TABLE 12.-Showing the education claimed by those taking competitive examinations for the classified civil service during the year ended June 30, 1896.

Service.

Number examined.

Common school.

Academic.

Business college.

High school.

Collegiate.
Total. Passed. Failed. Total. Passed. Failed. Total. Passed. Failed. Total. Passed. Failed. Total. Passed. Failed. Total. Passed. Failed.

The following language, taken from the fifth report, may be fitly repeated in explanation of the above table:

These statistics concerning the education of competitors are of comparatively little value, as they do not show with any degree of certainty what on their face they purport to show, viz, the extent and character of the education which the competitors have received. Those who have had but a few months' or a few years' schooling at a country district school, as well as those who have been through all the grades of the best city schools, are alike classed as having received a commonSchool education. The large per cent of failures among competitors of this class does not therefore prove anything of value concerning the quality of what may be called a full common-school education, nor concerning the character or difficulty of the examinations of the Commission.

What is shown is that a very large per cent of all those claiming to have received only a common-school education are able to pass the examinations creditably, and, when appointed, to do the public work satisfactorily, proving that the average common-school education is adequate for intelligent and useful citizenship. What has been said of common schools may with equal propriety be said of high schools, academies, and colleges. When an applicant states that he has had an "academic,' a "high-school," or a "collegiate" education, nothing can with certainty be inferred from it as to what his real education has been.

The experience and observation of the Commission thus far scems to justify the statement that whether a man will or will not successfully pass the examinations and become a useful public servant depends quite as much upon his personal qualities and the use he has made of his opportunities since quitting school as upon the extent and character of the education he received in the schools.

In other words, while the education of the school is important and necessary as a preparation for the public service, it does not in itself necessarily or generally constitute a complete preparation for that service any more than it does for a business or professional pursuit. It is that education joined with the personal qualities and habits of the individual, mental, moral, and physical, that determines success or failure in the public service and in the steps leading thereto. This fact is often lost sight of by the critics of the Commission and its examinations and methods, when they charge that it is the students fresh from their books that pass the examinations most successfully. The figures show to the contrary, and, beyond question, prove that the clerical examinations of the Commission are of that practical and common-sense character that enables those with only an ordinary education, backed by good common sense, to pass them.

II.—APPOINTMENTS, SEPARATIONS, ETC.

METHOD OF MAKING THE APPORTIONMENT.

The civil-service act requires all appointments in the classified departmental service at Washington made through examination to be apportioned among the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. It has been found impossible to make and maintain such apportionment with mathematical exactness, but it has been equitably maintained with respect to most of the States. A very few of the States and nearly all of the Territories have received relatively an excessive share of appointments as compared with the other States, as will be seen from the following tables. The excess has resulted partly from the necessity of examining and certifying for appointment to places requiring special or technical knowledge or skill such persons as offered themselves after duc public notice, without regard to their places of legal residence, the necessities of appointments through transfers and various noncompetitive examinations, and the appointment of persons who were entitled to preference under section 1754, Revised Statutes. Persons with the peculiar qualifications needed in the special places have been found relatively in larger numbers in the States near the seat of government than elsewhere. Appointments to places outside Washington are made mostly by districts and are not charged to the apportionment.

Except in the case of eligibles preferred under section 1754, Revised Statutes, the appointment under the clerk-copyist examination at Washington must always be from the State having eligibles which at the time has received the least proportional share of all the appointments. The calculation is made by a card system, which

shows at a glance the relative order of the States for appointment at any moment. Under this method, in which the Commission has no discretion, the appointments at all times are as nearly equal among the States according to population as it is possible to apportion them. No State at any time has more than a very small excess of appointments over any other State. The supplementary and special examinations to some extent disarrange this procedure. When stenographers, bookkeepers, or other persons having qualifications tested by the supplementary and special exami. nations are called for, the eligibles standing highest, from the whole country must be certified, except those from the few States which at the time have a percentage of appointments greater than the average percentage for all the States taken together. The appointments from these and the noncompetitive registers, and of persons preferred under section 1754, Revised Statutes, may therefore fall in a greater or less measure to States not having the least share of appointments. These States thereforc receive a less share of the clerk-copyist appointments.

The number of appointments charged to the District of Columbia early became so largely in excess of the number to which it was entitled under the apportionment, that for ten years and more no persons having a legal residence in the District have been examined, except through an entire failure of applicants from elsewhere. The facilities now afforded for convenient examination will, it is hoped, tend to prevent this excess in the future. Forty-six of the appointments received by the District were from noncompetitive examinations, held under the provisions of General Rule III, section 2, now repealed. The pamphlet of instructions to applicants explains in detail the method of certification for appointment.