Civil service examination

“ Now that the school examinations have been substituted for the civil service examinations an improvement may be expected in the service, but even the modified system will not keep the servant in touch with those whom he serves. ”

“ In the "Great Public Schools" the scheme of education is similarly dominated by the headmaster's desire to win as many scholarships as possible at the Oxford and Cambridge Colleges. In the Universities all the undergraduates without exception are reading for examinations of various kinds,—pass "schools," honour "schools," Civil Service examinations, and the like. Officers in the Army and Navy have never done with examinations; and there is not a single profession which can be entered through any door but that of a public examination. ”

“ It is further ordered, That no person shall be admitted to any place not excepted from examination by the civil-service rules in any of the classes above designated until he or she shall have passed an appropriate examination under the United States Civil Service Commission and his or her eligibility has been certified to by said Commission or the appropriate board of examiners. ”

“ Of 262 students who entered Columbia College in 1900, only 50 completed the regular four-year course in the college. Civil service examinations often exclude the fit from the public service. In Great Britain the method is carried to an extreme, and the results depend as much on the coach as on the candidate. Almost anything is better than appointments for party service; but past performance, character, habits, heredity and physical health are much more important than the temporary information that can be but imperfectly tested by a written examination. ”

“ For the purpose of establishing in the classified civil service the principle of compulsory competitive examination for promotion, there shall be, so far as practicable and useful, compulsory competitive examinations of a suitable character to test fitness for promotion; but persons in the classified service who were honorably discharged from the military or naval service of the United States, and the widows and orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors, shall be exempt from such examinations. ”

“ In most European countries the civil service is recruited on much the same lines as in the United Kingdom and the United States, that is, either by examination or by nomination or by both. In some cases the examination is purely competitive, in other cases, as in France, holders of university degrees get special privileges, such as being put at the head of the list, or going up a certain number of places ”

“ It provided for three commissioners to be appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a chief examiner, state boards of examiners, and minor officers. The commissioners were to aid the president in preparing rules to carry out the provisions of the law, which called for the classification of clerks and for open competitive examinations of a practical nature; if there were no competition, the commission should arrange for a non-competitive examination. ”

“ All officials connected with any office where or for which any examination is to take place will give the Civil Service Commission and the chief examiner such information as may be reasonably required to enable the Commission to select competent and trustworthy examiners; and the examinations by those selected as examiners, and the work incident thereto, will be regarded as a part of the public business to be performed at such office, and with due regard to other parts of the public business said examiners shall be allowed time during office hours to perform the duties required of them. ”

“ Competing examination to be open to all. In the examinations which we have recommended, we consider that the right of competing should be open to all persons, of a given age, subject only, as before suggested, to the necessity of their giving satisfactory references to persons able to speak to their moral conduct and character, and of producing medical certificates to the effect that they have no bodily infirmity likely to incapacitate them for the public service. It is only by throwing the examinations entirely open that we can hope to attract the proper class of candidates. ”

“ It is now the national civil service law. The fundamental principles of this law are:— (1) selection by competitive examination for all appointments to the “classified service,” with a period of probationary service before absolute appointment; (2) apportionment among the states and territories, according to population, of all appointments in the departmental service at Washington; (3) freedom of all the employees of the government from any necessity to contribute to political campaign funds or to render political services. ”

“ Our proposal is not inconsistent with the appropriation of special talents or attainments to special departments of the public service. In the case, for example, of the subordinate grades from which collectors, surveyors, secretaries, junior commissioners, and other superior officers of the Revenue departments are usually selected, the nature of the examination should be adapted to the object of securing the scientific and other attainments which are so important to the efficiency of these great national establishments. ”

“ Many attempts, more or less avowed, have been made to cripple the merit system before destroying it; for instance, bills have been introduced to allow the appointing officers to choose any applicant who has passed the examination, “to improve the civil service by affording advancement to those in the classified service who have been denied advancement through circumstances beyond their control,” to suspend the law during the first year of every presidential term. ”

“ It is one of the most fundamental principles of the merit system that appointments to places in the classified service, under the competition rule, shall not be made at the arbitrary will of the appointing power, but solely on the ground of merit, as shown by open competitive examination supplemented by practical probation during a certain period. ”

“ As the examination papers would be prepared at the Central Office in London, and as the performances of the candidates would all be transmitted thither for analysis and judgment, it would only be necessary to secure the presence at the local examinations of a trustworthy, intelligent, and business-like officer, capable of carrying out the requisite mechanical arrangements, and ensuring order and fairness in the contest. ”

“ The fitness of the applicants shall be determined by examination, to be conducted by the person or persons holding the power of appointment or promotion, or by some person or board designated by the person holding such power of appointment, and the rating on such examination for fitness shall not exceed in any case 50 per cent. ”

“ Thorough civil service reform requires that these positions also, and all those of fourth-class postmasters (partly classified by order of 1st Dec. 1908) , be made subject to the merit system, for in them is the real remaining stronghold of the spoils system. Even though all their subordinates be appointed through examination, it will be impossible to carry the reform to ultimate and complete success so long as the officers in charge are appointed mainly for political reasons and are changed with every change of administration. ”

“ The examination for the lower class of appointments should be local. In dealing with the lower class of appointments, it will be necessary to make provision against the difficulty that if the examinations were all held at one place, a large proportion of those who might reasonably become candidates would be deterred from presenting themselves by the expense of the journey. If the scheme of examinations were more favourable to one locality than another, there can be no doubt that it would soon be set aside as unjust. ”

“ In 1883 Congress passed the Civil Service Act, allowing the president to select a board of examiners on whose recommendation appointments are made. Candidates for office are subjected to an easy competitive examination. ”

“ A knowledge of the sacred books is the sole passport to civil office and public employment. All candidates for places in the government must pass a competitive examination in the Nine Classics. This system is practically the same in principle as that which we, with great difficulty, are trying to establish in connection with our own civil service. ”

“ A book should be kept in every office, in which should be entered the name and age of each Clerk or other officer, at the time of his appointment, the dates of his examination, first appointment, and subsequent promotions, together with notes of all the reports made upon him from time to time, either on the occasions afforded by the occurrence of vacancies, or at other times, in consequence of some special instance either of good or ill behaviour. ”

“ Many counter suggestions were made: that what was needed was the weeding-out of incompetents; that preference in appointments should be given to candidates belonging to the party having the smallest number of members in government service (the plan, of course, of a Democrat) ; that entrance by examination should not be confined to the lowest grades; that examinations should be strictly confined to matters directly relating to the duties of the offices to be filled; that under the new rules those in office should be forced to compete on equal terms with other citizens. ”

“ It is proposed that for every vacancy in the civil service four candidates shall be named, and the best candidate selected by examination. We conceive that, under this system, the persons sent out will be young men above par, young men superior either in talents or in diligence to the mass. It is said, I know, that examinations in Latin, in Greek, and in mathematics, are no tests of what men will prove to be in life. ”

“ We accordingly recommend that a central Board should be constituted for conducting the examination of all candidates for the public service whom it may be thought right to subject to such a test. Such board should be composed of men holding an independent position, and capable of commanding general confidence ”

“ It is the admission of men, without any connection with the Uni- versity beyond the Matriculation — sometimes not even that — to the Special Test, by passing which the candidates become qualified to hold the more important oflBces in the country. This system has been injurious to education, the University, and the public service itself. Look at the hundreds and hun- dreds of young men, who annually matriculate or pass what is best known as the Uncovenanted Civil Service Examination. ”

“ For instance, in obtaining a postponement of actual enrolment for military service, or in becoming a candidate for civil service examinations, such educational qualifications are generally measured by the standard of certain public institutions; so that private institutions of higher standard have to conform themselves to the direction of the state, if they wish to avail themselves of the aforesaid privileges. ”

“ It is true that in many offices some kind of examination is prescribed, and that in almost all the person appointed is in the first instance nominated on probation; but, as will presently be pointed out, neither of these tests are at present very efficacious. Routine character of their duties.The young man thus admitted is commonly employed upon duties of the merest routine. Many of the first years of his service are spent in copying papers, and other work of an almost mechanical character. In two or three years he is as good as he can be at such an employment. ”

“ Commendable as this practice was, it did foster in the service a bureaucratic feeling, and in the public an apprehension lest government officers should consider themselves a class. An examination of the various Blue Books shows, moreover, that sons were often appointed to succeed fathers, which increased the disapprobation. A bureaucracy is always aristocratic ”

“ The competitive examinations prescribed by the constitution are, therefore, beyond question, in every essential point such as were provided for by the civil service law at the time when the constitution was adopted—that is to say, in point of fact, what true competitive examinations were universally understood to be wherever a civil service system like ours was in practice. ”

“ But politics is not the only weakness of the system. The public has been taught to believe that Civil Service examinations result in securing the most efficient. This is a serious delusion.
Those who take civil service examinations usually find their names rejected or upon the eligible list within six months. It takes about that long to classify. Any time within two years thereafter the applicant is liable to be certified and called.
When a requisition is made the Commission certifies three names. It is not at all likely that they are the three whose examinations show them the best qualified. ”