The act of Congress approved February 17, 1911, created a locomotive-boiler inspection service and provided for the appointment of 50 inspectors of locomotive boilers, in as many different districts throughout the country, at a salary of $1,800 a year, and set forth, in substance, that such appointments were to be made through competitive examination to be held by the Civil Service Commission. Accordingly, after conference with the Interstate Commerce Commission, the examination was formulated and announced. Much interest in the examination was evinced among railroad employees, and there were 909 competitors, of whom 135 passed. On account of the nature of the duties of the position the tests given were severe, though fair, and calculated to bring to the top of the eligible register those best qualified, both technically and by personal fitness. It is gratifying to be able to report that thus far the men selected have been of the best type possible to be obtained for this work and that officials of the Interstate Commerce Commission having this branch of the service in charge have expressed fullest satisfaction with the results of the examination.

CHARACTER OF EXAMINATIONS FOR POSITIONS OF THE HIGHEST GRADE.

Mention has been made in this report, as in previous reports, of examinations held for positions of unusual requirements. In most cases these positions required men possessed of the highest scientific knowledge and attainments or technical or professional training and experience. As the field of the Government's scientific endeavor expands, and as the commission is thus required to meet satisfactorily the increasing demands of the departments for scientific and professional men, methods of arriving at a proper measure of the relative proficiency of those available for such positions are developed and improved. One of the difficulties met in the application of the competitive-examination system to positions of this kind is the prevalent and perhaps natural disinclination of men of high attainments to compete in an assembled examination at which academic questions are propounded on scientific or professional subjects. Men whose attainments meet the standard required would feel more inclined to allow the position to seek them out than to enter into a competition more or less public. To meet this condition, an examination into the education, training, experience, and fitness of applicants, which does not require them to assemble at any particular place, was devised and utilized, with results that proved the adequacy and effectiveness of this type of examination for positions of the character described. More recently it was found in the cases of some of the most important scientific and professional positions that men of attainments and standing in their profession hesitate to make formal application in response to announcements of examinations. In order that such

men, with others who respond to the call for competitors, may be available for the consideration of appointing officers, the commission endeavors, through any available means, to learn of all such persons, and then by direct request to induce them to submit the requisite record of their education, training, and experience. By the method here outlined the commission has been able to obtain better competition between men of high attainments for appointment to some of the more responsible scientific and professional positions in the classified service.

IRREGULARITIES IN EXAMINATIONS.

The integrity of examinations is a prime essential of the competitive system. Section 5 of the civil-service act provides in substance that any officer or employee in the public service who fraudulently violates the integrity of an examination shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined or imprisoned or both. No prosecution has ever been instituted under this section of the statute. Until within the last fiscal year, there has been no case in which irregularity or fraud had been shown on the part of any employee of the commission or any person detailed as an examiner. In January and February, 1911, information was received by the commission indicating possible fraud on the part of members of local examining boards and others at each of two post offices in connection with examinations held for those offices in 1897 and 1903, respectively.

Investigation of one case showed that the postmaster, in 1897, being anxious that his son and a friend secure positions in the office, obtained from an employee of the post office, detailed as a member of the commission's board of examiners, copies of the examination questions sent by the commission to the local board for use in the examination, procured solutions and answers to the questions, and furnished them to his son and the friend. It was shown further that these persons studied the questions, solutions, and answers before the examination and used them during the examination. Both received eligible ratings and were appointed. The statute of limitations having run, no prosecution could be instituted, but upon the commission's recommendation the postmaster, the member of the board, and the two persons thus aided were removed by the Post Office Department.

In the other case it was shown that two persons were given assistance in connection with an examination held in 1903, in the same way that assistance was given in the other case-through the connivance of the postmaster and members of the local board of examiners in the post office. The postmaster and members of the board implicated left the service some time ago, but the two persons who profited and were still in the service at the time of the investigation were removed

by the department on the commission's recommendation. They were not prosecuted, the statute of limitations having run against their offenses.

More detailed statements of the facts in these two cases of fraud will be found in the appendix.

DEMAND FOR MALE STENOGRAPHERS AND TYPEWRITERS.

For many years there has been a constant and growing demand for male stenographers and typewriters in the classified service willing to accept the usual entrance salary of about $900 a year. More and more difficulty has been experienced each year in meeting this demand. For several years the examination has been held quarterly, but during the past year it was found necessary to hold it throughout the country at eight different times.

Special efforts were also made to bring to the attention of qualified persons in all parts of the country the opportunities for appointment offered by this examination, and to encourage wider competition a large number of additional local boards of examiners were instructed in the conduct of this examination and the number of places at which it may be taken was thus materially increased. Circulars calling attention to the opportunities for appointment of male stenographers were posted in every place where the examination was held and were also sent to every high school and business college in which these subjects are taught. Although the special efforts resulted in obtaining an increased number of competitors and a proportionately greater number of eligibles than in former years, the needs of the service as represented by requisitions from the various departments and offices increased correspondingly.

What is said here in regard to the difficulties experienced in obtaining a sufficient number of male stenographer and typewriter eligibles does not apply to females. The semiannual examinations open to women have provided enough well-qualified stenographers and typewriters of that sex without additional announcement or other special efforts.

The examination for stenographer and typewriter is not too difficult for persons qualified to do the work. Any lowering of the standard would result in rendering incompetents eligible for appointment. All competitors are given a stenography dictation test at the rate of 80 words a minute, and they have the option of taking additional tests at 100, 120, and 140 words a minute. Under the system of rating, a competitor who transcribes perfectly the dictation exercise given at the rate of 80 words a minute is rated at 85 in the subject of stenography. If, in addition to the test at 80 words a minute, he transcribes one of the tests at a higher rate of speed and his combined ratings for speed and accuracy are greater than those attained at the lower rate. 23175°-12- -3

of speed, he is given the benefit of the higher rating. It is possible for a competitor to make as many as 10 major errors in transcribing the test at 80 words a minute and still pass the examination. It is believed that a stenographer who is unable to take dictation at the rate of 80 words a minute and transcribe his notes without making more than 10 major errors can not be regarded as competent.

It is found that there is less difficulty in obtaining eligibles from the Eastern than from the Western States, on account of the higher compensation usually to be obtained in private employment in the West.

The opportunities in Washington for professional and scientific study should tend to attract applicants for employment in Washington.

THE FIELD-SERVICE ORGANIZATION.

In the extensions of the district system described in the chief examiner's last report an outline was given of the increase of work which now falls to the field offices of the commission. One of the items of increase is the participation by the district secretaries in the ratings of noneducational examinations for the Engineer and Ordnance Departments at Large, all of which had been done previously by the local boards of examiners for those services. Another item is the providing of eligibles for vacancies in clerical and subclerical positions in the field services, much of such work previously being done from the commission's Washington office. The changes in methods have proved, in the main, to be satisfactory to the various departments and to be in the interests of good service. As a result. of the transfer of the field business to the commission's field offices, it has been necessary to strengthen those offices by the assignment of experienced members from the force of the Washington office.

Preliminary steps are being taken to include under the district system positions in the Lighthouse Service, and to have the rating of noneducational examinations for that service participated in by the district secretaries, as is now done in similar examinations for the Engineer and Ordnance services.

Improvements in methods of handling the field business of the commission are being made from time to time, with the object of facilitating the filling of vacancies and improving the personnel of the service.

AVAILABILITY OF ELIGIBLES.

In its last annual report the commission said:

* * * Prompt rating of examination papers enables the names of those persons who successfully pass to be entered on the register and to receive early consideration before conditions have so changed that eligibles are no longer available for appointment. The maximum result of an examination is

obtained through the possibility of certification at the earliest practicable date, since the number of declinations increases in proportion to the time which elapses after an examination.

The civil-service rules give the commission authority to extend the term of eligibility of all the names on an eligible register when the conditions of good administration render it inexpedient to hold a new examination. While it is sometimes necessary, in the interest of good administration, to extend the term of eligibility of registers, the commission has adopted the general practice of limiting such extension to a period of one year in practically all cases. The condition of the eligible register, as to the number of names of available eligibles it contains, the expense and time involved in holding a new examination, the prospective further needs of the service for persons having similar qualifications, and other considerations enter into each case where it is proposed to extend the term of eligibility of any register.

The best results from the operation of the competitive-examination system are to be obtained when the highest degree of promptness is attained in each of the several steps leading from the announcement of an examination to the filling of a vacancy. At best the eligible list is a waiting list, and the longer the period of waiting from the time of holding examination, the less likely are the eligibles to be available for appointment when their names are reached for certification. Because of their superior qualifications, those who attain the highest averages are usually available for a shorter period of time than those who attain the lower ratings.

These conditions make it necessary so to set the dates of examinations that the examining force will not have before it a congestion of unrated papers. In the earlier years of the commission all examinations were held semiannually, in the spring and fall, resulting in an accumulation of examination papers twice each year, and sometimes preventing the establishment of an eligible register therefrom for more than six months after the examinations were held. The dates for the largely attended examinations have been more widely distributed throughout the year, so as to reduce the accumulation of papers and consequently the time intervening between the date of examination and the time of establishing the eligible register. Such general examinations as are required for the service in Washington are still held during the spring and fall months of March and April, September and October, the general examinations for the field services are held in November and February, and the stenographer and typewriter examinations for males are held regularly in January and July and in other months, as required. In addition to these general examinations, many specially announced examinations are distributed through every month in the year.