Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-29
Breaking Down Stone Walls,

The formal and high-sounding objec-
tives of the Council of Personnel Ad-
ministration for the Federal establish
ment, created by executive order, are:
To establish a more effective liaison
system between the Civil Service Com
mission and the several departments;
to coordinate personnel administration
in the Federal service; to make more
attractive the prospect Of a career in
the Federal service: to improve selection
methods; to attract better people to the
service: 10 reduce excessive turnover
among the better qualified employees; to
avoid excessive increase in personnel; to
provide for the training of personnel
assistants in the several departments
and independent Offices; to make avail
able to the Government the best per-
sonnet practices of private industry; to
develop more adequate system of per-
sonnet records; and, in general, to in
crease the efficiency of the Government
service.
These are all admirable objectives.
But one prefers the summing up state
ment at the end of the Civil Service
Commissions explanatory announce
ment outlining the intent of the Presi-
dents order. Plans will be developed"
says this statement, "for the breaking
down of the stone walls against which
many superior Government employees
find themselves"
And what stone walls they are!
Inadequate salaries and cumbersome
systems of promotion; lack of uniformity
in personnel management and official
red tape, which often mean petty
tyranny and cut-and-dried routine
revolving in beaten circle. Those who
come face to face with this stone wall
can take the action that is dictated by
circumstance. They may leave the
Government service for private employ
ment that offers more reward for in
dividual initiative and effort, thus
losing to the Government the services
of experienced and skilled employees, or
they may face the prospect of eventually
climbing the stone wall into the
promised land provided by retirement
or death. Retirement, at least, does
not guarantee milk and honey.
The stone walls, the Civil Service
Commission indicates, will be broken
down by process that combines some
of the direct methods of the battering
ram with the more subtle methods Of
undermining. One of the first steps Is
the creation Of the Council of Personnel
Administration, under the chairman
ship of President Campbell Of the Civil !
Service Commission, and composed of
the heads Of the departments and some !
of the principal independent establish |
ments. DR.. L. J. O'Rourke. director of |
the research and personnel administra- !
ton Of the Civil Service Commission, |,
TO serve as director of the council, will !
formulate its various projects, assisted |
and advised by representatives Of the !
Government services as well as By out |
standing and successful employers in |
private industry BY investigations and !
surveys it is planned 10 gather infor |
nation on the most advanced theories ,
regarding personnel administration, 10 |
apply them to the Government service !
as a whole and. for one thing, to set |!
UP single system that will supersede |
the various and conflicting theories now !
found in the separate and independent :
branches Of the Government. Courses /
Of training for Government service in |
colleges and universities will be encour- /
aged as one method Of attracting the .
highest type of applicants for civil (
service positions.
The field is 30 large and the prob :
lem so complex that this important sep ,
in improving efficiency in Government !
and the status of its employees will re- |
quire time 10 show results. But it can 1
be set down now as che of the most I
far-reaching undertakings since the
establishment Of the Civn Service
Commission.
Mr. KaSSav prorf7inent Austrian mo-