The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-10-11

total number of persons employed
| by the federal government SS4,OSS
The United States government has
the greatest employment bureau in the
worldsin the civil service commission
The commission takes care of the
employment of all the 3S4,0S8 persons
who work for the executive branch Of
the government in various ways. OF
this number 222,279 hold office as a re-
suit of competitive examinations held
is not subject to the whim of a states
man or a politician.
This army of 3S4,OSS does not in
clude all of the persons who serve the
government. This number has to do
with the executive employees. In ad-
dition there are 2,115 employees of the
senate and the house. and 4S4 men and
women who serve in the congressional
library. Then there are 1890 employ
ees of the judiciary, including judges,
attorneys and marshals, and their cler-
ical assistants and messengers, ref
erees in bankruptcy and United States
commissioners.
Then the army has SO,521 officers
and enlisted men, the navy 40,S32. 10
these must be added 1,415 consuls, in
terpreters, secretaries and clerks in
the diplomatic and consular service.
The result is a grand army of federal
employees numbering $751; ,S54 persons.
;.L4
This employment bureau has been
running twenty-eight years, beginning
under President Garfield. During his
term Garfield classified or made sub
ject to competitive examination 1873
positions President Cleveland in his
President Harrison extended the com
petitive civil service to 42,92S addition
al places. In his second term Presi-
dent Cleveland added 81 $3.50 more to
the number, and his successor, Pres1-
dent Mckinley, further extended the
operations of the civil service law so
as to include an additional S5, $50.
President Roosevelt's term in the
White House saw the list of classified
positions swclled by 1896, and to
date President Taft has added 4,11G
making the total of places made com
petitive by presidential order to date
! 124,032.
"The disproportionate increase in the
number of government employees ovel
the increase in population" said an
official of the civil service commission
lis not at all an indication of eXtrava
| gance or wasteful methods. 1t is rath
er the necessary result of government
entrance to new fields of activity un
dreamed of before the civil war. The
wonderful growth of the department
of agriculture, which was not created
until 1862, is just one explanation Of
the vast increase in appropriations an(
expenditures for clerical assistants"
Divided Into Glasses.
This army of government clerks, mi
nor officials and laborers coming di
rectly under the civil service commits
sion and which numbers 3S4 ,0S9 is di
vided into several classes. First ant
by far the most important is that o
the 222,27S employees who are in tn
competitive class. OF laborers and un
classified employees there are 64,S92.
OF excepted and noncompetitiv,
places there are 59,202, and there ar,
9,525 positions filed directly by tn,
president, the postmasters and diplo
mats. To this number must be addet
S,191 laborers, who are listed as tn
digging force on the isthmus." Thes
canal laborers are all executive em
ployees of the United States, but n
civil service test of fitness is requires
of them.
1t is said by some statistical sharp
that this army of 513,S45 federal EN-
ployees does not include all person
! who are attached to the federal pay
rolls. They say that the $4,000 clerk
in fourth class postoffices are not give
J in the official figures of the commits
sion. which holds that these clerks ar
! not government employees, as they ar
paid by the fourth class postmaster
] Regarding them as federal employee
] would bring the grand total of federf
servants up to 577,S54.
The commission today has jurisdiC
! ton over more than half of all thos
) who can in any way be classed as fec
] eral employees and over two-thirds {
those working in the executive branc
. of the government. It's work is il
9 creasing daily. The commission lend
|. its assistance to those branches of tt
5 federal service which hold independeI
examinations for candidates. The col
, sular service, under the state depar
ment. is one instance. The person
Q appointed to this service gained the
q positions as ~ result of competitiy
1 examinatio Quoted by the con
mission.