Sunday Washington globe., 1902-02-09
From an Honest Chief of Di
vision in the Departments.
SING AN EVIL
Which President Roosevelt aud Con-
gress Have Power to Correct How
Examinations are Conducted by De
Land in the treasury Department.
The sham and the shame OF the
Whole Thing

~ WAoA " NAAt AliN hAAGnAlOn Ol secretary
Shaw and the reading and thinking public
to unique and decidedly senseless farce
that has been enacted in the Treasury De-
partment lol these many years, under the
tenacious management Of the studious and
scholarly Mr.. De Land A farce al once
humorous and tragic--a farce spelling sue.
cess to one clerk and stagnation and ruin to
another; an infietion so utterly unjust and
withal so entirely unnecessary that it
amounts to little less than an outrage and a
sham, which should be, can be, and we sin.
cerely hope 7OiY be brought to a very alb.
rupt and timely end by the new Secretary.
We refer to the ceaseless examinations inn
posed upon clerks who may from time TO
time be designated for promotion by the
heads of their respective bureaus. We
hnd upon inquiry that of all the Govern
ment departments, the Treasury Depart
ment is the only one which subjects It's
clerks to this humiliation. Let us take two
new appOintees in this department and fol-
low them through their successive stages Of
advancement, and see just exactly how this
'infallible' test is applied and how it
works
Say both enter the classified service at
$500 per annum, each having already passed
AAN lNAuAANA AlNAA 1GA NlEE GAAANAAhklQus MI
Smith, the one, is placed in the same bu-
reau, on the same work on the opposite
side of the same desk with MT Brown the
other Now let us remember at the outset
that promotions in the Treasury Depart
ment are made upon the recommendation
of the head of the division in which a clerk
is employed. A clerk is, therefore, entirely
az the mercy Of his chiefs good or ill-will
Now Mr.. Smith presently joins the same
golf club, church or lodge TO which his
chief belongs Mr. Brown prefers not to
play the sycophant, but pegs along indus
triOusly and conscientously with the rou.
tine work assigned him. Six months pass
by The head of the Office calls upon the
chief for a list Of names to be certified to
the Secretary Of the Treasury for promo
tion. Among them we find Mr.. Smith,
from 5000 to 81, 900" We look in vain for
Mr.. Brown. In the course of few days
Smith Is notified TO present himself on
such and such day to the Examining
Board for examination" This means Mr..
De Land. He learns that he is to stand an
examination in arithmetic, spelling book
keeping composition, general information,
aud also is to answer certain office ques-
tions"
Now right here we make point: the
chief is anxious that Smith should pass in
order to do SO he must make a mark of 70.
The relative weights" of the subject are:
Arithmetic, 10; spelling, TO- bookkeeping,
10, composition, 10; general information, 10,
and office questions, so. We proceed The
chief, as we say, wants Smith to get there,
so the day previous to going up for exam
nation" he calls Smith into his room,
L. a. a-
questions which he is supposed to see for
the first time on the morrow under scrutiny
Of the examining board" and when Smith
has studiously perused the five office ques-
TONS" (which we omitted to state pertain
to everything under the sun but the Office
he is in and the work he is performing,
why then-why then--he straightway and
unblushingly, as becomes member Of his
golf club or church, or lodge, proceeds TO
show him the aHSzOerS to those self same
questions. Smith takes his little hammer
and pounds the ave answers into his intel
leetual depository sufficiently secure to per
init of their extraction on the morrow. The
morrow arrives. "Ah, Mr.. Smith, from the
office, believe" says Mr. DeI.and
Exactly" says Smith. Your designation,
please, says Mr.. De Land. AYE, aye
aAlH says elAAAklAt anu Aduha AAAE sage VI AAE
money vault q paper admitting him to the
torture chamber-in other words the room
where the examinations" are held. Smith
thereupon is conducted to this room and
here finds several other designated ones"
doing stunts, and also is introduced to the
monitor whose duty, they tell me, is to
read newspapers with one eye and let the
other roam in perspective over the candi.
E. 4. k.r
gets the dose of Iarithmetic frst--he never
was much on mathematics, in fact it is one
of his weak points-lowever, he makes a
desperate stab at it aud passes on to the
spelling. He vanquishes six words out Of
ten, the other four he recognizes only as
strangers. They didn't shave any occasion
for any elaborate bookkeeping in Halls
Corners, where he comes from, so he puts a
few credits on the debit side, few debts
on the credit side, draws few red lines at
an angle of forty-6ve degrees and lets it go
with the same feeling that some people we
know put ten on the red. Now he runs up
against composition and to the tune of two
pages Of foolscap ,(properly named in this
case) he proceedsl to tell the board how
much he doesn't know of the Silver ques-
ton" or the proper kind of a government
an editorial Ia progressive daily ia his life
he is thoroughly convinced that he has been
betrayed TO the enemy by the time he runs
up against the general inform ltiou" ques
tons; but suddenly a smile iiiumines his
erstwhile perturbed features he dries the
beads of perspiradon on his forehead with
distinct air of assurance delightful to be-
hold, grabs his pen with determined hold
and proceeds to answer 6ve "O67cs ques-
fiOHSf" All, but here's where he is strongl
And with astonishing speed he correctly
defines the answers to Ave questions con
cerning Office methods and routine with
which he is as unfamiliar as the hello girl
up at the central station. But, as we know,
il was a feat of memory. not Of intellect
Now the result Of this ordeall
The examiner finds Smith has made the
following averages Arithmetic. 4 out of a
possible 10: spelling, out Of possible TO-;
bookkeeping, out Of possible 10; compo-
sition, out of a possible TO- general in
formation, out of a possible TO- Office
questions, so out of a possible So What
does this show' Why that Smith barely
passed in spelling, failed in arithmetic,
bookkeeping, composition and general in
n 4