The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-20
UNIQUE ANSWERS
Civil Service Brings Out Some Pecu'
 liar Replies

HAT RepIlcS
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 20.-"The feminine of 'czar' is bazaar
 ''The plural of solo, is .duet.'~
 'The flappers of country are its 1 fora <::.45
 These are some, recent answers to questions put by the civil service com mission in examinations, President Wiilisan c. lDeming of the commission says.
 [ Discussing the problems faced in ob- taining employees for the government, MT. Deniing said.
 .j.The commission has to deal not only with the highly sensitive em- ployee who imagines he is being dis criniinated against, but with the sus- picious person who builds up from false premise some conclusion which I topples like ahouse of cards when sub jeeted to hte light of simple inquiry Perhaps the most striking instance of this character was the example of a we'll meaning employee in a govern ment department who had occasion to cheek over lists, of eligibles under the civil service rules. > Asks Confidential Interview.
 This employee came to the commis- sion and asked for confidential in terview, asserting that it vas believed in the bureau in which he worked that partisan politics was being carried on in defiance of the civil service rules When asked for the evidence the in l formant said be had observed upon cer- tain lists of eligibles certified by the commission and passed over his desk that after one name would be the let ter .D,' which he had been told in dicated that the eligible was Demo erat; after another the letters F. R.. which. he understood meant Faithful Republican, and after others the letter l A. which he was sure meant. .appoint. | '@The visitor was very. much sur prised and relieved when shown the commission form 1765, on which lists l of eligibles are certified with a foot. note showing key terms as follows: "A selected r. R.. failed to reply; N. $. not selected; w A, wrong address and D., declined.'
 Tt may be that the civil service com mission occasionally makes mistake but when is considered that annually we receive more than q million com munications, not counting applica tiOns; examine more than a quarter of a million competitors and certify eligibles to fill more than fifty thou sand vacancies, it is not to be expected that everybody will be satisfied.
 Gives Birth Three Separate Yaers.
 By far the greater number of mis representations are among those wht falsify their age or experience. Vt have cases in, which the same individ ual in filling out different applica tions at different times lIas given his birtl ill at least three separate years, ant only recently we had one case in whicl the applicant claimed to be ten year, younger than he really was and al legged that he had never known his cor rect age until the civil service com mission established it to his. full sat isfaetion. 1t is needless to say. thai this applicant. wpnt on the barred list for prescribed period, which is ont of our penalties for misrepresentation
 We have had cases where one mem Der of family, competent to pass ar .axaminatioh, impersonated another member of the family, who was the real applicant, but did not have conf dence in his ability to pass. Under the commissions system it is not possible to carry this deception to q successful conclusion.
 An applicant for a small town post mastership gave New Mexico rs hel birthplace. %When shown by the com miss-on conclusive evidence that sh; was horn in Italy she explained tht m1sstatement by saying that she wa, brought to this country so young thal she supposed she was born in thu | United Stntes''~ ,S