When the principal duties pertaining to a position are of the sort performed by classified employees, the position, by virtue of that fact alone, should be treated as classified.

See summary of the Labor Regulations, page 163.

The President issued the following order for the purpose of preventing improper appointments, including the appointment of laborers without examination to do classified work:

"No person shall be appointed or employed in any executive department or office for the performance of any service of the character performed by classified

employees, except in accordance with the provisions of the civil-service rules; and before making any appointment or employment for service with respect to which there may be reasonable doubt as to the requirement of examination the head of the department or office shall confer with the Civil Service Commission for the purpose of determining whether examination is required, and when such conference does not result in agreement the case shall be presented to the Attorney-General for his opinion." (Executive order, Nov. 29, 1904. See also executive order, April 21, 1909, page 118.)

employees in

becoming

6. A person holding a position when it becomes classi- Status of fied and subject to competitive examination shall have all positions the rights which he would acquire if appointed thereto classified. upon examination under these rules, except that he shall not be transferred without first passing the examination provided by the Commission; and no person who has been appointed in any post-office within three months prior to the classification thereof shall be transferred to a position of carrier within six months after such classification.

The provision of this section requiring examination before the transfer of a person who entered the service by classification will be construed as not applying to those transfer cases where the certificate of the Commission is not required, nor to retransfers.

authorized the Commission to waive requirements for examination and to substitute such other tests of fitness as it might decide, in certain cases where transfers or promotions are properly applied for and otherwise permissible and the waiving of examination is for the good of the

Executive order of November 22, 1907, service.

7. On the date of the establishment of the free-delivery system in any post-office, these rules shall apply to its officers and employees in the same manner as they apply to those in existing free-delivery offices, and the Postmaster-General shall promptly notify the Commission of all orders for such establishment: Provided, however, That, without the express consent of the Commission, no officer or employee in any such post-office shall be classified under the terms of this section if he has been appointed within less than sixty days of the establishment of the free-delivery system therein: And provided further, That appointments in such office after an eligible register has been established shall be made by regular selection from the register.

Establishment of free delivery.

Consolidation of post-offices.

Indian agent, classification

of.

Retired army officers may be appointed superintendents of Indian schools. Amendment, Mar. 3, 1905.

Competitive
examinations,
times and
places of.
Act, sec. 2,
cl. 2, par.
Act, sec. 3.

8. Whenever a post-office is consolidated with one which has city free delivery, any regularly appointed officer or employee of the office discontinued, if he has actually served continuously therein during the sixty days next preceding such consolidation, or if he was appointed through competitive examination, may become a classified employee of the other office.

9. Whenever the separate office of Indian agent shall be discontinued in any agency, and his duties devolved upon the superintendent of the training school, the agent may be made a classified employee at such school or agency upon such test of fitness as may be determined upon by the Secretary of the Interior and the Commission. 10. A retired army officer may be appointed as superintendent of an Indian school without competitive examination, upon the request of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, setting forth that such officer has the required educational and business qualifications for such position, and accompanied by the authenticated military record of said officer. The Commission will then issue the necessary certificate.

RULE III.-EXAMINATIONS.

1. The Commission shall prepare and hold open competitive examinations for admission to the classified service, which examinations shall be of a practical and suitable character, and shall be held at such times and places as may most nearly meet the convenience of applicants and the needs of the service.

Can a court require, on subpœna, the production of any application or examination papers or other records of the boards of civil-service examiners?—1. The general power of appointment to office being in the President, qualified only by the right of Congress to vest the appointment of inferior officers in him, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments, the Civil Service Commission is to be regarded as an advisory board subordinate to the President, reporting to him, and clothed with the functions of aiding the President or any head of department in the exercise of the appointing power.

2. The boards of civil-service examiners are selected by the Civil Service

Commission, and, though subordinate to the Commission, may be properly regarded as officials of the respective departments in connection with which they act.

3. The application and examination papers or other records of the civil-service examiners are therefore the official records or papers of the President or of the head of a department.

4. Being records and papers of the character described, their production can not be compelled by the courts whenever the general public interests must be deemed paramount to the interests of private suitors.

5. When such general public interest forbids the production of an official record

or paper in the courts, and for the purposes of the administration of justice, is a question not for the judge presiding at the trial in aid of which the record or paper is sought, but for the President or head of department having the legal custody of such record or paper.

And such question may be determined either as and when arising in each particular case, and upon its own peculiar facts and merits, or in advance, by general rules applicable to all records and papers, or by special rules applicable to special classes of records or papers. (20 Op. A. G., 557.)

Official records can not be compelled as

evidence without express authority of law.The records of the executive departments are quasi confidential in their nature, and should be classed as privileged communications which can not be compelled by a court as evidence without express authority of law. (25 Op. A. G., 326.)

Examination papers are confidential and are not to be inspected by any person, except, in the presence of a representative of the Commission, by the competitor himself or a representative of the competitor who has authority in writing approved by the Commission; by an appointing officer for official purposes and by persons duly authorized by court process.

petitive ex

2. Where, in its opinion, the conditions of good admin- Noncomistration warrant, the Commission may give noncompeti- aminations. tive examinations to test fitness for (a) transfer, reinstatement, or promotion; (b) appointment of Indians in the Indian service at large as superintendents, teachers, manual-training teachers, kindergartners, physicians, matrons, clerks, seamstresses, farmers, and industrial teachers, and in the office of Indian Affairs in the messenger service, which examinations shall consist of the same tests of fitness as those applied to other persons seeking appointment through competitive examinations; (c) the appointment of the wife of a competitive employee of an Amendment of Indian school to any competitive position at that school; (d) employment as inspector of safety appliances by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mar. 12, 1910.

Examinations permitted under this the head of the department or office in section are given only upon request of which the person seeks service.

mechanics,

etc., under

ment.

3. All persons at navy-yards, naval stations, and at Special private shipbuilding and manufacturing establishments draftsmen, where work is done by contract for the Navy Depart- Navy Department, employed as special mechanics and civilian assistant inspectors of work and material, and all persons employed under the Navy Department as draftsmen, will be subject to the regulations of the Navy Department governing the employment of labor at navy-yards. Appointments to these positions shall be made on tests of fitness prescribed in paragraphs 74 to 83, inclusive, of Navy-Yard Order No. 23, revised.

Civilian employees at navy-yards, other than laborers or workmen, are included within the classified service and are not exempted from competitive examination

by the terms of Schedule A of the civilservice rules. (Op. A. G., Feb. 18, 1909.) See note to Rule XVI.

Appointment

and duties.

Act, sec. 3.

RULE IV.-BOARDS OF EXAMINERS.

1. The Commission shall designate from among persons in the federal service, after consulting the head of the department or office in which such persons serve, such boards of examiners as it may deem necessary. Their members shall perform such duties as the Commission may direct, in connection with the execution of the civilservice act and of these rules, and in the performance thereof they shall be under the direct and sole control of the Commission. Such duties shall be considered part of the duties of the office in which they are serving, and time shall be allowed therefor during office hours. No board shall be composed solely of adherents of one political party when other persons are available and competent to

serve.

The boards of civil service examiners, tive departments in connection with though subordinate to the Commission, which they act. (20 Op. A. G., 557.) may be regarded as officials of the respec

Philippine civil service.

Executive

officers to facilitate examinations. Act, sec. 2,

cl. 1 and sec. 3.

2. The Commission shall render all practicable assistance to the Philippine civil-service board, and shall conduct examinations, upon its request, under such regulations as may be jointly agreed upon.

3. Persons in the executive civil service shall facilitate the holding of examinations and other work of the Commission; and executive officers in charge of public buildings shall permit and arrange for the use of suitable rooms under their charge, and for heating, lighting, and furnishing the same.

The rules were framed with the understanding that the stationery and other supplies necessary in the conduct of examinations, and for keeping the records pertaining thereto, shall come from the office at which the examination is held. Rooms can not be said to be "furnished,"

Citizenship.

or the execution of the rules "facilitated," if boards are denied the supplies of various sorts necessary to perform their duties as agents of the Commission. The duty of public officers in this respect is imposed by the civil-service act.

RULE V.-QUALIFICATIONS OF APPLICANTS.

cession of the islands by Spain by means of the treaty of Paris.

1. No person shall be admitted to examination unless he be a citizen of or owe allegiance to the United States. Citizenship.-The attitude of the executive and legislative departments of the Government has been, and is, that the native inhabitants of Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands did not become citizenship upon the inhabitants of that zens of the United States by virtue of the

The act for the temporary government of Porto Rico did not confer federal citi

island. (23 Op. A. G., 370.)

There is nothing in the recent decisions of the Supreme Court (in the insular cases) that would modify the view taken by the Attorney-General regarding the proposed amendment to the civil-service rules that every applicant for examination for appointment to the executive civil service of the United States in Porto Rico must be a citizen of the United States or a citizen of Porto Rico, and that every applicant for appointment to said service in the Philippine Islands must be a citizen of the United States or a native inhabitant of said islands. (23 Op. A. G., 458.)

The requirements as to citizenship may be waived for applicants for positions on the Isthmus of Panama under such regulations as may be provided by the Commission. (Executive order, December 8, 1904.)

The requirements as to United States citizenship may be waived for applicants for examination for the positions of officers of ships of the Coast and Geodetic Survey

on duty in the Philippine Islands under such regulations as may be provided by the Commission. (Executive order, Feb. 15, 1905.)

The United States Civil Service Commission having reported that sufficient eligibles who are American citizens have not been secured through its duly announced examinations to fill vacancies in interpreter and other positions, it is ordered that hereafter when an examination has been duly announced to fill vacancies in positions in any branch of the service and there is a lack of eligibles who are American citizens, the Commission may, if it deems it advisable and for the best interest of the service, accept applications from persons who are not American citizens, provided that, if found eligible, they shall not be certified for appointment so long as persons are eligible who are American citizens. (Executive order, June 13, 1906.)

plication.

2. Application for examination must be made under Form of apoath, in such form and manner and accompanied by such Act, sec. 2, cl. certificates as the Commission may prescribe.

Applications for examination.-All persons are required to make a proper application for appointment. The examination is not the only statutory requirement. * * * The authorities may require all applicants to verify such applications, and perjury may be committed in making oath to them. (Am. and Eng. Encycl. of Law, "Civil Service.")

2, par. 1.

By decision of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia, an oath administered in connection with an application filed for a civil-service examination is an oath required by law, and a false statement sworn to in such an application constitutes perjury. (Johnson v. U. S., 33 W. L. R., 679.)

3. Persons serving under enlistment shall not be exam- Enlisted men. ined without the written consent of the head of the department under which they are serving.

tions.

4. The Commission may refuse to examine an applicant Disqualificaor to certify an eligible for any of the following reasons: (a) Dismissal from the service for delinquency or misconduct within one year next preceding the date of his application; (b) physical or mental unfitness for the position for which he applies; (c) criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct; (d) intentionally making a false statement in any material fact, or practicing any deception or fraud in securing examination, registration, certification, or appointment; (e) re