Those who serve the Nation in time of war deserve much of a grateful country. If the Nation wishes to reward in a fitting manner those citizens who have represented it in time of national peril, there can be no objection raised. It can not be called, however, a fitting reward of patriotic service to grant to those who have rendered military service the privilege of impairing its civil service.

MILITARY PREFERENCE IN REINSTATEMENT.

Upon recommendation of the commission the President on July 18, 1918, issued an Executive order whereby any honorably discharged soldier, sailor, or marine who once held a competitive position may be reinstated in any branch of the service. This benefit lasts for the five years following separation from the Army or Navy. Former Government employees without military status can be restored only to their former departments and only within one year following separations. Service men have thus been given a decided advantage. Military reinstatement registers are maintained in the commission and in the district offices. Wherever possible, immediate attention has been given to a military man's request for reemployment with the result that in numerous instances men have been assigned to work within a few hours after their applications were presented. That they availed themselves of the opportunities for return to Government service may be seen from the fact that while during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, 6,675 reinstatement certificates were issued, 5,365, or 80 per cent, were issued after November 5, 1918. These do not include the numerous restorations made under the act of February 25, 1919, of those who resigned to enlist.

CONSERVING WAR WORKERS.

Early in November, 1918, the commission sought to allay a widespread fear on the part of the civilian personnel of the military departments that there would soon be a general reduction of the force owing to the prospect of early peace. The commission requested the departments concerned to announce publicly that when reductions became necessary, they would probably be gradual, and would undoubtedly be met to a considerable extent by voluntary separations. It was suggested that the departments which contemplated reductions in forces should notify the commission in advance in order that it might certify to other departments the names of persons who were to be dropped. The commission endeavored to allay needless alarm on the part of war workers and to prevent a stampede which would seriously interfere with the conduct of Government business. Consultation with departmental officials disclosed a

strong opinion that the reinstatement rule providing that persons who resigned to enter the war might be reinstated at any time within five years should also be amended to provide for the conservation of experienced civilian war workers. A conference of personnel officers of a number of the departments was held with representatives of the War Industries Board and the War Policies Board for the formulation of plans to ameliorate hardship upon individual workers, to give the workers reasonable notice of any intended changes, to provide transportation to their homes, and to effect coordinate action on the part of the departments both as to the release of workers and their transfer from offices where reductions were to take place to offices where additional employees were needed.

It seemed likely that a reduction of 30,000 employees would take place within a year and that the ordinary provisions of the civilservice rules, owing to certain restrictive statutes, would not permit of as free absorption of the most efficient employees elsewhere in the service as would be desirable both in the interests of the employees themselves and the interests of the public service. It was believed to be a matter of public policy that the service should be safeguarded and at the same time recognition be given to those coming to Washington for war work at a sacrifice.

The executive order of November 29, 1918, for the establishment of reemployment registers to conserve the experienced war workers was promulgated and recommended by the commission and has thus far met the situation very satisfactorily in effecting a wise redistribution of the force. Several thousand well-trained and highly efficient employees in offices where they were no longer needed have been provided for in offices where they are needed. If it had not been for the order it would have been necessary to have dropped efficient employees from the service and to bring from the outside wholly new and untrained persons.

WOMEN WAR WORKERS.

In peace times the service has been largely recruited from among young men who have not chosen a vocation. With this class largely in the military service or subject to call under the selective-service law, women outnumbered men in examinations to which they were admitted. A large proportion of the examinations were opened to them. During the war period nearly 75 per cent of the appointments at Washington were of women. In the field branches of the service, the proportion was about one woman to two men. After withdrawal from departments of men for military service, the percentage of women appointed was probably higher.

Many of the women who entered the service were actuated by patriotic motives, leaving good positions and comfortable homes to accept service under living conditions which were very trying, especially in Washington. The need of the Government was an opportunity for many who were just out of school, but special efforts were made to induce the better educated women, and women with office experience, to enter the examinations. Many of the women appointees measured up to the exacting requirements for the higher administrative positions when given the opportunity, and others, capable of a much higher class of work than that to which they were assigned, performed faithfully the routine work of which there was such an abundance. Considering the rapid expansion of the service, the lack of expert supervision and direction, with the consequent misfits in assignments, the number of complaints reaching the commission was small, indicating a fine spirit of devotion and restraint born of desire to be of service to the Government.

DEPUTY COLLECTORS OF INTERNAL REVENUE.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, in that part of the Internal Revenue Service under the immediate supervision of collectors of internal revenue, there were 4,902 appointments under the designation of deputy collector made without regard to the civil service rules under authority contained in the urgent deficiency act, approved October 22, 1913 (38 Stat. 208); but there were only 1,356 appointments through open competitive examination in accordance with the civil-service rules, principally to the positions of inspector and agent.

It will thus be seen that more than three-fourths of the appointments were made without reference to the rules. Not only so, but a large proportion of these employees, appointed under the designation of deputy collector without reference to the rules, are in fact employed principally as clerks, typists, addressograph operators, messengers, etc., and should therefore have been appointed through appropriate open competitive examinations, in accordance with the civil-service rules.

It is interesting to note, by contrast, that during the past fiscal year there were 252 appointments through open competitive examination in the Customs Service, outside of Washington, D. C., and only 83 appointments without examination, the latter having been made under the provisions of Schedule A of the civil-service rules, and, in the main, to positions paying not more than $300 per annum. In other words, while three-fourths of the appointments in the Customs Service were made through open competitive examination in accordance with the civil-service rules, more than three-fourths of the

appointments in that part of the Internal Revenue Service under collectors of internal revenue, were made without regard to those rules.

The increased efficiency from the merit system, with particular reference to the Internal Revenue Service, has been pointed out in previous reports of the commission.

Deputy collectors of internal revenue were originally classified and made subject to competitive examination by the revision of the civil-service rules of May 6, 1896. By amendment of May 29, 1899, they were allowed to be appointed upon non-competitive examination, and by the revision of April 15, 1903, the requirement of noncompetitive examination was abolished and all deputy collectors were excepted from examination until November 7, 1906, when they were restored to the competitive class by executive order of President Roosevelt. They were continued in the competitive classified service until entirely removed from the operation of the civil-service act and rules by law in 1913, as previously stated.

Therefore, during the 25 years since the original classification of the Internal Revenue Service, duputy collectors have been subject to competitive examination for 10 years, to noncompetitive examination for 6 years, excepted from examination for 4 years, and appointed without reference to the civil-service rules for a period of 7 years. They have, therefore, been subject to appointment either through open competitive or noncompetitive examination for 14 out of the 25 years, and, after long experience under the different methods of appointment for a quarter of a century, under five presidents, the efficiency and economy of the merit system has been conclusively demonstrated. Therefore the repeal of the provision contained in the act of October 22, 1913, which permits their appointment and removal without regard to the civil-service rules, is urgently recommended.

WITHDRAWAL OF POSITIONS FROM THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE.

The war increased the tendency to withdraw positions from under the civil-service act by law, and allow appointments without examinations under the guise of transfer to military service. Illustrative of this was the creation of the Naval Reserve Corps, comprising several thousand clerks, following similar withdrawals in recent years of 7,000 Army field clerks, 4,000 civilian positions in the Quartermaster Corps, and the entire Life Saving Service by merger with the Coast Guard Service at the time of its creation. Each one of these classes that is brought into the military forces increases the military preference class.

The appointment of civilians from outside the civil service, without competitive tests of fitness, as military men and women, paid from military appropriations salaries larger than are paid in the civil service, and their assignments to desks in the departments at Washington at the beginning of the war was discouraging to the great body of civil-service employees, who were continued at their prewar rates of pay while new appointees performing the same or less difficult work received higher pay.

PRESIDENTIAL POSTMASTERS.

During the year ended June 30, 1919, the department requested examinations for postmaster at 1,069 presidential offices paying $2,400 or less per annum, and the results of 451 examinations for such offices have been transmitted to the department. Ninety-one requests for examinations at offices paying over $2,400 per annum were received, and the results of 200 examinations for such offices were transmitted to the department, including the results of examinations held upon requests received during the preceding year.

FOURTH-CLASS POSTMASTERS.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, the Post Office Department reported 4,534 vacancies in the position of postmaster at fourth-class offices paying $180 or more per annum, an increase of a little over 2 per cent over such vacancies reported during the preceding year, 3,676 of which were caused by resignations, 376 by removal, 291 by death, 160 by declination of the persons appointed, and 31 by relegation of the office from the third to the fourth class. Certificates were issued for 2,699 vacant positions and 2,768 appointments to vacancies were reported, 1,661 being males and 1,107 females. Six persons were reinstated to the service, and 28 were transferred to other branches of the service.

Appointments for filling vacancies at offices having an annual compensation of less than $180 were made upon the reports of postoffice inspectors detailed to secure applicants and to obtain information as to their suitability. A copy of the inspector's report in each case was forwarded by the Post Office Department for review and approval by the commission. During the year ending June 30, 1919, 4,494 such appointments were reported, 3,054 being males and 1,440 females. Of the appointments 540 were at newly-established offices and 2 at offices where the incumbent had not attained a competitive classified status. Of the vacancies filled, 3,220 were caused by resignation, 295 by removal, 251 by death, and 186 by persons who, after being appointed, declined to accept.