TABLES OF STATISTICS. TABLE 1. Showing, by legal residence, the number of persons examined for the classified service and the number that passed and that failed during the year ended June 30, 1911.. TABLE 2. The number of examinations of each kind, the number of persons examined, the number that passed, the per cent that passed, and the number TABLE 3. Showing the apportionment of appointments in the departmental service at Washington, D. C., from July 16, 1883, to June 30, 1911.... TABLE 4. Showing changes in the executive civil service during the year ended TABLE 6. Showing changes for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, in the post offices of cities having a population of 75,000 or over; also total number of changes in all other classified post offices.... TABLE 7. Showing the number of clerks and substitute clerks, carriers and substitute carriers, and the number of excepted and unclassified positions in each of seven of the largest post offices at the close of the fiscal year, June TABLE 8. Showing the number and percentage of separations from each of seven of the largest post offices for each year from July, 1896, to June, 1911............. TABLE 9. Showing changes in the customs service at ports whose annual receipts are in excess of $500,000, and also the total number of changes at all other ports for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911..... TABLE 10. Showing changes in the Internal-Revenue Service for the fiscal year TABLE 11. Showing separations from classified competitive positions, by branches of the service and by fiscal years, from 1904 to 1911, inclusive... TABLE 12. Showing number of positions, by status, on July 1, 1910, additions by appointments, etc., and subtractions by separations, etc., during the fiscal year, and number of positions on June 30, 1911.. TABLE 13. Showing, for all branches of the classified service, the number examined, the number that passed, the per cent that passed, the number appointed, the per cent appointed of those that passed, and the approxi- mate number of competitive classified positions in the service during the several periods covered by the reports of the commission.... TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 22, 1911. SIR: The civil service act and rules have now been in force for 28 years. At first applied to less than a tenth of the service, the classification has been extended from time to time until all positions, with few important exceptions, to which the President has power to extend the merit system, have been brought within its field of operation. With the classification of these few remaining positions the President will have practically exhausted his authority to extend the provisions of the civil-service act, and any further extension can be made only after action by Congress. The need for such action already has been pointed out by the President in his recommendations to Congress, and if his suggestions are enacted into law many positions of the higher grades will be withdrawn from the patronage system. The past year was thus one of growth, both in accomplishment and purpose. A review of the administration of the civil service act and rules during the past year shows continued reasons for gratification. Applicants for examination, employees in the service, appointing officers, and the public at large have evinced a deeper sympathy with the purposes of the commission and a broader understanding of the limitations to its powers and duties. The sincerity with which it has endeavored to enforce the principles of the civil service law and rules in the interests of the public good has met with increasing appreciation. With few powers of direct enforcement, the commission must rely upon the moral force of its recommendations and the inherent justice of its proposals. Appointing officers not only have striven to comply with the spirit as well as the letter of the law and rules, but also have shown a sincere desire to cooperate with the commission in outlining plans for the most practicable means of applying them. These conditions, augmented by increasing recognition from Congress, and particularly by the strong sympathy of the President, have increased the commission's efficiency and have been to it a source of gratification. The attitude of the President is evidenced in the well-considered extension of classification to assistant postmasters and to clerks in first and second class post offices not previously classified, and in his recommendations to Congress for legislation permitting the classification of first, second, and third class postmasters, collectors of customs and of internal revenue, and eventually all supervisory officers whose classification, though now not possible under the civilservice act, would be for the best interests of the service and the longest step in advance yet taken in civil-service administration. He has extended the merit system in part to the diplomatic service, and recommended its confirmation by law in both the consular and diplomatic services. Census supervisors and enumerators also, though not subject to the operations of the civil-service law, were forbidden under pain of dismissal to take any part in politics other than merely to cast their votes. EXTENT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. On June 30, 1911, there were approximately 391,350 officers and employees of the executive civil service. Of these, 227,657 held positions subject to competitive examination under the civil-service rules, an increase of 5,849 during the year,1 and about 6,500 were unclassified laborers subject to tests of physical fitness under the labor regulations. Of the 163,693 persons whose positions are not subject to competitive examination under the civil-service rules, 10,064 are presidential appointees, 7,994 being postmasters of the first, second, and third classes; 37,009 are fourth-class postmasters; 12,850 were reported in 1907 as clerks at post offices having no Free Delivery Service; 28,191 are minor employees, chiefly laborers, on the Isthmian Canal work; 3,562 are employees of the Department of Commerce and Labor, most of them in the Census Bureau, all appointed through examination or some other method prescribed by the Thirteenth Census act; 18,142 unclassified employees in the field service; and 1,987 in Washington are in the main mere unskilled laborers; and approximately 25,000 are mechanics and laborers at navy yards, subject to appointment under navy-yard regulations.* The remaining 23,589 are excepted from examination under schedule A or are subject to noncompetitive examination under schedule B of the civil-service rules. Of these, 939 are employed in Washington 1 These figures are based upon reports furnished by the several departments as required by the civil-service rules. Owing to inaccuracies inherent in the gathering of data and to inadvertent omissions by the departments, the figures must be accepted as only approximate. 2 There are also 298 positions in the Consular Service subject to examination requirements under regulations prescribed by the President. The consular regulations are outside the jurisdiction of the commission, but its chief examiner is, by designation of the President, a member ex officio of the board of examiners. This statement is from a bulletin of the Census Bureau and no later definite information is available. About 4,000 of the positions occupied by these employees became competitive under the Executive order of Sept. 30, 1910 (see p. 14), but only 24 of the employees were given a competitive status during the year covered by this report. See p. 21 for discussion of the status of navy-yard mechanics. and the others in branches of the field service. Few important positions are included among those excepted from examination. Their great variety will be seen by reference to schedule A of the rules. GROWTH OF THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE. The following statement shows the additions to the competitive classified service during the year ended June 30, 1911, by action of the President, by operation of act of Congress, and by automatic provisions of the rules: By presidential action: Solicitor to the collector at the port of New York . Assistant postmasters and post-office clerks under the order of Sept. 30, Clerks in charge of stations whose pay does not exceed $500 per annum, approximately.... Paymasters in the New York customs district.... Total..... By operation of act of Congress: By appropriation for skilled laborers in lieu of driver...... By automatic inclusion: Office deputy marshal. Classified for long and meritorious service over seas. Classified in Philippines under order of Mar. 1, 1904.. Grand total.... EXCEPTIONS FROM EXAMINATION. During the year the following positions were excepted by amendment of schedule A of the rules: Laborers acting as openers and packers, Hawaii.......... Field assistants for reconnoissance parties in Forest Service, approximately Specialist in higher education............... Histopathologist, Government Hospital for Insane.. Secretary and assistant secretary in military parks.. 5 150 1 1 3 31 Scouts, buffalo keepers, and park rangers.. 1 The occupants of these positions, with few exceptions, have not yet been made competitive under the terms of the order. 2 From Dec. 1, 1910, advancement to the second class, and not the establishment of free delivery, results in the classification of an office. All employees at Molokai Leprosy Station.... Assistant to secretary in office of the Secretary of the Interior........ Paymasters' clerks, acting as principal clerks to general storekeepers at navy yards and naval stations... 71 12 All positions under the Navy Department in the islands of Guam and Samoa.... 25 1 clerk actually on duty with each assistant paymaster of the United States Marine Corps..... Total.. 5 241 Most of the positions thus excepted are unimportant and their remoteness made the application of the rules difficult. Others were excepted because of special or peculiar qualifications required, making examinations impracticable or unnecessary. On December 1, 1910, the President promulgated an order authorizing the commission to except from competitive examination appointments to positions of unusual character as to duties, and for which qualified persons are so rare that in the judgment of the commission they can not be filled through competitive examination. The reasons for action taken under this order are described in the appendix of the report. Thirteen appointments have been made under the above order. Under the order of December 29, 1909, 38 machinists, etc., in the Census Office were appointed. During the year appointments of 43 persons were authorized by Executive orders applying to individuals as compared with 19 during the preceding year. Of these 13 had previously been employed in the competitive classified service, but were ineligible for reinstatement under the rules, having been out of the service beyond the time limit for reinstatement. These appointments form a very insignificant proportion of the whole number of appointments to the classified service. A large majority of the appeals by individuals for Executive orders, referred to the commission for report and recommendation, were refused by the President. Appeals by or in behalf of individuals for Executive orders are invariably referred to the commission by the President for report and recommendation, accompanied by papers showing the basis of the appeal. If an unfavorable report is made by the commission, as a rule no order is made, and when an order is promulgated by the President after an adverse report by the commission, his reasons for overruling the commission are stated in the order. By special direction of the President the reasons for its promulgation are set forth in each order as well as whether or not the commission concurred in recommending it. It was early recognized by the President that the issuance of Executive orders out of sympathy would swamp him and the commission, as considerations that appeal to one's sympathy always exist. Such orders are effectually guarded against by the careful consideration and statement of the grounds for action in each case. |