Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-05
BEST EVER DEVISED.
Secretary Moody Praises the
Civil Service System.
TRANSFERS OF CLERKS
CRITICISM OF A CURRENT PRAc-
TICE.
Effect of the Efficiency Records Kept in
the Navy Department-Promo-
tions Based Upon Them.
TRANSFERS OF CLERKS


The Secretary of the Navy, Mr.. Moody.
appeared before the House committee on
reform in the civil service today and gave
his testimony on the subject OF the opera
ton of the civil service law in the Navy
Department. and the proposed retirement
of superannuated employees. Secretary
Moody declared the civil service system is
the best ever devised, but he could find
opposition to the plan for a pension sys-
tenn. Chief Clerk Peters Of the Navy De-
partment was also present at the hearing
this morning and was referred to from
time to time for details and statistics.
Secretary Moody said that as an admins
trative officer of the government he had
found the civil service of employment the
best ever devised, and he had no fault to
find with it or amendments to suggest
gest.
There is one practice under the law, how
ever, which Mr.. Moody said he would like
to see stopped. and he believed 1t could be
done without changing any of the provi-
sions of the law. This practice is the sys-
tenn of competition going on between the
departments in the effort to obtain sufh-
cient employees by transfer. The Secretary
said that in some departments the rate OF
pay Is higher than in others, and in this
way inducements are held out to the en-
ployes of other departments to seek
transfer. thus interfering with the corps of
the department from which the efficient en-
ploye is taken. Mr.. Moody claimed that
this practice also resulted in an ever-in-
creasing demand on the part of depart
ment chiefs for higher compensation for
clerks
Greatest Evil Of the Service.
During the past year the Navy Depart
ment has had forty-seven applications or
demands for transfers of it's efficient young
men clerks to other departments. In this
connection Secretary Moody said it was
the policy of the Navy Department not to
promote clerks quite SO rapidly as in some
of the other government bureaus. He said,
also, that the salary grades in the depart
ment were not so high as in some others,
and that clerks soon reached the top
Thus they were open to temptation when
inducements were held out by chiefs OF
other departments. He stated that the
Navy Department never requests the trans
fer of clerk from another department. 1t
is satisfied to go to the civil service COM
mission and get young men and start them
in the lower grades and train them for the
different branches of work. He declared the
transfer system to be the greatest evil IN
the civil service. Mr.. Moody also took oc-
in the service. saying that his department
had often requested from the civil service
commission the assignment of mere boys.
He found that these made the very best
clerks, because early training counted for a
very great deal.
Representative Gillett. chairman OF the
committee. asked Secretary Moody if the
evil complained of could not be remedied
by an agreement between the heads OF the
various departments. Mr.. Moody replied
that he thought it could be.
Coming to the question OF efficiency IN
the clerical force of the Navy Department,
Mr.. Moody said that only 91a per cent Of
the employees there are over sixty years 3D.
while thirty-three messenger boys are under
twenty-one years of age. In reply to ques-
tons the Secretary said there were some
employees In the department over seventy
years old. but he did not know just how
many. During the past year Secretary
Moody said there had been sixty discharges
in the Navy Department ON account of in
efficiency.
Mr.. Roosevelt's Good Work
While on the subject of these discharges
Mr.. Moody paid compliment to President
Roosecelt for his administration of affairs
while assistant secretary of the navy
prior to the Spanish-American. war. Mr..
Moody said that just before Mr. Roosevelt
entered the Navy Department the system
of compiling and keeping efficiency records
was adopted. Reports were to be rendered
by chiefs of division every six months
When President Roosevelt received the
first reports under his administration he
made several discharges, and thus naugu-
rated the system of wedding out the ineffi-
Gent clerks. That this was a good move,
Mr.. Moody declared, has been shown by the
fact that the clerical force since that time
has been one of the most efficient in the
public service. The system of discharges
based on these semf-annual reports has
been continued ever since.
Mr.. Moody said that promotions among
the clerks are made entirely upon their
standing in the efficiency records. When a
clerk in the higher grade leaves the service
for any reason his place is filled by the
man with the best percentage on the eff
cheney list of the next lower grade, and
so on throughout the service.
Mr.. Moody cited a recent case of a pro-
motion where there was only two-tenths OF
one point difference In the standing of two
clerks. The one with the higher percent
age. of course, got the place.
The efficiency record system was dis
cusSed at some length by the committee
and Secretary Moody was questioned as to
the method Of keeping these records. He
declared that their compilation was a mat
ter that was necessarily left to the judg-
ment and discretion of the chiefs OF d.
visions. There was no other way Of ar
ranging them.
Opposed to Civil Pension List.
Mr.. Moody was then asked his opinion OF
the plan to pension old employees and retire
them from the service. He replied:
Il can find no language strong enough to
express my opposition to a pension system
for the civil employees of the government.
/ think that the pensioning of the military
and naval forces and the judiciary is as far
the government ought to CO."
Mr. Moody was asked IL he thought the
ri In fha do, orfr A,fx fta
equal OF those In large business establish
ments. In reply he stated that 1t was his
opinion that If the heads of departments
had the same authority and control over
the employees under them as de the ,ads
of big business houses the clerical forces
of the departments might be somewhat i'm
proved However. under our system of
government it is impossible to give the
head of a department this absolute control.
There are influences, political and personal,
SO strong that an independent appointment
could not be made.
Representative Pou asked Mr.. Moody Ii