SECTIONS OF REVISED STATUTES AND OF STATUTES AT LARGE. SEC. 1753. The President is authorized to prescribe such regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service of the United States as may 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 he may employ suitable persons to conduct such inquiries, and may prescribe their duties, and establish regulations for the conduct of persons who may receive appointments in the civil service.

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SEC. 1754. Persons honorably discharged from the military or naval service by reason of disability resulting from wounds or sickness incurred in the line of duty, shall be preferred for appointments to civil offices, provided they are found to possess the business capacity necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of such offices. SEC. 3. * * Provided, That in making any reduction of force in any of the Executive Departments, the head of such Department shall retain those persons who may be equally qualified who have been honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States, and the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors. (19 Stats. 169.)

REVISED CIVIL-SERVICE RULES.*

ADOPTING AND PROMULGATING ORDER.

In the exercise of power vested in him by the Constitution, and of authority given to him by the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised Statutes, and by an act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, approved January 16, 1883, the President hereby makes and promulgates the following rules, and revokes the rules known as "Amended Civil-Service Rules," and "Special Rule No. 1," heretofore promulgated under the power and authority referred to herein: Provided, That this revocation shall not be construed as an exclusion from the classified civil service of any now classified customs district or classified post-office.

GENERAL RULES.

GENERAL RULE I.

Any officer in the executive civil service who shall use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with an election or controlling the result thereof; or who shall dismiss, or cause to be dismissed, or use influence of any kind to procure the dismissal of any person from any place in the said service, because such person has refused to be coerced in his political action, or has refused to contribute money for political purposes, or has refused to render political service; and any officer, clerk, or other employé in the executive civil service, who shall willfully violate any of these rules, or any of the provisions of sections 11, 12, 13, and 14 of the act entitled "An act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States," approved January 16, 1883, shall be dismissed from office.

GENERAL RULE II.

There shall be five branches of the classified civil service, as follows:

1. The classified departmental service.

2. The classified customs service.

3. The classified postal service.

4. The classified railway-mail service.

5. The classified Indian service.

*The rules as here printed are those in force on March 9, 1894.

GENERAL RULE III.

1. No person shall be appointed or employed to enter the civil service, classified in accordance with section 163 of the Revised Statutes, and under the act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, approved January 16, 1883, until he shall have passed an examination, or shall have been shown to be specially exempted therefrom by said act, or by an exception to this rule set forth in connection with the rules regulating admission to the branch of the service he seeks to enter.

2. No noncompetitive examination shall be held except under the following conditions:

(a) The failure of competent persons to be, after due notice, competitively examined, thus making it impracticable to supply to the appointing officer in due time the names of persons who have passed a competitive examination.

(b) That a person has been, during one year or longer, in a place excepted from examination, and the appointing or nominating officer desires the appointment of such person to a place not excepted.

(c) That an appointing or nominating officer desires the examination of a person to test his fitness for a classified place which might be filled under exceptions to examination declared in connection with the rules regulating admission to the classified service.

(d) That the Commission, with the approval of the President, has decided that such an examination should be held to test fitness for any particular place requiring technical, professional, or scientific knowledge, special skill or peculiar ability, to test fitness for which place a competitive examination can not, in the opinion of the Commission, be properly provided. But no person appointed to such a place upon non-competitive examination shall, within one year after appointment, be transferred or appointed to any place not excepted from examination; but after having served in such non-competitive place not less than one year, he may be transferred or appointed in the bureau or office in which he is serving to a place not excepted from examination upon the certificate of the Commission or the proper board of examiners that he has passed an examination to test fitness for the place to which his transfer or appointment is proposed.

(e) To test the fitness of a person for a place to which his transfer has been requested.

(f) When the exigencies of the service require such examination for promotion as provided by clause 6 of this rule, or for temporary appointment for not exceeding thirty days, in any part of the classified service.

3. All applications for examination must be made in form and manner prescribed by the Commission.

4. No person serving in the Army or Navy shall be examined for admission to the classified service until the written consent of the head of the department under which he is enlisted shall have been communicated to the Commission.

No person who is an applicant for examination, or who is an eligible in one branch of the classified service shall, at the same time, be an applicant for examination in any other branch of said service.

5. The Commission may refuse to examine an applicant who would be physically unable to perform the duties of the place to which he desires appointment. The reason for any such action must be entered on the minutes of the Commission.

6. So far as practicable and useful competitive examinations shall be established in the classified civil service to test fitness for promotion, under regulations to be approved by the President. Until such regulations have been applied to any part of the classified service, promotions therein shall be made in the manner prescribed by the rule applicable thereto.

Persons who were in the classified civil service on July 16, 1883, and persons who have been, since that date, or may be hereafter put into that service by the inclu

sion of subordinate places, clerks, and officers, under the provisions of section 6 of the act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, approved January 16, 1883, shall be entitled to all rights of promotion possessed by persons of the same class or grade appointed after examination under the act referred to above. 7. No question in any examination shall be so framed as to elicit information concerning the political or religious opinions or affiliations of competitors; and no discrimination in examination, certification, or appointment shall be made by the Commission, the examiners, or the appointing or nominating officer in favor of or against any applicant, competitor, or eligible because of his political or religious opinions or affiliations. The Commission, the examiners, and the appointing or nominating officer shall discountenance all disclosures of such opinions or affiliations by or concerning any applicant, competitor, or eligible; and any appointing or nominating officer who shall make inquiries concerning, or in any other way attempt to ascertain, the political or religious opinions or affiliations of an eligible, or who shall discriminate in favor of or against any eligible because of the eligible's political or religious opinions or affiliations, shall be dismissed from office.

8. Every applicant must state under oath

(a) His full name.

(b) That he is a citizen of the United States.

(c) Year and place of his birth.

(d) The State, Territory, or district of which he is a bona fide resident, and the length of time he has been a resident thereof.

(e) His post-office address.

(f) His business or employment during the three years immediately preceding the date of his application, and where he has resided each of those years.

(g) Condition of his health, and his physical capacity for the public service.

(h) His previous employment in the public service.

(i) Any right of preference in civil appointments he may claim under section 1751 of the Revised Statutes.

(j) The kind of school in which he received his education.

(k) That he does not habitually use intoxicating beverages to excess.

(1) That he has not, within the one year next preceding the date of his application, been dismissed from the public service for delinquency or misconduct. (m) Such other facts as the Commission may require.

9. Every applicant for examination for the classified departmental service and the classified railway mail service must support the statements of his application paper by certificates of persons acquainted with him, residents of his state, territory, or district in which he claims bona fide residence; and the Commission shall prescribe the form and number of such certificates.

10. A false statement made by an applicant, or procured by his connivance, or any deception or fraud practiced by any applicant, or by any person on his behalf with his consent, shall be good cause for refusal to examine such applicant, or to mark his papers after examination, or to certify him for appointment or for his removal after appointment.

11. All examinations shall be prepared and conducted under the supervision of the Commission; and examination papers shall be marked under rules made by the Commission which shall take care that the marking examiners do not know the name of any competitor in an examination for admission whose papers are intrusted to them. 12. For the purpose of marking examination papers, boards of examiners shall be appointed by the Commission; one to be known as the central board, which shall be composed of persons in the classified service, who shall be detailed for constant duty at the office of the Commission. Under supervision of the Commission, the central board shall mark the papers of the clerk-copyist examination, and such of the papers of the supplementary, special, and promotion examinations for the departmental service, and of examinations for admission to, or promotion in,

the other branches of the classified service, as shall be submitted to it by the Commission.

13. No person shall be appointed to membership on any board of examiners until after the Commission shall have consulted with the head of the department or of the office, under whom such person is serving.

14. An examiner shall be allowed time during office hours to perform his duties as examiner, which duties shall be considered part of his official duties.

15. The Commission may change the membership of boards of examiners and(a) Prescribe the manner of organizing such boards;

(b) More particularly define their powers;

(c) Specifically determine their duties and the duties of the members thereof. 16. Each board shall keep such records, and make such reports, as the Commission may require; and such records shall be open to the inspection of any member of this Commission, or other person acting under authority of the Commission, which may, for the purposes of investigation, take possession of such records.

GENERAL RULE IV.

1. The names of all competitors who shall successfully pass an examination shall be entered upon a register, and the competitors whose names have been thus registered shall be eligible to any office or place to test fitness for which the examination was held.

2. The Commission may refuse to certify an eligible who is so defective in sight, speech, or hearing, or who is otherwise so defective physically as to be apparently unfit to perform the duties of the position to which he is seeking appointment; or an eligible who has been guilty of a crime or of infamous or notoriously disgraceful conduct.

3. If an appointing or nominating officer to whom certification has been made shall object in writing to any eligible named in the certificate, stating that because of physical incapacity, or for other good cause particularly specified, such eligible is not capable of properly performing the duties of the vacant place, the Commission may, upon investigation and ascertainment of the fact that the objection made is good and well founded, direct the certification of another eligible in place of the one to whom objection has been made.

GENERAL RULE V.

Executive officers shall, in all proper ways, facilitate civil-service examinations; and customs officers, postmasters, and custodians of public buildings, at places where such examinations are to be held, shall, for the purposes of such examinations, permit and arrange for the use of suitable rooms under their charge, and for heating, lighting, and furnishing the same.

GENERAL RULE VI.

No person dismissed for misconduct, and no probationer who has failed to receive absolute appointment or employment, shall be admitted to any examination within one year after having been thus discharged from the service.

GENERAL RULE VII.

1. Persons who have a prima facie claim of preference for appointments to civil offices under section 1754, Revised Statutes, shall be preferred in certifications made under the authority of the Commission to any appointing or nominating officer.

2. In making any reduction of force in any branch of the classified civil-service, those persons shall be retained who, being equally qualified, have been honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States; and also the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors.

GENERAL RULE VIII.

The Commission shall have authority to prescribe regulations under and in accordance with these general rules and the rules relating specially to each of the several branches of the classified service.

DEPARTMENTAL RULES.

DEPARTMENTAL RULE I.

1. The classified departmental service shall include the several officers, clerks, and other persons in any department, commission, or bureau at Washington classified under section 163 of the Revised Statutes or by direction of the President for the purposes of the examinations prescribed by the civil-service act of 1883 or for facilitating the inquiries as to fitness of candidates for admission to the departmental service in respect to age, health, character, knowledge, and ability, as provided for in section 1753 of the Revised Statutes.

2. The word "department," when used in the general or departmental rules, shall be construed to mean any such department, commission, or bureau classified as above prescribed.

DEPARTMENTAL RULE II.

1. To test fitness for the classified departmental service there shall be a clerkcopyist examination and such supplementary and special examinations as the Commission may provide to meet the special requirements of the service. The clerkcopyist examination shall not include more than the following subjects: Orthography, copying, penmanship, arithmetic-fundamental rules, fractions, percentage, interest and discount-elements of bookkeeping and accounts, elements of the English language, letter-writing, elements of the geography, history and government of the United States.

2. An applicant may take the clerk-copyist examination, and any or all of the supplementary and special examinations provided for the departmental service, subject to such limitations as the Commission may, by regulation, prescribe; but no person whose name is on a departmental register of eligibles shall, during the period of his eligibility, be allowed re-examination unless he shall satisfy the Commission that, at the time of his examination, he was unable, because of illness or other good cause, to do himself justice in said examination; and the rating upon such re-examination shall cancel and be a substitute for the rating of such person upon the previous examination.

3. Exceptions from examination in the classified departmental service are hereby made as follows:

(a) One private secretary, or one confidential clerk, of the head of each classified department and of each assistant secretary thereof; and also of each head of bureau appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(b) Direct custodians of money for whose fidelity another officer is under official bond; but this exception shall not include any officer below the grade of assistant cashier or assistant teller.

(c) Disbursing officers who give bonds.

(d) Persons employed exclusively in the secret service of the Government. (e) Chief clerks.

(f) Chiefs of divisions.

4. No person appointed to a place under the exceptions to examination hereby made shall, within one year after appointment, be transferred from such place to a place not also excepted from examination; but after service of not less than one year in an examination-excepted place he may be transferred in the bureau in