Evening star., 1902-08-02

Dear Sir: Jnders tanding the natdie OF that
it easy and to get out of it easy offer you my
services and will make you proposition which is
mail fresh egg. VIII guarantee that the egg and
eggs win reach you in good condition. and VIII
give bond to hold me to my offer If excepted. WIN
send the egg daily for $500 per month"; II you buy
hen You will also buy more then one.
ITO Civil Service Commissioners
The above letter indicates the spirit Of
patriotic interest which prevails all over
the country as to the employment Of a hen
for the geological survey, the need for
which was fully set forth in The Star about
two weeks ago. Since the first statement
as to the situation in the survey, the need
for good hen who could lay one egg a
Gay, six days in the week without fail, has
never been allowed to escape the attention
OF the civil service commissioners. 1t has
been brought to their attention daly-by
inquiries through the mails, by offers Of
hens who regularly skip Sunday in their
egg-laying,r by the queries of newspaper
men and by the suggestion of ways out
One woman in New York state offered
the commission the Of a hen which
has an unbroken record Of weekday
layng Tor over year. The Bal
anticipates complication which the New
York dairy woman apparently forgot-that
the men must be cared for-and proposes
TO reileve the survey and the commission of
the number of suggestions made to the
commission must run way into the thou
sands
May Await Action by the President,
1t SO happens that all threecommiseioners
Messrs. Proctor, Foulke and Garfield, are
now out OF the city. No decisive action can be
expected, therefore. until quorum Of the
board returns. The matter presents too
many delcate aspects and involves too
many or the basic principles of civil SER
vice reform to be disposed of summarily
When diclsion is announced it will un-
douotedly be taken as a precedent which
IS additional reason for proceeding with
the utmost caution. Finally. it may be that
the issue will be apparently disregarded un-
III PRESIDENT Roosevelt returns from Oyster
Bay that the announcement of the commits
slons decision may have all the force of
a personal order by President Roosevelt
Ihls controversy, it will be remembered,
arose through formal request from the
geological survey for an employe Of the
hen class, to be certified to the survey from
the civil service commission. 1t was ex-
planned in the request for this apportion-
ment-reprinted in full in The Star-that
albumen is needed in the Photographic work
of the bureau, that one egg day would
suffice for this need, and that at the pres
ent time the employees in the Photographic
division were purchasing eggs out of their
own pockets
The letter in which the case was first
set forth to the commission was very COM
prehensive. 1t made the following points
with emphasis: That in anticipation of the
delay to be reasonably expected it would be
only fair for the department commission to
authorize the hire of a hen the tempo
rary role; that the commission should de-
termine whether the hen be paid the
per diem role or by the piece; that the hen
should be experienced laborer; that the
hen should be Of the chicken kind and not
of the duck, goose and other egg-bearing
classes: that experience should have far
the most weight in the commissions eX-
animation: that the hen Of the United
States geological survey should be capable
of steady. daily output; that the COM
mission should give due weight to the liza
bility that the appointee might reach that
delicate condition preceding the setting
period and suddenly cease laying, In which
event the whole purpose Of the examina
ton will have miscarried.
New Difficulties Arising.
The difficulties ahead Of the commission,
thus set forth, would seem sufficient But
many more have suggested themselves since
the publication Of the surveys letter in The
Star.
In the first place, it is asked. how shall
the bureau be supplied when the hen takes
her annual leave, is off duty on sick leave,
or receives the usual notice that her services
are longer desired? New certification
would have to be made and the difficulties
ahead of the commission would be enOr-
nous. The questions asked in the first ex
animation would have been divuged. An
entire set of new questions on the egg-lay-
Ing industry would be very hard to compile.
If the hen is to be discharged as soon
she desires to set no self-respecting hen
would take the place No register of eligi-
bles could be maintained because all the
competitors in the initial examination might
be superannuated when the first appontee
was dismissed. To guarantee the bureau an
egg day while the appointee was on leave
1t would be necessary to employ another
hen regularly, and that course, instead of
removing difficulties, would merely double
them.
Then hen should be appointed who would
not be affected by the variable climate of
the District of Columbia. The apportion-
ment Of the District, Maryland and Vir-
ginia Is now full. 1t Is q well known fact
that a hen accustomed to the mountains
of Pennsylvania or the rice-marshes Of the
Carolinas would not lay regularly In the
mild and dry climate Of Washington.
Again-officers of the commission suggest
that many questions would arise which
would require the expert knowledge Of an
advanced grower of poultry for their satis-
factory adjustment, the amount of albumen
in each egg, for example. The commissions
clerical force includes many experts. but
there is no poultry expert among the whole
body Of clerks and no contingent fund out
of which one could be hired for the occa-
sion.
Skilled or Unskilled Labor.
The precedent established by employing
G hen for the survey might pave the way
for the greatest abuses. Camping parties
sent out by the survey and the division of
forestry Of the Agricultural Department
would be practically certain to ask for
hens, use a part of the albumen for their
work and divert the remainder of the prod
uct to the camp larders. 1t Is distinctveIy
the attitude of the commission not to lead
government employees into temptation. The
commission would be expected also TO pro-
vide for the hens keep, a regular report
of the services she would render and a gen
eral statement twice year on her ability
a worker. her general bearing and her
reliability.
These difficulties are important ard baf-
fling, of course. But they are exclusively
within the province Of the civil service
commission and the commission delights in
surmounting obstacles Of any sort
There Is, however, one phase Of the prob
lem which is yet to be mentioned, view
point from which only law officers can see
clearly, and when the masters of the law
are called in the survey might well despair
of getting its hen. Shall the hen, when ap-
pointed, be assigned to the ranks of skilled
or unSkiIled labor? Those who corf ep5 for