Evening star., 1925-04-26

! Uncle Sam runs the biggest indus
trial establishment in all the world
To run this shop he has something
| over 5000 employees, to say nothing
| of the armed forces. All of these peo
pie are in the employment of every
! taxpayer and serve all the people OF
the country in a thousand ways.
They work for you, although you
never stop to appreciate what they are
doing, in order that the work may be
we'll done, quite a task is involved to
see that capable workers are hired.
The agency through which the most
| of these employees are recruited is the
Civil Service Commission, which has
| been on the job for AZ years, since the
old spoils system ito the (politicaD vic
tor belongs the spoils" was replaced
by the merit system, under competi-
tive examination.
In those AZ years the Civil Service
Commission has given competitive
examinations TO more than 5000, ,000
persons, of whom 100000 have been
appointed to positions. During the
last fiscal year there were 250,000 ex-
amined and of these 5000 received
appointments. OF the 250, 900 exam
ined, 100000 were examined for posi-
tionS as clerks, letter carriers or rail-
way mail clerks in the postal service.
AS out of the $4,000 employees of the
Government, about 10 per cent of
whom are stationed in Washington,
the postal service commands some
500 900, you can readily see why this
daily service to your home IS the
biggest single business in the world.
The question naturally arises, why
is it necessary to make so many ap-
pointments when the policy is one of
I'D To ont
Federal service is so large that the
ordinary designations, deaths and dis
missals make numerous appoint
mentS necessary. Before the war
such designations, deaths and dismis-
sails amounted annually to about IA
per cent of the whole number en-
ployed.
During the war there was a tre-
mendous number appointed tempo
dismissed by the thousands, until
now we are back to about the old
IA per cent turnover.
While 1t is the policy of the Civil
Service Commission to fill such vacan-
cies as occur as far as possible from
the groups that have to be dismissed
when reductions in force are ordered,
it should be quite evident that an
ordinary clerk cannot appointed
10 the JOD Oh Cne1lllSl, DdCteIlOlOSiol
or engineer. That's why the commits
sion has to keep right on having
some 1000 different kinds of exanyf-
nations-from ordinary laborers to
the highest scientific work. The
Government, like any other sensible
employer, requires different kinds of
qualifications for different kinds of
work, and so different kinds of eX-
aminations are prepared to test these
varying qualifications.
In many private plants laborerS
are selected by foreman, who looks
over a crowd about the factory gate
way and picks out the most sturdy
looking of the lot. The Government,
in most of it's plants, has a physician
examine the applicants, who discovers
many defects and communicable dis
eases the private foreman would
never see. Besides, the strength of
each applicant is tested.
In many private offices the selection
of stenographers is based on the ap-
plicants' claims as to what they can
do, or statements of others as to
what they have done. The Govern
ment gives them note books and type
writer and asks them to demonstrate
their ability by actually doing a
stenographer's work.
The Government now employees
through the civil service system of