together with the names, designations, compensations, and dates of appointment or employment, of all persons serving in said positions or employments; said list to be arranged as follows: (a) Classified positions not excepted from examination; (b) classified positions excepted from examination; (c) unclassified positions.

Reports of 2. Every nominating or appointing officer in the executive civil changes in service to be made to service shall report in detail to the Commission, in form and manner Commission. to be prescribed by the Commission, all changes, as soon as made, and the dates thereof, in the service under his control and authority, setting forth among other things the following: The position to which an appointment or reinstatement is made; the position from which a separation is made, whether the same was caused by dismis sal, resignation, or death; and the position from which and the position to which a transfer or promotion is made; the compensation of every position from which or to which a change is made; the name of every person appointed, reinstated, promoted, transferred, or separated from the service; and every failure to accept an appointment and the reasons therefor.

EMPLOYMENT OF LABOR.

NAVY-YARD SERVICE.

ADOPTION OF NAVY-YARD REGULATIONS.

RESOLUTION OF THE COMMISSION.

Whereas the enforcement by the Secretary of the Navy of regulations governing the employment of labor at navy-yards having been shown to be highly useful, aud it being important that they should be given stability independent of changes of Administration, and it appearing that the examinations and other tests of fitness provided by these regulations are based on the principles that personal fitness should prevail over recommendation, and that political influence should be disregarded, it is Ordered, That these regulations be, and they are hereby, adopted as the regulations of this Commission under the authority conferred by clause 1 of Rule I.—Minutes of July 29, 1896, clause 4.

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

The regulations of the Navy Department governing the employment of labor at navy-yards having been adopted by the Civil Service Commission as a regulation of the Commission July 29, 1896, under the authority conferred by clause 1, Rule I, of the Revised Civil Service Rules of May 6, 1896, it is hereby ordered that no modification of the existing regulations shall be made without the approval of the Civil Service Commission. GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION,

November 2, 1896.

PRESIDENTIAL WARNING AGAINST THE USE OF OFFICIAL POSITIONS TO CONTROL POLITICAL MOVEMENTS.

[See Postal Laws and Regulations.]

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

Washington, May 23, 1894.

The following Executive instructions are still in force, and are republished for the information and guidance of all officers and employees of the postal service. W. S. BISSELL, Postmaster-General.

To the heads of Departments in the service of the General Government: I deem this a proper time to especially warn all subordinates in the several Departments and all officeholders under the General Government against the use of their official positions in attempts to control political movements in their localities.

Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the Government, but they should scrupulously avoid in their political action, as well as in the discharge of their official duty, offending, by display of obtrusive partisanship, their neighbors who have relations with them as public officials.

They should also constantly remember that their party friends, from whom they have received preferment, have not invested them with the power of arbitrarily managing their political affairs. They have no right as officeholders to dictate the political action of their party associates, or to throttle freedom of action within party lines by methods and practices which pervert every useful and justifiable purpose of party organization.

The influence of Federal officeholders should not be felt in the manipulation of political primary meetings and nominating conventions. The use by these officials of their positions to compass their selection as delegates to political conventions is indecent and unfair; and proper regard for the proprieties and requirements of official place will also prevent their assuming the active conduct of political campaigns. Individual interest and activity in political affairs are by no means condemned. Officeholders are neither disfranchised nor forbidden the exercise of political privileges; but their privileges are not enlarged nor is their duty to party increased to pernicious activity by officeholding.

A just discrimination in this regard between the things a citizen may properly do and the purposes for which a public office should not be used is easy in the light of a correct appreciation of the relation between the people and those intrusted with official place, and a consideration of the necessity, under our form of government, of political action free from official coercion.

You are requested to communicate the substance of these views to those for whose guidance they are intended.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

The foregoing regulation has peculiar application to postmasters, and its spirit should guide their conduct in all official intercourse with the public. They are servants of the people in that branch of governmental service which ministers most to their immediate personal convenience and interests and comes in closest contact with all. Enjoyment of its privileges compels persons of both sexes, of all ages, of various conditions, of different nationalities, of every opinion, to visit the post-office with frequency. They transact business generally small in external details, but of deep interest or value to them, and, in the aggregate, of vast magnitude and great importance to the country. All, of every degree, condition, and private opinion,

whether it applies to mechanics employed by the day in the armories, arsenals, and navy-yards, etc., of the United States. Unpaid service in local or municipal fire departments is not regarded as an office within the intent of the Executive order, and may be performed by Federal officers, provided it does not interfere with the regular and efficient discharge of the duties of the Federal office, of which the head of the department under which the office is held will, in each case, be the judge. Employment by the day as mechanics or laborers in the armories, arsenals, navyyards, etc., does not constitute an office of any kind, and those thus employed are not within the contemplation of the Executive order. Master workmen, and others who hold appointments from the Government, or from any department, whether for a fixed time or at the pleasure of the appointing power, are embraced within the operation of the order.

By order of the President:

HAMILTON FISH,
Secretary of State.

SUBSTITUTES CAN NOT BE APPOINTED IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS-OPINION OF THE COMPTROLLER.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE FIRST COMPTROLLER,

Washington, D. C., March 14, 1893.

SIR: The fifth section of the legislative act, approved March 3, 1893,* provides for the hours of labor of clerks and employees in the several Executive Departments, and provides how and under what circumstances leaves of absence, both annual and sick, may be granted by the heads of departments. The law is intended as a substitute for the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat. L., 563), and does not go into effect until July 1, 1893. The law provides:

1. That the heads of the several Executive Departments shall require of the clerks and employees of whatever grade or class seven hours of labor each day, except Sundays and days declared public holidays by law or Executive order.

2. That the heads of the departments may, by special order, stating the reason therefor, further extend or limit the hours of labor of any clerk or employee, but in case of an extension it shall be without additional pay or compensation.

3. The head of any of the Executive Departments may, in his discretion, grant thirty days annual and thirty days sick leave, with pay, in any one year, to each clerk or employee, the sick leave to be allowed in cases of personal illness only, or where some member of the immediate family is afflicted with a contagious disease and requires the care and attendance of such employee, or where his or her presence in the Department would jeopardize the health of fellow-clerks.

4. That in exceptional and meritorious cases, where the limit of the sick leave would work peculiar hardship, the sick leave may be extended, in the discretion of the head of the department, with pay, not to exceed sixty days in any one case, or in any one calendar year. This provision should not be held to give the right to extend the sick leave at the expiration of the first thirty days of sick leave, sixty additional days, making in the aggregate ninety days sick leave with pay. The language is somewhat ambiguous, but the fair interpretation limits the annual leave to thirty days, and the sick leave, in the most extreme cases to sixty days, with pay. Leaves without pay may be granted by the heads of the several departments in their discretion.

5. The section will not be construed to mean that so long as a clerk or employee is borne upon the rolls of the department in excess of the leave granted that he or she shall be entitled to pay, but that pay shall stop upon the expiration of the leave in all cases. This last provision was added to avoid the repeated holdings of the

*Amended March 15, 1898. See p. 111, ante.

Court of Claims, to the effect that so long as a clerk or employee was borne upon the rolls he or she was entitled to pay when absent sick, whether with or without leave. The holding has been recently repeated and reaffirmed in the Chisholm Case, reported in 27 C. Cls. R., page 94.

The practice in granting leaves in the Treasury Department heretofore has been by calendar years, except in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Bureau has adopted the fiscal year as being the most convenient, under a special act of Congress passed for that Bureau alone. The act under consideration seems to apply to "all clerks and other employees of whatever grade or class in the Executive Departments," and repeals all acts or parts of acts inconsistent or in conflict with the provisions of the act itself. As this act does not take effect until the end of the present fiscal year, and nothing is discovered in the law which would prevent adopting the fiscal year for the purpose in question, I respectfully suggest that prior to the time when the law goes into force that the propriety of adopting the fiscal year be considered.

The closing words of the last proviso of section 5 are, to wit: "With pay not exceeding sixty days in any one case or in any one calendar year," would seem to leave the impression that Congress intended to adopt the calendar year, and not the fiscal year for the purpose of granting leave. That, however, is not at all certain, and may be fairly questioned when you take into consideration the fact that the law goes into effect with the fiscal year 1894. However that may be, I feel sure that the heads of the several Executive Departments may adopt under this law the fiscal year, if they elect so to do. You will notice that the leave of absence, both annual and sick, can not be demanded as a matter of right under this section. The former act provided for the pay of a clerk or employee when absent sick and unfit for duty, so long as he was borne on the rolls of the department. The present act has no such provision. The language is: "That the head of any department may grant thirty days annual and thirty days sick leave with pay in any one year," and not that such leave shall be granted. Of course the practice of granting leaves is so old and well established that it is not likely to be departed from, but it is so far a matter of discretion, and so absolutely under the control of the heads of the departments, that they are at liberty to adopt the fiscal year, if such a change shall seem wise.

The law goes into effect at the middle of the present calendar year. It might and probably would be difficult to grant leaves for a calendar half year, commencing with July 1, without friction or complaint. This might be avoided by adopting the fiscal year, which commences with the law.

The practice of appointing substitutes will be affected by the statute. Leaves after July 1 can not in any case extend beyond ninety days with pay in any one year. This will do away with the substitute list after that time. In vew of this fact I respectfully suggest no more substitutes should be drawn. Clerks and employees who are now absent on sick leave must be paid under the present law, if continued on the rolls, and will be governed by it until the 1st of July.

The remark about the change from the calendar to the fiscal year is the merest suggestion, and it is intended to have weight only as such in this communication. Very respectfully,

A. C. MATTHEWS,
Comptroller.

CHANGES IN THE CIVIL SERVICE RULES, MAY 6, 1896, TO JUNE 1, 1898.

A complete revision of the civil-service rules was promulgated by President Cleveland on May 6, 1896. Under this revision the classified service was increased from 55,736 to 86,932 places. A statement of the extensions of the classified service from the passage of the civil-service act, on January 16, 1883, to the present time will be found at p. 144, post. The following is a statement showing each change in the rules since the revision on May 6, 1896, with the reasons there for in the more important instances:

November 2, 1896.

Rule I, section 2, clause (b), in the third line, was amended by inserting after the word "act" the words "and these rules;" so that as amended the clause reads:

66

(b) The term 'classified service' refers to all that part of the executive civil service of the United States included within the provisions of the civil-service act and these rules."

Rule III, section 2, clause (a), was amended by adding the following clause: "The ordnance department at large."

Rule III, section 2, clause (a), was amended by striking out after "persons" in the third line the words "who have been nominated for," and inserting in lieu thereof the words "whose appointments are subject to."

Rule III, section 2, clause (b), was amended by inserting in the second line, after the word "designation," the words "except persons merely employed as laborers or workmen, and persons whose appointments are subject to confirmation by the Senate."

Rule III, section 2, clause (b), was amended by adding the following words: “Who are employed in the Department of Justice under the annual appropriation for the investigation of official acts, records, and accounts of officers of the courts." Rule III, section 3, was amended to read:

"3. The custom-house service shall include such officers and employees as have been, or may hereafter be, classified under the civil-service act who are serving in any customs district whose officers and employees number as many as five. And whenever in any customs district whose officers and employees number less than five, the number of officers and employees shall be increased to as many as five, the Secretary of the Treasury shall at once notify the Commission of such increase, and the officers and employees of said district shall be included within the classified service from the date of said increase."

Rule III, section 6, was amended by inserting in the second line, after the word "employees," the following: "In any internal-revenue district;" and in the third line, after the word "act," by striking out the following: "In any internal-revenue district," so that as amended the section reads:

"6. The Internal-Revenue Service shall include the officers and employees in any internal-revenue district who have been, or may hereafter be, classified under the civil-service act."

Rule VI was amended by adding in the departmental service an additional clause making exceptions from examination to read as follows:

"(e) Attorneys or assistant attorneys in any department whose main duties are connected with the management of cases in court."

The Attorney-General, at whose request the amendment excepting these positions was submitted to the President, stated that there were certain classes of claims which require the taking of testimony in the far West in regions where a certain knack in the management of men, and even personal courage, are important requirements, and that the exception would be practically applicable to comparatively few officers of his Department.