Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-06-17

heads of administrative offices for the
temporary use of the Civil Service
Commission, found their whole time SO
occupied by board work as quite to
separate them from the employment in
which they figured on the payroll. one
secretary in Il very large interior city
admits that he has not done Il stroke at
his desk since 1898. In the very small
places, where only two or three certifi
cations We're called for in a year, the
reverse was the case; the men had so
little to do with the civil service scleC-
tons that they often lost interest in
their secondary duties, and performed
them in Il slipShod and uncertain
manner. In places of the middle class,
like indianapolis or Cleveland for
instance, the duties We're sufficiently
important to require the services of
firstrate man, and yet the local staff OF
post office and revenue employees was
too small to afford such one unless he
were taken away from some position of
large responsibility in his own office.
which needed him just as much as the
commission did. This was not only an
injustice to the general work of the
Government. but was apt to cause
friction between the commission and
the postmaster, or whoever was the
chief of the man in such demand.
1t is now arranged to have in one
large place in each district Il head
quarters. which shall represent the
central civil service authority for that
district. It's presiding genius will be
known as the district secretary. In
every other place in the district which
possesses Il board, the secretary of that
board will tie known as an auxiliary
secretary. The auxiliary secretaries
will conduct all their business with or
through the district secretary, and will
have. no direct connection with head
quarters in this city or the Federal
commission. The district secretary Will
do the inspecting of the various local
boards in his district. revise their work,
change their personnel and their
methods as seems necessary, receive
their reDorts, answer their questions,
adjust their difficulties, and submit to
Washington only such dubious mat
trrs as lee does not feel competent to
PASS upon himself Tho commission. on
its part will visit the district score
taries and INSPECT their work, and re-
c,.ive from each II periodical report
summarizing and checking up the work
in All parts of his district. one effect
of this system. besides insuring to the
commission more accurate knowledge
of what is going on all over the Union,
will be to introduce greater uniforT.fcy
into the scattered work, which now is
in more or less of n go-as-you-please
condition. 1t is proposed to put into
operation throughout the network OF
local boards the same blank forms, the
Game method of keeping records and in
dexinC them. and, indeed. so to
harmoniZe the work that, if desired,
any secretary i'll the field could be
called in to Washington and any
member of the Washington staff sent
TO take his place in the field. without
creating n disturbance of routine at
either erd of the line. The districts
are divided as follows
Tic first having headquarters at
Boston, contains an area of SOILS
square miles and population of D.
r3S651. and embraces Maine, with "a