. falling TO Sc
cure relief from either of these authorities,
1t is obliged to permit abuses to go I'M
checked.
Again. In the Treasury Department, non
competitive examinations are required, I'M
der the Presidents late order, for certain
positions In the customs and Internal reve-
nue. services. Few of these have been held,
but in cases where they have. and where
the candidates have failed absolutely to
secure the minimum of 20 per cent, quail
flying them for appointment, they are still
retained, their rejection by the commission
notwithSta nding.
'On the plea that the civil service COM
mission had no means of meeting the
emergencies growing out OF the war with
Spain, about 200 further appointments
without examination were made In differ
ent departments under special provisions in
the war appropriation acts. There is no
means of securing exact figures, since these
appointments have not been reported to
the commission. and the leagues request
for access to the proper records in the
Treasury Department has been denied. On
August /. 1899, however, the number was
known to be at least 1,0I2. Any clerk may
now be appointed without examination II
1t Is certified that the necessity for his
employment arises out of the war with
SPAIN
Although Mr.. Carroll D. Wright, ad in
terim director of the census, informed Con-
gress that more than S30OO.0OO had been
added to the cost of the tenth census by
reason of the failure to select the work
ing force through the merit system. this
system again deliberately set aside in
the taking of the present census. and
though the heads of bureaus have been eff
Client and well-trained men, otherwise the
methods adopted In the former census
which proved such a costly failure, were
followed almost exactly. The tests re-
CURED which were of the pass descrip-
ton, probably debarred the absolutely unfit.
but the benefit of open competition was
lost, and. the process of selecting clerks
and other subordinates continued, only per-
sons Endorsed by senator or representa-
tive were considered at all.
THE committee presents this review of
what 1t considers very unfortunate sit
uation, not only that the action of the
President may be asked where he has the
power to correct. but that every other
necessary step may be taken to regain the
ground that has been lost, and again to
turn the direction Of the reform toward the
ends the trainers and advocates of the civil
service law had in view The COMMITTEES
will submit a number Of specific recommen
dations for action on the part of the
laaer