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EXAMINATIONS.

17. Notices in writing shall be mailed to applicants for examination in the postal and customs service at least eight days before the examination, and they shall clearly specify the place and the time, including the hour, of holding the same.

18. All competitive examinations for admission to the civil service shall be in writing, except that tests of physical qualities or expertness may be added as the Commission shall approve.

19. All the questions on any subject in the examinations will be given on a single sheet. The sheets will be numbered and will be given out in the order of their numbers; each, after the first, being given only when the applicant shall return to the examiners the last sheet given to him.

20. Not less than four nor more than ten questions shall be given in each subject of the examination; and, to facilitate the marking, the questions in the same subject shall, as far as practicable, be equal in difficulty. Care shall also be taken that the time allotted for the examination shall be reasonably sufficient for answering the questions.

21. In general no competitive examination should occupy more than five hours, exclusive of any intermission, and in case the examination be divided into two sessions no questions given out during the first session should be allowed to be answered in the second.

22. Every Examiner will exercise all due diligence to secure fairness, and to prevent all collusion or fraud in the examinations.

23. The examination papers of each applicant shall be marked only with a number, and his name, with his number, shall be placed in a sealed envelope which shall not be opened till after his papers are marked.

24. The examination papers shall be reviewed by each Examiner separately, and in any case of disagreement the average of the markings, to be made on the papers by all, shall be the final marking on each question, subject to the regulation as to revision.

25. The views of the heads of post-offices and customs offices, as to whether applicants for the several parts of the service under them shall be examined in the five subjects under clause one of Rule 7, or only in the two subjects under clause four of that rule, will be accepted by the Commission so far as its duty to require uniformity, and adequate tests of capacity for doing the public work, will permit.

MARKING AND GRADING.

26. The marking on the examinations has three objects: First. To determine the standing in each subject.

Second. To determine the average standing upon the whole examination.

Third. To determine whether the applicant is admissible to the reg ister.

27. To determine the standing in any subject, mark each answer in proportion to its completeness and accuracy, the perfect answer counting 100. Divide the sum of the credits given to all the answers in such subject by the number of the questions; the quotient will be the proper standing in the subject.

28. To give to each of the five subjects named in clause 1 of Rule 7 the value due to their respective importance in the service, it is deter

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mined that they shall be counted in making up the general average, when perfect, as follows:

1. Orthography, penmanship and copying, 100.

2. Arithmetic, fundamental rules, fractions and percentage, 100. 3. Interest, discount, and elements of book-keeping and of accounts, 100.

4. Elements of English language, letter-writing and the proper construction of sentences, 50.

5. Elements of the history, geography, and government of the United States, 50.

(It will be seen that the total credits for a perfect examination in the five subjects will amount to 400. Dividing this by 4, being the number of hundreds, will give 100, which is the highest attainable general average.)

29. To determine the average standing of any applicant add to his total standing in the first three subjects one-half his standing in the other two and divide the sum by 4; the quotient will be his average standing.

30. No applicant the average of whose credits on the first three subjects is less than 65 will be placed on the register of persons eligible to appointment. All above that will be placed on the register in the order of their average standing.

31. The average standing of persons examined in the two subjects under clause four, Rule 7, will be found by dividing the sum of their credits by 2. The average standing must reach 65 to entitle the applicant to a place on the register.

The following will illustrate the application of these directions:

[Sum of credits in each subject divided by number of questions gives credit in that subject.]

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The grade at which the applicant will go upon the register is

therefore, 62.2 +65 +58 +33.5+ 38.3 =

237 6.75

=

Fifth

subject.

Credit to each question.

2d Session.

MESSAGE

OF THE

No. 10.

mission, 1871-1875

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

TRANSMITTING

The report of the commission appointed to devise rules and regulations for the purpose of reforming the civil service.

DECEMBER 19, 1871.-Read, ordered to lie on the table and be printed. Motion to print 10,000 additional copies referred to the Committee on Printing.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In accordance with the act of Congress, approved March 4, 1871, I convened a commission of eminent gentlemen to devise rules and regulations for the purpose of reforming the civil service. Their labors are now complete, and I transmit herewith their report, together with the rules which they recommend for my action. These rules have been adopted, and will go into effect on the 1st day of January, 1872.

Under the law referred to, as I interpret it, the authority is already invested in the executive to enforce these regulations, with full power to abridge, alter, or amend them at his option, when changes may be deemed advisable. These views, together with the report of the commissioners, are submitted for your careful consideration as to whether further legislation may be necessary in order to carry out an effective and beneficial civil service reform.

If left to me, without further congressional action, the rules prescribed by the commission, under the reservation already mentioned, will be faithfully executed'; but they are not binding, without further legislation, upon my successors.

Being desirous of bringing this subject to the attention of Congress before the approaching recess, I have not time to sufficiently examine the accompanying report to enable me to suggest definite legislative action to insure the support which may be necessary in order to give a thorough trial to a policy long needed.

I ask for all the strength which Congress can give me, to enable me to carry out the reforms in the civil service recommended by the commissioners, and adopted, to take effect, as before stated, on January 1, 1872. The law which provides for the convening of a commission to devise rules and regulations for reforming the civil service authorizes, I think, the permanent organization of a primary board, under whose general direction all examinations of applicants for public office shall be conducted. There is no appropriation to continue such a board beyond the termination of its present labors. I therefore recommend that a proper

appropriation be made to continue the services of the present board for another year, and in view of the fact that three members of the board hold positions in the public service which precludes them from receiving extra compensation under existing laws, that they be authorized to receive a fair compensation for extra services rendered by them in the performance of this duty.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 19, 1871.

U. S. GRANT.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION.

To the President:

The ninth section of an act of Congress approved March 3, 1871, and entitled "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirty, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and for other purposes," provides "that the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service of the United States as will best promote the efficiency thereof, and ascertain the fitness of each candidate in respect to age, health, character, knowledge, and ability for the branch of service into which he seeks to enter; and for this purpose the President is authorized to employ suitable persons to conduct said inquiries, to prescribe their duties, and to establish regulations for the conduct of persons who may receive appointments in the civil service.”

Having been designated by you as suitable persons to conduct said inquiries, we, the undersigned, beg leave respectfully to submit the following report:

Our duties were strictly limited by the act. We were not authorized to propose laws nor to reorganize the offices, but to inquire what rules and regulations for admission to the service, which the President could enforce under existing laws, would best promote its efficiency.

The public service of the United States is divided into three branchesthe civil, military, and naval. The civil service may be defined as that which is neither military nor naval, and comprises all the offices by which the civil administration is carried on.

The Constitution authorizes each House of Congress to choose its own officers. It empowers the President to nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint certain officers, who are mentioned by name, and all other officers whose appointments are not otherwise provided for in the Constitution, and which shall be established by law. It authorizes Congress to vest, by law, the appointment of such inferior officers as it may think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of Departments. The courts of law appoint their own officers. The President alone appoints very few, and they are mainly of an honorary character. Those who are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, are in number about three thousand. The other inferior officers, about fifty thousand in number, are appointed by the beads of Departments, sometimes directly, sometimes upon the nomination of another officer.

With the exception, therefore, of some who are appointed by the President alone, and those appointed by both Houses of Congress, and by

the courts of law, and a few who are appointed by the head of the Department of Agriculture, the civil officers of the Government are included in the seven great Departments of which the heads are Cabinet officers-the Department of State, of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Interior, of the Post-Office, and of Justice.

During the early administrations appointments were made from considerations of character and fitness, and removals took place for cause. This practice, as it was the wisest and most reasonable, was also to be expected, because Washington was unanimously elected to the Presidency, and party divisions, as we know them, were developed only toward the close of his administration. He required of applicants proofs of ability, integrity, and fitness. "Beyond this," he said, "nothing with me is necessary or will be of any avail to them in my decision." John Adams made few removals, and those for cause. Jefferson said that the pressure to remove was like a torrent. But he resisted it, and declared, in his famous phrase, that "the only questions concerning a candidate shall be: Is he honest; is he capable; is he faithful to the Constitution?" Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams followed him so faithfully that the Joint Congressional Committee upon Retrenchment reported, in 1868, that, having consulted all accessible means of information, they had not learned of a single removal of a subordinate officer except for cause, from the beginning of Washington's administration to the close of that of John Quincy Adams.

During all this time, however, party pressure for removals was not unknown. Under Madison's administration, Josiah Quincy, in a familiar passage, described with caustic satire the sycophancy and servility of the pressure for office that followed the death of an incumbent. When

an auditorship of the Treasury became vacant under Monroe, among the applicants were five United States Senators and thirty Representatives in Congress. John Quincy Adams, who steadily resisted the pressure, said that he was "tormented" with ceaseless applications for office; and in 1828 Mr. Van Buren said that the chief justice of the proudest and largest State was a candidate for a place in the Treasury Department to which none but third-rate men would aspire. Such facts illustrate the pressure for office under a system of mere personal favor and selection, although it required fitness, and refused to make vacancies by removals in obedience to party influence. Yet there was always a hope that, as the appointing power had established no independent method of determining fitness, a strenuous party or personal pressure might affect its will. A struggle was therefore inevitable. The party pressure was already "tormenting," and as the number of offices increased and the power of patronage developed it was to be expected that it would attempt to control the whole civil service for the benefit of a party.

This practice was virtually declared as a rule of action in the year 1832. Mr. Van Buren was in that year nominated minister to England, and, in advocating his confirmation, Senator Marcy, of New York, first used the famous phrase in reference to the offices of the civil service, "To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy." From that time it has been practically the motto of the administration of every party. As its evil results have been observed, various efforts have been made to obviate them. The most strenuous and continuous of these was that with which the Hon. Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, is conspicuously identified. The investigations and reports upon this subject of the Joint Committee of Retrenchment, in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses, of which he was a member, obtained and recorded a mass of valuable information, which he forcibly presented in his speeches upon the floor.

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