Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-17
DEPARTMENT CLERKS HERE
And In GREAT BRITAIN
vi.

7.
twenty-four, years since the creation Of
the class there had been only 800 such
Having such high standard to MAIN
tain 1t is necessary for the civil service
| commissioners to make the examination
IN the open competitions exceptionally
we're. 1t may be roughly estimated, without
any dsparagement Of the people who in
this country take the civil service exami-
nations. that at least one-half of the sue
cessful candidates for American appoint
ments would fail IL confronted with the
same tests that are applied to the Brit
ish aspirant for civil service appointment.
In the first place. great majority of
these candidates go directly into the com
petitions from their schools and univer
sites. They have been perhaps training
for these tests from the beginning Of
their educational careers In an English
family of the upper class there are three
army. the navy. the law and the church
Few middle class boys can hope to gain
admittance to either of the military serv-
ices and must study for the law. the
ministry or the civil service unless they
are to go into trade. which is the social
abomnat'on of the average Briton.
Most Of the schools and colleges in
England specially train students for evil
are laid out largely with the object in
view of preparing boys and young men to
take the stiff examinations. the outlines
of which are very clearly defined and
can be easily ascertained a long time in
advance. The questions themselves of
course, are scrupulously guarded and are
changed from examination to examina-
ton. But the subjects are frankly stated
by means of circulars that are obtanable
from the civil service commission head
quarters by any applicant. These circu-
lars are printed different colored pa
pers to distinguish them. and it is. said
a majority of the students of the higher
schools and the colleges. serving as
guide to the work to be done there.
l have before me syllabus of subjects
covering appointments in the supply and
accounting departments
Syllabus of of the admiralty. third
class clerkships in the Of
0"oJoc's. fees of the crown agents
for the colonies, Junior clerkships in the
ecclesiastical commission. examinerships
in the eXchequer and audit department,
assistant surveyorshps of taxes in the
inland. revenue department. second-class
clerkships in the estate duty offices. sec
ond-class clerkships in the Office of COM
missioner of police and Junior appoint
ments in the ordnance offices. Roughly
speaking, the examination is divided into
mathematics, language, history, chemistry
and physics. and man who can pass IT
is we'll worth the pay of the position to
which he is appointed. There is. of course,
range of choice as to particular sub
iects but the candidate must select sub
jects which make up prescribed maxi
mum of possible marks. 1t is d1fhcult TO
de scribe the system graphically further
than to say that the combination effected
between the various classes must give
ii 900 marks 1900 of which must come
from first-class mathematics and Eng
lish. and 1G.ecO from choice of eight
subjects out of sixteen to make up the
remaining 10000. In the first class OF
English there must be an essay, to be
written on some prescribed subject. 1t is
easy to conceive how difficult it is to
satisfy the examiners. who are confronted
with so many candidates. with an Eng
Iish composition as one of the factors IN
the text. TRANSACTIONS from and into
French and German are required. A
knowledge of Greek is an extremely use
full requirement for any candidate who
may desire to specialize on one of the
eight elective topics. however useless his
accomplishment may be after he mas
taken his place in the service
There is no particular restriction upon
candidate in the selection of his sub
iects with reference to the position which
he aspires to attain or to which he may
be assigned by the commission regardless
Of his own preferences. He may pass a
high examination by reason of Greek
and chemistry. in order to be assigned TO
the performance of routine clerical work.
He may show up brilliantly in physics
and history and work for years afterward
i'm the handling of documents relating to
the collection Of taxes.
I asked the civil service official to whom
/ had been referred for the information
that 1 sought at the
Examinations headquarters whether
:. the examinations were
GAeCLI'e' regarded, on this basis,
as too abstract for the best interests of
the service He replied that the whole
endeayor was to secure the brightest men
available to confine appointments TO
those who had proved that they could
learn and who We're therefore adaptable
TO office duties. There no effort to
exclude men who lacked college or higher
school training op account of any preJu-
dice against them on this score No bet
ter way could be devised to test the rel
ative merits of candidates than to SUBJ
iect them to severe examinations that
would show how much they had absorb
ed during their years of scholastic work
I'VE might ask questions relative to the
prospective duties of the appointeeS and
get a much lower grade of men than we
do under the present system. my IN
formant observed. "Our system gives us
what we need, and therefore 1t suinces.
When we want experts in any particular
line we apply special tests. If we lower
ed the standard of the examination we
should he even more seriously crowded
with applications than we are at present
There is absolutely no other way TO de-
termine the fitness of the young men who
want to enter the service.
Ny attention was called to the follSw-
ing passage in the commissioners re-
port for 1909: There were two cases in
1900 of the rejection of a second division
clerk on probate
In other words out of all those tested