REPORT OF THE CHIEF EXAMINER.

JANUARY 30, 1914.

The COMMISSION:

The following report is respectfully submitted of the work done under the supervision of the chief examiner during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913:

The following table shows the number of persons examined, passed, and appointed during the year:

In addition to the foregoing, certain examinations were held for services not in the classified service of the United States, with the following results:

1 Report showing the results of the examinations of all persons examined for designation as cadet or midshipman is made to the Representative in Congress for whom such examination is held.

There were 365 different kinds of educational examinations held, according to title or kind of position. The noneducational type of examination, consisting of an investigation and rating of the applicant's experience and physical ability, was given for a large number of different kinds of mechanical-trades positions throughout the service. The form of examination given for all such positions being the same, the number of different titles of positions is omitted from this report.

As compared with the year 1912 there was an increase of 35,673, or about 32 per cent, in the number examined for the classified service, and of 14,185, or nearly 68 per cent, in the number appointed through examination. In addition to the number examined for the classified service, 13,003 persons were examined for the unclassified service, making a total of 154,754 persons examined during the year, an increase over the preceding year of about 35 per cent.

ADDED LINES OF WORK.

A comparison of the number of persons examined during the past year with the number examined in previous years will not indicate adequately the increase in the volume of work done. Improvements in methods have made it possible, of course, to examine a larger number of persons for the clerical, subclerical, and mechanical

positions without a corresponding increase in the commission's force of clerks and examiners. There are, however, as pointed out in previous reports, phases of the work which have always naturally pertained to the competitive-examination system but which could properly be undertaken only as necessary funds have been provided; and until such provision was made it was necessary to be content with giving attention only to what seemed to be the most essential features of the large and important undertaking of providing suitable eligibles for the various enterprises of the Government. Attention is invited to some of the important lines of work, as set forth below, which, because of increased appropriation, it has been possible to assume during the year, but which, from their very nature, are not reflected in the statistics appearing in the first chapter of this report:

1. The importance of obtaining closer information as to the personal fitness of applicants has long been realized, but this matter, because of lack of sufficient means to do otherwise, has of necessity largely been left to the appointing officers in making their selections and in their observation of appointees during the probationary period. It has been possible during the past year, by reason of recent increases in the force of clerks and examiners, to accomplish far more along this line than ever before. The results in benefit to the service, it is believed, will be many times greater than the cost of the additional work. As rapidly as necessary means may be provided it is proposed to extend this work so that as a result of any of the commission's numerous examinations the eligibles certified will be those not only whose capacity has been adequately tested, but in addition reliable evidence of whose integrity has been obtained.

2. Again, during the first quarter of a century of the operation of the civil-service law the commission was provided with a wholly inadequate force of employees. This fact became more and more emphasized and conditions became more and more acute as extensions of the classified service were made to include positions requiring a wide variety of qualifications, many of which were professional, scientific, or technical in character. It was impossible with its force for the commission to have as close and intimate supervision over the tests given as the most efficient administration of the civil-service law demanded. It was found necessary to intrust a large portion of the examining work for professional, scientific, and technical examinations to persons outside of the commission's force whose services could be borrowed from the various departments. The commission was, of course, responsible under the law for the proper performance of this work, and while results have shown that for the most part it was well and conscientiously done, yet it is a duty with which the commission is solely charged-in other words, it is the commission's business, and the importance of closer supervision of it has long been felt. During the past year it has been found possible for the commission's force to take over in its entirety a very large part of this examining work, and in those examinations in which it has not yet been possible for the commission's examiners on its own force to do all of the work, there has been cooperation between the commission's examiners and those in other parts of the service. In this way the commission is enabled better to assume its full responsibility for the ratings given and to feel assured that its obligations to the service and to the public as represented by the competitors have been adequately and conscientiously

met.

3. The activities of the Government have been rapidly widening and extending during recent years. New undertakings are constantly being authorized each year. An increasing number of specialists in scientific and technical pursuits have been added to the classified services. The commission is first to feel the effect of such additions, for it is called upon to devise and give to the applicants for such positions appropriate and practical tests of fitness. The preparation and conduct of one such examination with comparatively few competitors usually requires far more work than the holding of many examinations for clerical positions each with many more com

petitors, the nature of the tests and the methods of rating for the latter being settled and well established.

4. Another important increase and improvement in the examining work is the participation by the district secretaries in the rating of papers for mechanical trades positions in the great field services of the departments. A material addition to this work was made during the year by the classification of the mechanical force at navy yards and the adoption of regulations applying to that service the same methods of examination and rating which have been successfully applied to similar positions in other field services. By the application of a system of rules for rating examinations for positions of this character devised and adopted during the past few years, remarkable uniformity and a most satisfactory degree of fairness and justness to competitors, and therefore, to the service, have been made possible. Most of the increase in work connected with the mechanical trades examinations for field services has been felt in the district offices, and it has been necessary to provide some of these offices with additional assistance. The drafting of suitable regulations, the devising of forms, and the formulating of instructions to carry out the regulations were done at the office in Washington.

5. Another item of material increase in the work has resulted from the strengthening of the examination for rural carrier as described in last year's report. Because of the increased compensation of this position and the consquent increase in competition, the examination was made equivalent to that for city carrier and post office clerk and the restriction on transfers was removed. This added several subjects to the examination and therefore increased the work of the examiners. So important a change in an examination for which there are thousands of applicants annually has the effect of materially increasing the volume of work although there may be no material increase in the number of persons examined.

EXPERT EXAMINERS.

By reason of the appropriation for the employment of expert examiners as needed the commission has been able to avail itself of the advice and assistance of a number of eminent authorities in the preparation and rating of examinations requiring highly technical, professional, or scientific training or experience. A corps of 42 experts has been engaged, whose services have been utilized already in examinations and who may be called upon in future as occasion demands. The subjects embraced wide field, including agronomy, bacteriology, ceramics, chemistry (including chemical engineering, dairy chemistry, chemistry of explosives, of petroleum, and of forest products), dairy manufacturing and butter making, economics, theory of education, electro-metallurgy, engineering (civil, hydro-electrical, structural, chemical, mechanical, highway, mining, and sanitary), entomology, railroad accounting, statistics, horticulture, library science, mine technology, pharmacology, photo-engraving, photography, plant pathology, paper making, quarry technology, radio-activity, transportation and marketing of farm products, and telephone construction.

As stated in previous reports, the need of such a corps of experts has been long felt by the commission, not only because it is impossible to include in the force of examiners continuously employed persons qualified to prepare and rate examinations in so wide a range of subjects as partially indicated above, or always to find competent persons in the departments whose services are available, but especially because such a force of experts inspires the confidence of the public and of intending applicants in the practical character and fairness of the examinations. The expectations in this respect have been fully realized, for it is found that the examinations along professional, scientific, and technical lines are receiving the attention of highly qualified applicants to an extent much greater than ever before. The commission is responsible for the character of the examination and for the correctness of the ratings, and for this

reason it is entitled to have the advice and assistance of experts of its own selection in connection with the preparation and rating of high grade examinations.

In proportion to the value of the service rendered, the amount expended for the employment of expert examiners is extremely small. This is due to the fact that the men whose services have been secured are willing to come to the aid of the commission at a merely nominal rate of compensation, amounting in most cases to a fraction of the remuneration ordinarily received by them for their services. Authorities and experts in various lines of endeavor have seemed to consider it to be worth while to be associated with the Government in their expert capacities with little regard to the amount of their compensation. They seem to welcome the opportunity to render a public service by helping to obtain for the Government the best available men for its scientific and technical work.

Because of the constant extension of the governmental field of activities, the calls upon the commission for examinations in the professions and sciences are growing rapidly in number. On this account the present appropriation of $2,000 for expert examiners will doubtless soon become inadequate, and the additional $1,000 estimated for by the commission for the fiscal year 1915 will be needed. It is believed to be a fair statement that the Government receives greater value in return for the amount expended for expert examiners than for almost any other item of expense under the head of personal services.

PRACTICAL CHARACTER OF EXAMINATIONS.

The old criticism that the commission's examinations are scholastic in character, and therefore not practical, is still made, and even the extreme statement that only a college graduate can pass the examinations is sometimes heard. It is significant, however, that no such criticisms come from appointing officers—those in position to judge of the practical character of the tests as indicated by the kind of eligibles certified by the commission for appointment.

The facts are, of course, that some of the highly scientific and professional work of the Government absolutely requires men of scholastic training, graduates of the best colleges and universities, but the greatest volume of the Government's work, which is of a clerical character, requires nothing more than a good common-school education and a good degree of general intelligence. The examinations for the highly scientific and professional positions are of a kind calculated to eliminate as ineligible those who have not had the scholastic training necessary to perform the work required; but the examinations for the great mass of clerical positions contain no test of scholastic character that could not be correctly answered by one whose education has been confined to the eight grades of the common school.

As has been pointed out in previous reports, the clerical tests are designed, as far as possible, to bring out the general intelligence of the competitor and his care and accuracy, rather than his scholastic training. It is confidently believed, too, that an applicant fresh from school, in whom habits of care and accuracy have not been drilled by actual experience in clerical work, is far less likely to pass the examination for a clerical position than one who has been taught by experience in business life the importance of these elements in the performance of clerical work.

After all, the best means of determining whether the examinations for clerical positions (toward which the criticisms are most often aimed) are practical is an inspection of the efficiency of the employees appointed. In offices where such an inspection has been made it has been found that the relative efficiency of the employees corresponds closely to the relative ratings attained in the entrance examinations. It is gratifying to know that the public in general has faith in the practical character of the examinations, as shown by the fact that criticisms of them are infrequent. Doubtless the example of the efficiency of the Postal Service, which is brought closely to the atten