OFFICIAL REGISTER AND SERVICE RECORDS OF THE COMMISSION. There is need to have available statistical information regarding the personnel of the service. Information of a purely directory nature is contained in the Official Register which, as it is published only biennially, shows the condition of the service for but one day in two years and by the time it is published several months have elapsed. Being merely a directory of names, positions, salaries, and States from which appointed it is of no use for statistical or comparative purposes as the arrangement is solely alphabetical. Statistical information should be maintained in some such form as not to involve its publication in a volume which is used primarily as a finding list. The information needs to be kept by some one central body, constantly revised to date, and accessible at any time for the purpose of compiling statistical data. This does not mean any increased expenditure; on the contrary a considerable reduction could be made in the labor and expense involved. Efforts have been made since 1905 to reduce the expense connected with the publie cation of the Official Register without detracting materially from its usefulness; it then filled two large volumes. For a register assembling the officers and employees by departments or independent offices and by bureaus, positions, and compensation, with a combined index, there was substituted a publication containing the necessary information for all officers and employees in all branches of the service in alphabetical order, with the addition of a few pages grouping the more important officers by departments, offices, and bureaus. In an act of October 22, 1913, provision was made for discontinuing the second volume of this publication, containing information relating to the Post Office Department, and also for omitting from the Register the list of ships and vessels belonging to the United States, matter which is to a considerable extent duplicated in other publications of the Government. Several plans have been proposed for a further modification of the Official Register so that it shall be a list of all officers and employees of the Government whose duties are of an executive, supervisory, technical, or professional character and whose compensation exceeds a prescribed limit, but not including military and naval officers, lists of whom are already published yearly in registers issued by the War and Navy Departments, this modified register to be supplemented by a card directory, maintained in the offices of the commission and kept constantly up to date, which shall show the status of every person in the service of the United States except such military and naval officers, and from which statistics or information relating to the personnel or any of its component parts may be obtained or be prepared for publication at any time. From this directory the modified register above mentioned would be published once a year and would appear promptly after the date to which it relates; any department or office could have the portion relating to it published separately. The proposed change would result in the avoidance of the vast amount of duplication involved in the present publication of some thirty or more registers by the different departments and offices and in the abolishment of some of them, and the existence of this directory would afford a convenient and inexpensive method of obtaining data for retirement, promotion, efficiency, and other measures and sociological information concerning the personnel. The following letter of the Commission to the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing sets forth the proposal and its advantages in more detail, and the Director of the Census has informed the commission that "the views expressed therein are exactly in line with those of the bureau:" Hon. DUNCAN U. FLETCHER, WASHINGTON, D. C., December, 12, 1913. Chairman, Joint Committee on Printing, United States Senate. SIR: With reference to your letter of September 26, requesting the commission's comment on bills (S. 825 and H. R. 6539) providing for a general revision of the laws relating to the public printing, and to the last paragraph of the commission's reply of October 24, wherein it was stated that the views of the commission with respect to the publication of the Official Register would be set forth in a separate communication, this commission has the honor to submit the following: The act of January 12, 1895 (28 Stat. 618), provides that the lists to be furnished by each head of department or independent office for the Official Register shall be "a full and complete list of all officers, agents, clerks, and other employees of said department, bureau, office, commission, or institution connected with the legislative, executive, or judicial service of the Government, or paid from the United States Treasury, including military and naval officers of the United States, cadets, and midshipmen. Said lists shall exhibit the aslary, compensation, and emoluments allowed to each of said officers, agents, clerks, and other employees, the State or country in which he was born, the State or Territory, and congressional district and county of which he is a resident and from which he was appointed to office, and where employed." The law further provides for the inclusion in the register of a statement showing, by departments and offices, the number of officers and empoyees therein and the aggregate amount of their compensation (act of Mar 3, 1893, 27 Stat., 708), and a list of all officers and employees of the office of the Comptroller of the Currency, including bank examiners, receivers, etc. (act of Apr. 28, 1902, 32 Stat., 138). By an act of June 7, 1906, 34 Stat., 219, the duty of publishing the Official Register was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Director of the Census. The urgent deficiency appropriation act, approved October 22, 1913, contains the following provision: "Hereafter the Official Register of the United States shall not contain the names of those persons heretofore published in Volume II relating to the postal service, namely, postmasters, assistant postmasters, clerks in post offices, city and rural carriers, employees of the sea-post service, employees of the Railway Mail Service, employees of the mail messenger service, and mail contractors; nor shall it contain the statement of allowances made to contractors for carrying the mails or the list of ships and vessels belonging to the United States, as heretofore published in the said Official Register; and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the foregoing provision are hereby repealed." Section 73, paragraph 1, of the Senate bill differs from the same section and paragraph of the House bill in that it proposes to have the Official Register include, as heretofore, "military and naval officers of the United States, cadets, midshipmen," while the House bill proposes to omit them from the Official Register. Full information concerning military and naval officers including cadets and midshipmen appear annually in the Army Register and in the Navy and Marine Corps Register. The Official Register is published only once in two years, and shortly after its publication becomes out of date, especially as to these officers. The Army and Navy Registers have a distribution as wide as or wider than the Official Register, the informal tion contained in them is much more complete, they are published yearly, while the Official Register ipublished but once in two years and soon becomes practically obsolete as to them, as stated above, and is is thought that the Official Register is little used by persons seeking information concerning military and naval officers and that the duplication of work and expense caused by the publication of this information in the Official Register should be eliminated in the future. The omission of these officers is in accordance with the views of the Director of the Census, the former Commission on Economy and Efficiency, and this commission, their inclusion being in effect a duplication of obsolete matter which has appeared in other annual publications of the Government. The other omissions provided for in the Senate and House bills are already authorized in the urgent deficiency act, above quoted, and the commission is of the opinion that section 73, paragraph 1, of the House bill should be adopted, substituting for lines 20 to 22 thereof language substantially the same as that contained in the quoted portion of the urgent deficiency act. In the preface to the last (1911) edition of the Official Register the Director of the Census stated: "The difficulties which are inseparable from the Official Register in its present form lead to the belief that the law governing this subject is in need of a thoroughgoing revision. As a directory of Government employees it is inadequate, because it can not be kept up to date through the fact that a considerable interval must elapse between the date to which the figures refer and the date of publication. The wisdom and utility of having in the Government service a record of all its employees can not be doubted. It might, however, be questioned whether such a record might not more appropriately be kept in some central Government office by means of cards, which would be kept up to date and from which at any time statements could be prepared of a statistical nature relative to the service in general or to any particular part thereof. The wisdom and utility of printing a list of every Government employee in addition to such a card list may perhaps be doubted. It may further be remarked that the Official Register, printed as it is in very limited quantities because of the great expense involved, and not arranging the names of all employees according to departments, does not supply the needs of the executive departments, most of which issue registers or directories relating to their particular department. There are in the Official Register, as now constituted by the law, several miscellaneous features which have been added from time to time, the value of which is doubtful and concerning which it might well be questioned whether the corresponding material might not be more appropriately published by the several executive departments which are most intimately con cerned." This commission, the Director of the Census, and the former Commission on Economy and Efficiency have advised the publication of a modified form of the Official Register, to be in one volume and to include only the more important officers and employees of the Government, and on February 13, 1911, the plan in detail was outlined in a letter from the then Secretary of Commerce and Labor to the Chairman of the House Committee on the Census, a copy of which letter is inclosed. The present form of the Official Register renders it of little value except to determine the official position of an individual whose name is known, and the names and official positions of the employees in a given branchof the service can not be ascertained except at a considerable expenditure of time and labor. Several bills have been introduced in Congress to provide for the keeping of a complete card record of employees by this commission, and for the publication from this record of a list of persons whose duties are of an executive, supervisory, or directive-administrative character, or of a technical, professional, or scientific nature, and who receive a compensation of $1,500 or more per annum, and of statistics concerning the personnel of the service by rates of pay, by branches of service, by States from which appointed, and other statistics which the proper head of department might approve or the Congress require. With reference to one of these bills this commission in its report for the year ended June 30, 1911, stated, page 23: "Much duplication of work is involved in the preparation of the Official Register by the Census Bureau and the maintenance of service records by the commission. As far as the executive civil service is concerned sufficient information for the publication of the Official Register is contained at all times in the service records. Reports of appointments and changes of employees, both classified and unclassified, are received and audited currently by the commission. The entire number of persons in the service of the United States Government, including the legislative, executive, judicial, diplomatic, consular, military, and naval services, was estimated in 1910 at 515,354. Of this number the commission already maintains service-record cards for nearly one-half. "In view of the similarity between this work of the commission and the preparation of the Official Register a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 16, 1911, printed as H. R. 32810, which provided that the commission should keep a record of all civil, military, and naval employees, and that, in lieu of the Official Register, the Director of the Census should compile and publish a list of those employees only whose compensation equals or exceeds $2,000 per annum, in connection with other information specified. "The Official Register shows the condition of the service on July 1, but is not ready for distribution until the following December. With changes in certain branches of the executive civil service amounting annually to from 25 to 75 per cent of the force it will readily be seen that the material for the Official Register is antiquated before it can be published. Under the plan proposed in the bill an official register in card form, based upon reports of changes received monthly from the departments, would be kept complete and up to date and its information would be immediately available by telephone or mail, and any compilation could be made when needed. "The commission concurs in the opinion of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor that the adoption of this plan would materially decrease expense and greatly increase the value of the results. The keeping of additional records would of course involve a necessary appropriation, for which the commission will submit estimates when required." Representatives of this commission, of the Census Bureau, and of the President's Commission on Economy and Efficiency appeared before the House Committee on Printing on May 20 and 22, 1912, and urged the incorporation in the revision of the law relating to the public printing of a provision for such a record to be kept by the commission. It is not possible for the commission with its present limited force and appropriations to install and maintain such a system. There are in round numbers 400,000 employees in the executive civil service; the commission has records of approximately 225,000 of these employees, but has no records of the remaining 175,000 in the executive service and none of any of the officers and employees in the legislative and judicial services. It has been estimated that the initial cost of installing a complete record would be $20,000 and that the additional annual expense of maintenance would be $10,000, and that the list proposed to be published would cost not to exceed $10,000 for each issue. The total cost of clerical work and printing the 1909 Official Register was $55,976.96; that of the 1911 Register was $35,557.58 with an estimated additional cost to the department of $5,000 for clerical labor in preparing the necessary material for the Register. With the establishment of such a central record of the personnel, an annual instead of the present biennial publication could be published, being prepared directly from the records of the commission, at a saving of more than $20,000 per issue or $10,000 per annum over the cost of the 1911 edition of the Register. In addition the information so published would be correct and up to date, the record would be available at all times for furnishing information regarding individuals and statistical information regarding the personnel of the service, as a whole or in any of its many branches, or regarding any particular class of employees, which information is very frequently sought by Members of Congress and executive officials of the Government from the commission, but is often unobtainable or can be furnished only after a considerable expenditure of time and money. With the establishment of such a central personnel record there would be one place where information regarding the personnel or any of its component parts, needed in connection with legislative and administrative projects, could be readily ascertained at a minimum of labor, expense, and delay. Even should it be desired to continue the Register in its present form, publishing it biennially as at present, it could be produced for such a central personnel record at a cost considerably under that of the present method, with the additional advantage of having a record which would be constantly available for the giving of reliable information concerning any person, office, or department in the service, and in preparing statistical data relating to the personnel now prepared at a great expenditure of time and money, with promptitude and at a cost for clerical work much less than under the present method. The proposed record would contain much more data than is contained in the Official Register, affording information which does not now exist regarding the extent of the civil service, the expenditure for salaries, the extent of superannuation, the terms and tenure of office, the extent to which women are employed, and other matters of economic and statistical importance and interest. Partial information in these subjects has at different times been compiled under congressional resolutions and Executive orders, and has imposed much labor upon the departments in furnishing the data required, and while the information has been of value at the time it has been lacking in completeness and systematic preparation. Information concerning the personnel of the service to be accurate and of the greatest value can be obtained only by a law which will provide for one uniform and complete record from which reliable statistics of this character may be compiled promptly. Considerable time must necessarily elapse before such a compilation under congressional resolution or Executive order can now be made as it is necessary to await reports from the departments to secure the required data, and when obtained it is taken from over 30 record systems which differ in every department and office, resulting in inaccuracy, incompleteness, and lack of uniformity. A record such as that proposed would be practically complete at all times and any accurate and full compilation could be made when needed, for the information of Congress in connection with proposed legislation or otherwise. There is inclosed herewith a copy of a letter from the Director of the Census, dated November 10, 1913, concerning the cost of the present Official Register, in which he expresses the hope that the commission's views are in line with those expressed in its letter of February 10, 1911, on this subject, copy of which is also inclosed, and that the commission will be willing to cooperate with the Bureau of the Census in securing the enactment of the legislation necessary to carry this plan into effect. The Director of the Census has been furnished a copy of this letter and will no doubt address you upon the subject. By direction of the commission. JOHN A. McILHENNY, President. EXTENSIONS, COMPETITIVE CLASSIFIED SERVICE. POSITIONS COVERED INTO THE COMPETITIVE CLASSIFIED SERVICE BY ADMINISTRATIONS, EXCLUDING NATURAL GROWTH OF BRANCHES OF THE SERVICE SUBSEQUENT TO THEIR CLASSIFICATION. [For detailed statements prior to March 4, 1909, see pages 158 and 155 of the Twenty-fifth and Twenty. seventh Annual Reports, respectively.] President Arthur, Jan. 16, 1883, to Mar. 3, 1885. Total by extensions to Mar. 3, 1913. By natural growth..... Total classified competitive, June 30, 1913. EXTENSIONS IN DETAIL UNDER PRESIDENT TAFT.. 15, 573 11, 757 10, 535 38, 961 3,261 13, 166 21,600 56, 868 171, 721 110,876 282, 597 Under order of Nov. 11, 1905, Indian warehouse (Min. Nov. 3, 1911). Classified under order of June 26, 1907, Quartermaster Department, Honolulu. Classified in Army Transport Service, order of Dec. 3, 1908. Extension of city delivery service at post offices from Mar. 4, 1909, to June 30, 1909.... 334 Laborers classified as watchmen in New York customhouse, order of June 29, 1909... 153 2 23 Classified by act of Congress in effect July 1, 1909. Oilers classified in Quartermaster Department, order of July 28, 1909. Clerks. Substitute clerks.. Positions paid from tribal funds, classified under order of Oct. 9, 1908 (Min. Clerks, Life-Saving Service, sundry civil act of Mar. 4, 1911 (Min. Aug. 9, Skilled laborer instead of driver, Department of Commerce and Labor, legislative act of Mar. 4, 1911... Clerks in charge of stations (Postal Service), order of May 26, 1911. Paymasters, customs, New York, order of June 12, 1911.. Classification by adoption of position: Sacred Heart Mission School (Min. Oct. 5, 1911).. St. Patrick's Mission School (Min. Nov. 18, 1911). Public Health Service, Louisiana quarantine (Min. Apr. 27, 1912). Switchboard operator, Coast Survey (Min. May 27, 1911).. By consolidation of post offices (Min. Apr. 2, 1912). Superintendents of melting and refining in mints classified by legislative act of Aug. 23, 1912.. Special employees, Internal Revenue Service, Aug. 24, 1912. Change in appropriation and order of Aug. 24, 1912, State Department. Fourth-class postmasters (order of Oct. 15, 1912) about. By consolidation of mission schools with Indian schools.. Classification by increased pay. Experts and agents in Department of Agriculture (Aug. 26, 1912) Solicitor to collector at port of New York... Classification by adoption of position. By change in appropriation acts.. By change in status of position.. Civilians replaced by enlisted men, sec. 4, Army act, approved Aug. 24, 1912.. Stenographers in lieu of private secretaries (post-office act, Aug. 24, 1912). Navy yard artisans, order of Dec. 7, 1912, about... Laborer, Insular Affairs, order of Feb. 24, 1906 (Min. Feb. 14, 1913). Cashiers in mints, order of Feb. 20, 1913. By advancement of post offices to second class. By consolidation of post offices.. Total extensions under President Taft.. WITHDRAWALS UNDER PRESIDENT TAFT. Superintendent of construction, Corregidor (July 9, 1909) Temporary machinists in Census Office (Dec. 29, 1909). 45 Secretaries in military parks (Feb. 8, 1910). Scouts, buffalo keepers, and rangers (Min. Jan. 11, Jan. 14, and Mar. 15, 1910).. 31 Temporary histopathologist, Government Hospital (Mar. 23, 1910). Specialist in higher education, Bureau of Education (July 1, 1910).. Field assistants for reconnaissance parties, Forest Service (Sept. 24, 1910), Paymasters' clerks acting as principal clerks to storekeepers at navy-yards Employees under Navy Department in Guam (Jan. 26, 1911). Clerks actually on duty with each assistant paymaster, United States Marine Assistant to Secretary of Interior (Apr. 21, 1911).. Army paymasters' clerks given military status by Army act of Mar. 3, 1911 (Min. Oct. 17, 1911).... Recognition of classification withdrawn (Min. Jan. 9, 1912) Inspectors with confidential duties, Interior Department (Apr. 10, 1912). Officers to aid in important drafting work, State Department (Aug. 24, 1912). Navy-yard artisans, Cavite, Olongaho, and Guantanamo (Feb. 4, 1913), about. Appointments under Schedule A, subdivision I, par. 15. Appointments on Isthmus in absence of eligibles.. 90 1 1 8 16 1,000 7 6 30 1, 450 Total withdrawals under President Taft.. EXTENT OF THE CLASSIFIED SERVICE IN GREATER NEW YORK. Table showing number of classified employees, by offices and class of position, in Federal service, Greater New York. |