Evening star., 1919-04-12
COMPETITIVE PLAN
EXTENSION URGED
Government and Business
Need 1t, Civil Service Com
missioner Wales Says.
OLD SYSTEM WASTEFUL

The competitive system of appoint
ment and promotion should be applied
to all the services of the national.
state, municipal and county govern
ments, and to the business and indus
trial life of the country. Civil Serv-
ice Commissioner George R Wales
declared in an address yesterday aft
ernoon before the joint annual meet
ing of the National Civil Service Re-
form League and the Pennsylvania
Civil Service Reform Association, In
Philadelphia
Commissioner Wales told Of the at
tempted raids upon the civil service
organization of the government dur
ing the war, and the successful ef-
fort of the commission in combating
these attempts to do away with the
competitive system in making ap-
,pointments.
Tells of Fight for Exemption.
'The most vitality interesting part
of the commissions war history Will
probably never be written" he said.
TT relates to the effectual fighting
that was done by the commission in
combating the efforts of many Off
GERS of high degree to have parts OF
the service under their supervision
removed from the operation of the
civil service laws and rules. I am
thankful to say that generally the
commission was supported by the
heads of departments. but in some of
the immense bureaus. which were
established or many times multiplied
almost overnight, men of unquestion-
ed ability, who at great Sacrihce OF
their private interests had been plac-
ed in charge. brought the strongest
kind of pressure to bear to have the
positions under them exempted.
Their attitude. of course, was sim
ply because of the utter lack OF
knowledge of the benefits of the COM
petitive system, and right there is one
of the places where practical work is
gle day and night to preserve the
system and at the same time to meet
the unprecedented calls for employees
of all sorts which literally poured
into the office. 1t was hard and con-
slant fight and the commission won"
Warns Against Partisanship.
Commissioner Wales warned the
league that the movement for which
it was founded should not be a par
tfsan movement saying that it is
political movement only because it
has to do with the conduct of public
business.
16ul mo maJC91Iy mem snip Or ali
political parties should be in favor Of
it" continued Mr.. Wales. first, be-
cause its first tenet is ethat nom
policy officers and en-
ployes should be appointed on COM
petftive tests OF ability with abso-
lutte disregard to party fealty, and,
secondly. because it had been dem
onstrated a success when honestly ad-
m3nistered. 1t is a movement (which
seeks to place the business side of
the government upon a businesslike
basis for the beAefit of all the people
be kept out of party councils and party
strife.
Urges Extension of System.
TN all conscience this system ought
to be applied to all the service of the
national, state, municipal and county
governments. excepting only those
positions which are policy determin1
ing. Twill go further and say that l
believe it can be demonstrated that
the business and industrial life of
the country would be vastly benefited
and the wealth of the nation would
be conserved and augmented if the
system were generally followed in the
selection and advancement of en-
ployes in the business world, includ-
ing not only public utility corpora
tions, but every organization having
MY uSIdDle hummer OIL eIuplOyeS.
1t should be woven into the busi-
ness as we'll as the governmental ac-
tivitieS of the nation, for it is the
true. scientific method of determining
the ability and therefore the earn
ing capacity of the worker.
The average successful business
man and employer prides himself on
his ability to hire employees. In most
cases he will tell you that he would
not give the snap of his finger for
what an applicant may put on paper.
What he wants is to see the man he
is considering and then he can tell,
30 he says and SO he thinks. whether
the man is any good for the work
to be done.
This is the rock on which the commits
sion split so often during the war with
successful men OF business who were
placed in charge of the war activities
They insisted that they must not be
hampered in their selection of men if
they were to be held responsible for
the results We believe that the busi-
ness man is mistaken in this, that his
success is not due to his ability to
select men, and that he would have
been more successful if he had more
thoroughly and scientifically tested
the applicants before employment He
would have had more efficient force
and would have saved a goodIv nor.
t1on of his payroll expense by re-
ducing his labor turn over
Waste in Hiring and Firing.
Mr. Wales said that NJ. W. Alex
ander OF the General Electric Com
pany, West Lynn, Mass, had estab-
]ished that the economic waste from
the hiring and firing of employees in
this country to be somewhere between
SI12.000,000 and $24S 900 annually
In normal times" said MIR. Wales.
the annual turnover in the cIassi-
fed civil service of the Tilted States
is not over 13 per cent. To some ex-
tent this low turnover may be due
to the more stable character of gov
ernment employment and also to fail
ure to let out incompetents
The figures apply to all classes OF
positions. and perhaps are not COM
parable with figures for strictly in
dustrial establishments Nevertheless
we lave figures here which indicate
that the system of selection estab-
1ished by the civil service law re-
duceS the factory labor turnover un-
der war conditions to a small frac-
tion of what it is in peace times in
our most modern industrial plants OF
the same general character, and pre-
sumably under the management of our
Country's ablest executives.
Enlarged Duties Proposed.
"The civil service commission should
he the employment department of the
government service. 1t should be
equipped to undertake research work