Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-24
TROUBLES PILE up
Civil Service Commission Mark
for All Departments.
IS ASKED SILLY QUESTIONS
And Some Think Board Makes
Ridiculous Demands Of Applicants
for Examinations.


service commission an earnest discussion
Of several rules governing entrance ex-
aminations to the Department Of Agri.
culture and other federal departments
The salaries that are offered in the CLASH
fed service are sometimes commensurate
with the technical skill required. runnin.-
from 1900 per annum upward. So far as
discovered none of the aspirants to these
minor positions have been notified tc
beard themselves and bring their own
blankets, but some OF the newspaper criti-
cism leveled at the commiss on is the
charge that there is always hidden away
in the notice a paragraph to the effect
that the position may be filed when a va
cancy is created by death. transfer OF
promotion" at the discretion of the Sec
retary:'
One Of the cases over which there was
recently considerable comment was Wher
logical survey at a salary of $50 year
with knowledge Of plain and spherica
geometry, trigonometry, calculus, astron
omy, map drawing and experience" The
notice did not indicate the nature OF the
experience. but the experience Of field as
SistantS is usually varied II not varie
gated.
Other notices of the commission have
been criticised, some of the members hold
unfairly. For instance, an opening for a
marine engineer, with maximum age OF
twenty years, who was required to show
credentials from four-year college
course and ten years practical experience
Is mentioned.
Requirements Of a Cook.
Some of the notices contain merely pre-
cautionary provisions. such as a cook
wanted for one of the Indian schools,
where the sole requirement was physical
proficiency and a knowledge Of jiu-jitsu
Recently, however, there have been
inquiries passed to the commission
from other departments of the gov
eminent that evidently could not an
swer the inquirers and thought the
commission did not have troubles
enough of its own. Some of these ques-
tiOns are to be Incorporated in subse-
quent examination papers. The De-
partment of Agriculture is the worst
offender in this line. 1t recently passed
up an inquiry from correspondent as
to why the sea was salt. and followed
this with another as to the saline con-
tents of the Mississippi river.
The bureau Of ethnology was stirred
up recently over scientific question
to which would be the more use in
the development of the human race, a
prehenSile tail or an eye in the back
of the head. This was passed up to
the commission. and possibly an an
swer will be found in some Of the ex-
animation papers.
Are Croton Bugs Color Blind.
Then the bureau of plant inquiry got
an anxious inquiry addressed to DR..
Galloway, the head Of the bureau, to
know whether if beans were planted
upside down the roots would grow
into the air. AS the doctor was away
in Japan, the Office passed this inquiry
UP to the commission, too. Next a con-
tribution was received from the bureau
of entomology az to whether Crotor
bugs were color blind.
Dr. Howard, the chief OF the bureau
said the weight of evidence tended to q
negative answer, as he had noticed
that CrotOn bugs ate books with blue
bindings by preference.
This. however, was not considered
conclusive proof, as DR.. Stratton claim
ed from the bureau of standards that
blue smelled distinctly different from
any other color. The Smithsonian was
appealed to, but replied, through DR.
Abbot. that their spectrOscopic inves-
LEGATIONS had not proceeded far enough
to establish definitely how blue smelled
The question will therefore have to be
answered by the commission.
Further discussion was caused yester.
day by an inquiry from farmer to DIR
Rumel of the bureau of animal hus-
bandry, as to whether incubator chickens
loved their mother. He attempted to
establish the fact that this depended OH
the weather but Prof. Willis Moore said
he objected to having the weather bureau
brought into the controversy, and me
commission to be incorporated In some
of the examination papers