Evening star., 1933-08-06
TRADE SPECIALISTS
! MAY Be DISMISSED
Recent "UnoIanketing" Order
Jeopardlzing Many With
Civil Service Ratings.

II a clean sweep is made In the Bu-
reau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce as the result Of the recent "un-
blanketing" order designed to oust "po-
litical" appointees, it will mean dis
missal of a number of trade specialists
who entered the Government in minor
capacities through competitive civil
service and won their advanced places
by promotion.
This is brought out by correspond
ent of The Star, who cites the injus-
tice of hitting at class to reach certain
suspected individuals, adding pointedly
that it should be possible to use discrim-
ination, and weed out any political pref
erence job-holders without pulling
down the whole merit system OF civil
service"
These civil service employees" the
writer says, grew up, as it were, in the
service and because of efficiency,
earned promotions to Grades CAT 5, Z,
9. IL or IL as listed and described in
Glass specifications for positions in the
departmental service as prescribed by
the Personnel Classification Board in
accordance with Section of the CLASH
flcation act of 1928
Earned Their Ratings.
"These people were under civil service
protection as have said; were reclaSSl-
fed according to their qualifications and
duties following the Redistribution act.
and. as new responsibilities were given
to them in recognition of their ability,
they were promoted through years Of
hard work to the next grade or grades
according to where they belonged in the
judgment. not of Department of Com
merCe officials, but of the Personnel
Redistribution Board and civil service.
They earned their civil service status
and supposedly were safe in relying
upon civil service to protect them from
being placed in blanketed-out jobs. How
can they now be deprived of civil serv-
ice protection because the administra-
ton suspects that other individuals
occupy similar positions without having
earned them? If the suspected individ
uals had been unblanketed, there might
have been no injustice, but to take civil
service protection away from all the
higher research positions is something
that cannot be done with honest in
tent"
Voicing the fear that the positions
will actually become political patron
age due to the fact that nom -competi-
tive tests are to be used in filling them,
the writer says:
''Of course, the honest to goodness
civil service individualS--most Of them
simply cannot get patronage recon-
mendations. The situation is this: They
have lifelong civil service status, but
have been blanketed out of job with
little chance of ever using their status.
thnxy 81
get back their jobs through patronage
then. according to the mandate Of civil
service against political backing versus
merit, they jeopardize their civil service
status"
Business Specialists.
The employees who lose their COM
petitive status by the unblanketing
come in the business specialist group
with salary range from Grade 5, where
the minimum is $4,000, to Grade II,
with a maximum of $5,400.
When the order was signed by Presi-
dent Roosevelt it was announced that
approximately $50 persons would be af-
fected-215 here and 35 in the field.
The original blanketing orders by
Presidents Coolidge and Hoover, which
436 employees and involved not only the
competitive class to which The Star
correspondent refers, but also any other
workers who may have entered the
service since the date Of the two
blanketing orders, and were required to
pass competitive examinations.
Secretary Roper has said that all
those unblanketed now will be required
to pass non-competitive tests to demon
strate their fitness.
The bureau which has been a storm
center for the past year, with Demo-
Gratis charging it had been used as
haven for worthy Republicans, is not
recent invention, but. to the contrary
goes back long ways.
1t had its genesis in two isolated
groups. and, conforming to a rather
commonplace development in govern
ment, mushroomed to the proportions
where it had its neck out when the
politico-economy ak came along.
The parents of the present bureau
were the Bureaus Of Foreign Com
merce, in the State Department, and of
Statistics, in the Treasury.
Consolidated in 1903.
In 1908, in the administration of
President Theodore Roosevelt, these two
bureaus were consolidated in what was
then the Department of Commerce and
Labor, under the designation Of Bureau
of Statistics. In 1912, in the Taft ad
ministration, the name was changed to
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com
merce, and when, under President Will
son, Labor and Commerce became
separate departments, this agency went
to the latter.
Over this span Of years the bureau
made up of civil service personnel, was
spreading out. until in September, 1911.
an executive order was issued by President
Taft providing for appointment, with
out examination. Of commercial agents
to investigate conditions abroad and in
the United States, to promote the for
eign commerce of the United States
In July, 1914, under President Wilson.
this order was broadened, experts and
special agents being added.
In September, 1916, near the end Of
Wilson's first term, there were some more
changes, and non-competitive exami-
nations were provided for trade COM
missioners, commercial agents, expert
special agents, district managers and
assistant district managers.
Under the regime of Herbert Hoover
as Secretary of Commerce the bureau
assumed the proportions that prevailed
until the present administration, and
it was during this period that the prin-
cipal employees (the competitive status
of rank and file has always been the
same) were "blanketed in" under civil
service. In 1927 President Coolidge
brought in those getting less than 81
400 annually to the number of 81, and
in 1882 President Hoover brought in
339 in the higher pay brackets.
It was this last group that the fire
has been centered on, but the new order