Evening star., 1937-05-01
By Lucy Salamanca.

" HOUSANDS of temporary en-
ployes or 'unclaSSified" en-
ployes of the United States
4 Government are in twitter.
They want to know what is to be-
come of their jobs amidst all the re-
organization hustle They want to
know if they will be able to stav in
the Government service if they take
examinations. They want to know if
their department is to be abolished,
If its staff is to be reduced, if this
bill or that will take care of their
division in its appropriations, if they
can be "blanketed in" the civil serv-
Ice, or if they will be eased out They
are living, in short, in state of up
heaval that awaits impatiently final
congressional word upon the Presi-
tratiVe management. So concerned
are they, indeed. that l have been
told by a civil service executive that
every piece of legislation that comes
up for discussion on the hill is fol-
lowed with breathless eagerness by
those who fear it will not include
appropriations vital to their occupa-
tional interests. And every piece of
legislation brings food of literally
hundreds of inquiries a day pouring
into the information office of the
commission at Eighth and F streets.
In the last year more than 10000
visitors came and went through the
office of information in the Civil
Service Building, and the majority of
them were lnquirlng about the status
quo of their jobs Permanent en-
ployes, as well as temporary, are
wondering just how reorganization
will affect their own security, for,
despite the fact that no congressional
action has as yet been taken with
regard to the executive message of
last January, many changes have
taken place and are now under way
in the Federal departments. The
entire picture of civil service is un-
dergolng revision, and with every re-
vision the patterns of the lives of
hundreds of men and women are
altered.
PERHAPs the most conspicuous
change that New Deal legislation
has made in the civil service set-up
Is the preponderance of "unclassifed'
jobs it has brought into the Govern
ment. These unclassified jobs come
under what is termed the executive
branch'-that is, they are set up by
executive order and are conferred
without examination.
On March 13 Of this year there were
sl5,857 employees occupying unclassi-
fed positions, not subject to the civil
service act. There was a total of
5l5,238 employees occupying classified
positions and subject to the civil
service act. Thus 38 per cent of all
civil employees belonged to the execu-
tive branch. When reorganization set
in, however, figures altered for the
first half of the current fiscal year
and those given represent an increase
Of 1888 in the classified service and
q decrease of 9,677 in the unclassifed.
Not all of this 9,677 decrease rep
resented that number of jobs lost.
Changes in status, "blanketing" and
other provisions made for shifts within
the Government structure itself, and
some of those who had entered as
freely as air through an open window
found themselves the delighted sub
sequent possessors of civil service status
by no additional efforts of their own.
AS an example of this, an act of
Congress passed on April 27, 1885,
provided with respect to division
of the Department of Agriculture that
''for eight months the Secretary Of
Agriculture could make non-civil serv-
ice appointments. This particular
division represented the largest single
block of unclassifed employees that
had been brought in during the
present administration-10,000 en-
ployes. Thus, the 8month period
terminating in December, 1885, the
present of civil service status gratis
from the United States Government.
They then became listed in the records
as classified" employees and found a
nice new page ready for them in the
register.
1t has been the policy of the PreSi-
dent to establish gradually the various
emergency or unclassified organiza-
tions of the Government under civil
service rulings, at least. On August
25 1886, letter from the White House
to Civil Service Commissioner Harry
B. Mitchell, signed personally by Mr.,
Roosevelt, requests that in the Home
Owners Loan Corp. created as an
emergency agency to meet the mort
gage crisis in the urban home field"
so far as practicable "the principles
and methods of the merit system
established by the civil service act
should be further extended in its
personal relationships"
THE Civil Service Commission re-
ports total of 1899 employees
and positions brought into the classi-
fed service from an unclassif1ed, non
competitive status within the fiscal
year. The list ranges from Veterans
administration, Civilian Conservation
Corps, Agriculture and Treasury to
the Farm Credit Administration,
Parks Services of the Interior and
other Government divisions.
In the case of certain other or
carnations, classification of incum-
bents was not completed because of
conditions prescribed by law or by
executive order. For example, the act
which created new Central Statistical
Board in the Civil Service Commission
in 1885 directed that the board created
by executive order of 1888 should cease
to exist when seven members of the
new board were declared qualified for
membership. Classification of the in
cumbents was made conditional upon
their passing tests of fitness. The new
board has been established, but clas-
sification was not begun until after
the end of the fiscal year.
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