A further evidence of the trend of the times is the steadily increasing number of women appointed by the President to offices of importance in the Federal service in Washington and in the service of the District of Columbia, which has a semi-Federal status in that the Federal Government pays a share of the municipal expenses.

Mrs. Helen H. Gardener, appointed on April 13, 1920, a member of the Civil Service Commission, is the first woman to hold that office. Other women have been appointed to responsible administrative positions, as shown by the following list, which is not complete.

Miss Julia C. Lathrop, Chief of the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor since June 4, 1912; Mrs. Frances C. Axtell, member of the United States Employees' Compensation Commission, appointed March 15, 1917; Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle appointed head of the Women's Bureau of the District of Columbia on October 1, 1918; Miss Mary Anderson, Chief of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor since August 15, 1919; Miss Kathryn Sellers, judge of the juvenile court of the District of Columbia since September 13, 1919; Mrs. Clara Sears Taylor, member of the rent commission of the District of Columbia, appointed on June 6, 1920. Mrs. Annette A. Adams was appointed Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice on June 26, 1920. Mrs. Sarah E. Suaner succeeded Miss Harlean James as director of the Government hotels for women in Washington on September 15, 1920. Miss Mabel T. Boardman was appointed a member of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia on September 25, 1920.

The high administrative offices held by these 10 women are outside the operation of the civil-service law.

The widening of the field of governmental activities in recent years has had the effect of adding to the Government pay roll many positions which women are especially fitted to fill. The establishment of the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor, for example, resulted in the appointment of many women trained in sociological and statistical work. A considerable number of specially trained women are employed in the Office of Home Economics of the States Relations Service, Department of Agriculture, and in extension offices of that branch. The Department of State employs a number of women in high-grade clerical positions which require expert knowledge of English, and there is constant demand for experienced statistical and editorial clerks in other branches of the service. Most appointments of library assistants are of women.

RETIREMENT OF SUPERANNUATED EMPLOYEES.

For many years it has been evident that the efficiency of the civil service has been in part impaired by the retention of employees who

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have outlived their usefulness, but this is now being relieved by the retirement act of May 22, 1920. The purpose of retirement allowances for Government employees is not philanthropic; the idea is based upon sound business principles, as is generally recognized by corporations and foreign Governments.

The outstanding features of this act are:

1. Automatic retirement of an employee upon reaching a certain age, which differs for different classes of employees, unless continued for a period not exceeding two years, upon the recommendation of the head of the department, office, or branch in which employed, and the approval of the commission. The act included within its provisions certain classes of Federal employees who are not in the competitive classified service, and provided for extension to other employees or groups of employees by Executive order.

2. Annuity, in no case to exceed $720 per annum or to be less than $180 per annum, for employees who have been retired after rendering at least 15 years' service, to be based upon length of service and average pay for the 10 years of service preceding retirement.

3. Prohibiting the filling of a vacancy in the departments at Washington caused by retirement during the present fiscal year, except by promotion or transfer of a classified employee, and then only if the exigencies of the service so require.

4. For deduction of 21 per cent from salary of each employee to whom the act applies, to establish a civil-service retirement fund. Provision is made for return to the employee of all deductions, with interest at 4 per cent, upon absolute separation from the service; for return to heirs of an employee of such amount, in the case of employee's death before reaching the retirement age; and for return to heirs of any excess of such deductions over the annuity which a retired employee may have received up to the time of his death.

The retirement of those who had already reached the retirement age was made effective August 21, 1920; therefore nothing but preliminary work was done in the matter during the year covered by this report. Up to October 25, 1920, 5,084 persons had applied for annuity; 2,332 persons who had reached the retirement age were certified for continuance for periods not exceeding two years; and 3,318 employees, who had been separated, applied for refund.

The administration of the retirement act devolves upon the Bureau of Pensions, Interior Department, the Civil Service Commission, and the Treasurer of the United States.

Any new legislation of such a novel and extensive character as the retirement act naturally presents administrative difficulties, but no serious difficulties arose in the commission's office with respect to retirements and requests for continuance in the service of employees who had reached the retirement age.

It is too early to discuss the probable effects of retirement, but there can be no reasonable doubt that the service will be much benefited thereby. Until results are known the commission is of the opinion that no change which will affect them should be made..

One phase of the operation of the law is resulting in an unanticipated burden of work, and that is the provision relating to refunds to separated employees. The act requires, in addition to the records which the commission has heretofore kept, that report be made to it by the heads of departments or independent establishments of the name and grade of each employee who shall at any time be in a nonpay status, showing the dates such employee was in a nonpay status, and the amount of salary, pay, or compensation thereby lost. The law also requires that the commission shall furnish the Commissioner of Pensions reports deemed necessary to the proper adjustment of any claim under the act.. In accordance with these requirements of law, the Bureau of Pensions requires the commission to certify, in the case of each request for refund, a complete schedule of the applicant's employment since July 31, 1920, including periods of nonpay status, with dates, basic rates, and actual loss of pay. August 1, 1920, was the date after which deductions from pay began..

In several of the departments deductions from pay are made for an hour or more, and it is necessary to take into consideration these brief absences in computing refund under the act. Because of the large number of separations from certain field services, in which mechanics are employed and paid by the hour or day, the number of applications for refund will be very large. Rates of pay are constantly being adjusted, and the number of absences of this class of employee is very great. In a recent adjustment of rates of pay for the navy-yard mechanics it was decided to give each employee Saturday afternoons without pay for the months when employees are not allowed holiday with pay on Saturday afternoons. The number of changes in the personnel which the commission records annually is estimated to be 700,000; but no records of changes in the navy-yard force of about 80,000 employees have been kept. Should the commission establish service records of navy-yard employees and record periods of nonpay status, the number of additional entries to be made on its records will certainly not be less than 2,000,000, and perhaps nearly 3,000,000. Moreover, many employees are compensated by piece rates, and there is no way to make computation of their pay upon any basic rates,

Several departments, organizations, and individuals have recommended the extension of the retirement act by Executive order to include unskilled laborers. Recommendations have also been received for exclusion by Executive order of individuals and groups of em

ployees from the provisions of the retirement act. After painstaking inquiry and consideration, including conferences with the Secretary of the Interior, whose department is charged with a large part of the administration of the retirement act, the commission reached the conclusion that it is inadvisable to change the scope of the operation of the law during the first year of its administration. The Secretary of the Interior believes that there are two good reasons for making no extensions within the first year, namely (1) that the Government should have at least 12 months to work out plans for the administration of the act with respect to the employees and positions included by the act itself; and (2) that extension of the provisions of the act to include a group of employees in any of the departments means that when an employee of such group is retired the resulting vacancy may not be filled during the first year of the administration of the act. This second reason has peculiar application to the proposal to extend the act to include laborers, because the provision of the act that vacancies resulting from retirement may be filled by promotion has little, if any, practical application to laborers; consequently retirement would mean the loss to a department of one position for every laborer retired.

SURVEY OF EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS IN THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVICE.

Private business and public business are close brothers, and what daily concerns them is so interwoven that any lack of full efficiency or any delay in public business, for example, must seriously affect private business and the general welfare. The functions of the Civil Service Commission bring it into close touch with personnel conditions throughout the country, and it presents herein the results of an extended inquiry covering the Federal civil service.

The Bureau of the Census, anticipating the results of the Fourteenth Census, estimates the number of residents on American soil 10 years of age or over, who are engaged in gainful occupations, at about 47,000,000. The civil service of the United States on July 31, 1920, employed approximately 691,116 workers, or 1 in 159 of the entire population, or 1 in 68 of all workers in the country. Another evidence of the extent of the Federal service is the fact that probably every phase of human activity is touched in some measure by Government workers, there being approximately 1,700 different kinds and grades of work represented.

In the first part of this report will be found a table showing the distribution by departments and offices of civil-service employees and a comparison in numbers between those employed on July 31, 1920, and those employed on June 30, 1916. At the height of the war expansion nearly 1,000,000 persons were employed in the civil service

of the United States; and although reductions are constantly being made it seems most improbable that the prewar figure of less than half a million workers will again be reached.

The Congress has added greatly to the duties of many branches of the executive service and has created some bureaus which did not exist before the war.

The civilian forces of the War and Navy Departments must be maintained at an increase in proportion to that in the military and naval establishments and programs. For example, mechanical and laboring forces at navy yards and naval stations throughout the country numbered approximately 35,000 on April 1, 1917, the eve of the entrance of the United States into the war. Now the number of such employees in naval establishments is more than 85,000.

Larger appropriations necessitate larger clerical forces. It requires more bookkeeping to administer the expenditure of $4,000,000,000 than it did for $1,000,000,000.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue, Treasury Department, has a greatly increased force to collect the taxes and to administer the prohibition act.

The Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Treasury Department, which did not exist prior to the beginning of the World War, now has about 7,000 employees, as against 17,000 at the highest point.

"Liberty" bonds sold during the war were put out in temporary form. Now the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Treasury Department, is taxed to the utmost to print the bonds in permanent form, while the clerical work necessary to exchange them for the temporary issues is considerable. The payment of interest on these bonds and similar details will keep a large force busy for some time

to come.

The Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce, is now employing between 6,000 and 7,000 temporary workers on the Fourteenth Census.

The Adjutant General of the Army, War Department, needs a much larger force than his prewar staff to perfect and maintain the records of 4,000,000 more soldiers.

Other increases can be mentioned.

The Department of Agriculture is allied directly with the most important industry of the Nation. The Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, are concerned with the mineral industries of the country-coal, iron, copper, and other industrial and precious metals, oil, gas; also the water supply and the topography of the land. The Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce, develops and maintains the standards of length, mass, volume, temperature, electrical and optical measurements; prepares