Evening star., 1936-06-07

possible, for the Civil Service Com
mission only makes its check as of
June 80 each year.
At the end of February this year,
with work expanded tremendously,
the old-line groups, as these are called,
embraced with the departments Is
independent agencies consultations
and Adjustments had reduced the
number), with a total employment OF
COS $50.
Granting, for sake of argument,
that the civil service percentage had
held constant, this would make the
approximate breakdown" 4s4, 900 civil
service and 121, 900 not and the for
mer figure is doubtlessly too large,
for the Civil Service Commission re-
port of June 80 last put the number
of merit-system employees only at
455.264, including about $500 COW
cred in by executive orders issued
by President Roosevelt.
In addition 10 this regular old-line
total of more than 605,000, there were
in excess of 1880 employees scattered
on works program pay rolls through
these same agencies, by far the great
est number Of these being patronage
appointees, though many, Of course,
are only temporary.
That means then that there now
are at least $4,000 non-civil service
employees in the old-line establish
ments and that the civil service per-
centage there has dropped from 80
to 10.
The situation in the rest of the vast
set-up is familiar almost to every one.
Some 30-odd organizations have been
created, with or 10 totaling around
10000 employees under civil service.
The personnel in these stood at about
10000 at the end of February (the
figure is little different right now of
which approximately 10000 are in
various public works agencies. The
rest are in another grouping, which
takes in such activities as farm aid,
labor relations, housing, banking, So
cial security, Tennessee Valley, Sc
curities and exchange. communica-
tions-in fact, the New Deal program
exclusive Of the works projects.
Civil Service Figures.
In the entire executive branch then
the civil service percentage figures
around go per cent, but allowing for
the thousands of persons on subsist-
ence wage under the wage program
who now are carried on Federal rather
than State rolls (the money always
came from the Federal Government)
this percentage might reach IS. Here
again it is possible to do no more than
estimate, for the personnel Is paid on
three scales. The old line group are
under the classification act. New Deal
workers generally come under the
emergency order" rates promulgated
by President Roosevelt to harmoniZe
their pay with classification act sched-
ules. Then, the works program class
Is paid both by the "E. O." schedule,
and. as has been said. by the sub
sistence wage scale. No one knows
the pay roll breakdown as between
the three groups. At any rate, 1t has
been running better than 1922, ,000, 900.
Eventually half of these new set-ups
seemed destined for permanency, and
until those stated by patronage are
placed under civil service-if they are
they bid fair to be nothing more nor
less than political foot balls. In the
natural order of things, the bread
and butter" jobs will disappear.
The creation Of this vast non- civil
service force was not an overnight
development following on the election
OF 1882, The groundwork was being
laid two months before that.
First Rumbling in 1882.
The first rumbling came in Sep
tember of go, when an ill-advised
statement issued from the Demo-
,ratic National Committee In the name
of Senator Harrison of Mississippi
accused President Hoover of packing"
the civil service force with Repub-
licans by "blanketing-in" several
groups from the various establish
mentS.
A vigorous disclaimer was entered
at once by Thomas e. Campbell, the
Republican president of the Civil
Service Commission at that time, who
explained the circumstances surround
ing the bringing in of each-prin-
cipally Veterans Administration attor-
neys, miscellaneous workers In the
Department of Justice and the Bureau
of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of
the Commerce Department-and am