The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-10-22
NEA Service Writer

NEA Service Wr7tcr
 Washington-An unprecedented clamor for federal jobs is being made by huge army of men and women.
 The pile of applications has mounted far above all previous records. The applicants are:
 l. Uneml loved.
 2. Just out of school or college and U ,le to land positions else- where. orr
 3. E-.::.:.. yed, but anxious to wage scale enjoyed by government attain the securityN and steady orkers. r
 are g-asping at straws. taking a crack at any old civil ser vice examination. regardless of previous training and fitness. Ap- plications are received from un- skilled laborers even for the tecn- nical and scientific posts where college training is demanded of examination entrants. g$,'
 The Civil, Service commission began to be swamped by this big depression rush more than year ago when a record number of ap- plications-8500-- received for 400 or 800. stenographis jobs in the departmental service here A few months ago another record-break- ing host of 34.000 applied to take exams for few hundred file clerk positions. whereas year previous iy there had been less than 5000 applicants for the same test.
 Now, in the forthcoming exami- nations for stenograpbers and typ ists-with about 2,500 posts to be- come available at from S1,260 70 S1620 a year-a re1 high mark has been set hy about 10000 ap- plicants.
 The I-resEure is felt equally in other. branches of federal service. Tn the spring of fA1s30, for instance, the. commission held its examina- ton for junior engineers and fewer than 1,300 applied. This year the same examination brought out 4,- 30O. Similar .increases are report ed in examinations for other junior tes aical. professional and scientific posts. Those junior examinations are held in the spring, primarily for young men about to leave the colleges. ft,tt %.
 Uncle -sam's popularity as a boss among stenographers an,l typfsts is far greater than during the war, when about z0.0o0 of tn s1l were recruited for service in Washington. In fact. the condl- t. l'fs rever 1 because salaries were. so high elsewhere and '.ie competition of private business so stiff that the civil service recruit ing stan almost had to go out and chloroform the girls before 1t could drag them in: 's,
 Filling out the application blanks for any civil service job correctly and satisfactorily is a feat in itself. This blank resem bles an income tax blank, except that 1t has six pages and asks ma.iy more questions. There are more than 50 main questions and sub divisions with dozens of questions which require a yes or mo" ln- Swer. There'S space for medI- cal certificate. one for certificate of residence and another for a photograph. You are asked your ''height without shoes" and your weight t without overcoat" aad about all the commission doesn't know about you when you're through answering Is how muah butter you put on your breakfast toast the morning of June IS. 1911.
 If you were ever charged with a traffic violation or any other po- lice offense you have to tell about that Or takeca chance on going to prison. Minor offenses won't be held against you. but the commis- sion insists on knowing about them.
 Also: Are you a totar abstainer from the use of whisky. wine. beer