Secretarial work

“ Permanent Secretaries.—In our estimation, a permanent, trained and well-paid secretary is the condition of genuine success. The time has passed to have to depend on voluntary and untrained service. Times have changed and methods also. The permanency of a secretary gives to our work stability and promise of intense life. ”

“ He has to summon meetings, keep minutes, report to the general secretary as to the state of trade in the district, the number of men out of work, or on the other hand he has to state what men are wanted, and he has also "to transact any other business that belongs to his office." The president, vice-president, and assistant secretary of a branch are elected quarterly, while the secretary and referee are elected annually. ”

“ Now any subordinate who determines what questions he may decide himself, and what he will refer to his superiors, and who prepares the materials for a final judgment in the cases that he does refer, is certain to exert a great deal of influence. The permanent under-secretary, holding his position, as he does, for an indefinite period, devoting his whole time to the work, and becoming thoroughly familiar with the affairs of his department, can, no doubt, regulate the class of questions that shall be referred to him, and can acquire complete control over the administration. ”

“ Up there in the big office-rooms, year in year out, these refined, well-educated women kept ledgers and accounts and did the general office work of the Civil Service with a precision and neatness and correctness equal to the work of any men, and invariably to the astonishment of any interested visitor who was permitted to inquire into the system. ”

“ The Executive Secretary is usually a salaried officer paid to give up all his time to the work as executive officer, or general manager, of an organization under a board of managers and an executive committee [50] . In some organizations this officer is called Corresponding Secretary, but the title of corresponding secretary does not carry with it any duty except that of conducting the correspondence of the society as explained on page 246, unless it is prescribed by the by-laws. ”

“ I too was not up to book-keeping of that kind, for it required an experienced clerk, and the committee were compelled to dispense with the service of Miss Pike, greatly to my regret. Mr. R. B. Walker, of Banbury, applied for the post, and in June was appointed assistant secretary. This appointment released me more for outside work and enabled me to give more attention to the organizing department, and we were very soon able to make rapid progress. ”

“ But when, six months ago, Trill, of the Sixth, the old secretary, left Grandcourt, and Wake, at the solicitation of the prefects (who lacked the energy to undertake the work themselves) , consented to act as secretary, the society entered upon a new career. The new secretary alarmed his patrons by his versatility and energy. The old humdrum questions vanished almost completely from the programme, and were replaced by such interesting conundrums as “Is life worth living?” ”

“ I have organized my staff as a sort of Cabinet. We meet every day. We go over everything conceivable that we may do or try to do. We do good team work. I am not sure but I doubt whether these secretaries have before been taken into just such a relation to their chief. They are enthusiastic and ambitious and industrious and—safe. There's no possibility of any leak. We arrange our dinners with reference to the possibility of getting information and of carrying points. Mrs. Page gives and accepts invitations with the same end in view. We're on the job to the very limit of our abilities. ”

“ I have already made you a great man; for as you know by this time, the office of Secretary to my legation is great enough in all conscience. Some men have a stomach for office like a cormorant, which is a serious scourge to the nation. Pray, sir, if you have a turn that way, get rid of it before another moon."
"By my honor, general, I've no such craving; for I was content enough before I saw you to live a poor critic, and never thought of being a Secretary. ”

“ Some of them are capable of talking well upon any subject. These aspire to be Secretaries of State. Others, not so remarkable for general ability or so glib of tongue, confine themselves to particular departments of administration. It is the endeavour of each to obtain a mastery of the business details of some special office—Foreign, Home, Treasury, Colonial, Army, Navy, Post Office, Pensions, Trade, Transport, or Agriculture—looking for an Under-Secretaryship, in the expectation of ultimately attaining, after some years of diligent and capable service, to Cabinet rank. ”

“ The Financial Secretary and the Parliamentary Secretary are political officers, that is, they sit in the House of Commons, and they change with every change in the Government. The Permanent Secretary, on the other hand, is a non-political officer, or civil servant, who retains office through the successive changes of Government, and secures the continuity of the office. He is the official head of the Department, and of the whole civil service. ”

“ The Executive Committee [Pg 591] can shunt to purely routine work a General Secretary whom it dislikes, and an unfriendly General Secretary can practically destroy the authority of the Executive Committee. In some cases the work of the office is in practice divided up amongst all the salaried staff, Executive Councillors, General Secretary, and Assistant Secretaries indiscriminately, each man doing his own job in the way he thinks best, and any consultation or corporate decision being reduced to a minimum. ”

“ The position of an ordinary private secretary is sometimes that of an upper servant, or, on the other hand, his own social position may be much higher than that of his employer. A secretary who either has position of his own or is given position by his employer, is in every way treated as a member of the family ”

“ But the system now proposed, while thus allowing the frequent bringing in of new and capable men from public life at home, requires that a large proportion of each grade above that of secretary, save a very small number of diplomatic agents, commissioners, and the like, shall be appointed from those thoroughly trained for the service, and that all secretaries, without exception, shall be thoroughly trained and fitted. ”

“ The term 'head of a department' means, in this connection, the Secretary in charge of a great division of the executive branch of the government, like the State, Treasury, and War, who is a member of the Cabinet. ”

“ We also request the secretaries to send us all possible news of their plans and work, not merely statistics, but notes of anything of interest, for even the record of discouragements, as well as of successes, may often prove full of suggestion to workers in the same field, and aid toward developments that will broaden and strengthen the entire movement. ”

“ When a secretary of the government is required to give information on any subject, he may act, and generally does act, through officers under him. He is not expected to make over his own signature all the communications required from the department of which he is the head. ”

“ I will describe what I think such a secretary should be and do.
She need at first have no special knowledge of laws affecting the poor, institutions established for them, or the principles of action which those who have thought most on the subject unite in thinking best; ladies furnished with such knowledge would not be found in many districts, and though such information would doubtless be of immense value, it would not be essential to secure it at first, as a great deal would be rapidly acquired by anyone holding the post of which I speak. ”

“ The one who keeps the originals of the public documents, the great seal, and the public records, is called the secretary of state. He is to the United States somewhat as the clerk is to the district or town, or the auditor to the county. But in addition, he is the one who has charge of our relations with foreign countries. He is the one to whom you would apply for a passport, if you were going to travel in foreign lands. He has an assistant and many subordinate officers. In this department are three bureaus, as they are called—the diplomatic, the consular, and the domestic. ”

“ In such assemblies where the duties of the secretary are difficult, he should have one or more assistants. When more than one secretary is elected the one first elected is considered the secretary, the others his assistants. ”

“ In addition to the above duties, when there is only one secretary, it is his duty to send out proper notices of all called meetings, and of other meetings when necessary, and to conduct the correspondence of the society, except as otherwise provided. ”

“ The constitution provides that there shall be such executive secretaries as may be determined by law. They are currently referred to as ministers and their number has been fixed at seven, namely, (1) secretary of the interior and police (interior y policia) ; (2) secretary of foreign relations (relaciones exteriores) ; (3) secretary of finance and commerce (hacienda y comercio) ; (4) secretary of war and the navy (guerra y marina) ; (5) secretary of justice and public instruction (justicia e instrucción pública) ; (6) secretary of agriculture and immigration (agricultura e inmigración) ”

“ He visits the Departments, one after another, and humbly seeks in each the favor of that awful potentate, the appointment clerk, who can keep him informed of existing vacancies and who also may see to it that his papers are opportunely brought to the attention of the Secretary whenever a good chance for catching an office occurs. ”

“ The severe training of the agency staff in some little measure enables them to compete with this with more or less ease, but the secretary, unless he be a born business man, often finds himself in an amazing [Pg 244] entanglement, from which he feels it almost impossible ever to emerge with the least credit. That these matters are straightened out at all is generally due to the kindly and methodical assistance given by the agency, and it is most pleasant to record that this is, as a rule, unstintedly acknowledged. ”

“ The first Assistant Secretary is to be considered as a political officer, in the full confidence of his chief, able to advise him, and even at times to replace him; while the second and third Assistant Secretaries have by necessity and custom become permanent officers. ”

“ In looking back on the last few years, we see changes of heads of department so frequent as to render it almost ludicrous for a secretary to undertake to get personally acquainted with his clerks, before he goes back into private life again. ”

“ It is his duty to keep a true record of all that is done in the assembly. Speeches and motions that do not prevail, need not be recorded. But it is sometimes customary, when it is intended to publish the proceedings, and no reporter is present, for the secretary to make the minutes take the form of a journal.
2. The secretary must keep all papers that belong to the society in safety ”

“ They are allowed no talents except hidden ones, which must be employed in the service of their ministers. A public show of talent would ruin them. The private secretary is therefore an intimate friend in the gift of government— However, let us return to the bureaus.
Three men-servants lived in peace in the Billardiere division, to wit: a footman for the two bureaus, another for the service of the two chiefs, and a third for the director of the division himself. ”

“ If he is a judge he may, after twenty years or more, hope to obtain a seat in the High Court. If he is a collector-magistrate he may similarly hope to become a commissioner, and eventually to rise to be a member of the Board of Revenue. But outside the ordinary routine of appointments there are a certain number of offices which may be considered to be the special prizes of the service. To get into the secretariat is the very laudable desire of almost every young civilian. In the first place the pay of the under-secretary is very much larger than that of most of his contemporaries. ”

“ In writing thus, the figure of another Secretariat official rises before me with reproachful looks. I see the thought-worn face of that Secretary to whom the Rajas belong, and who is, in every particular, a striking contrast with the typical person whose portrait I sketch. The Secretary in the Foreign Department is a scholar and a man of letters by instinct. Whatever he writes is something more than correct and precise—it is impressed with the sweep and cadence of the sea ”

“ The Secretary General shall be appointed as a public official in general service, and, under the supervision of the Chairman of the Constitutional Committee, manages all matters of the Secretariat and directs and oversees the staffs of the Constitutional Committee. (4) The President, on the request of the Chairman, may designate other State agencies to conduct the affairs of the Secretariat, in whole or in part, on its behalf, or commission them to handle its affairs, and public officials belonging to other State agencies may concurrently serve as public officials in the Secretariat. ”

“ Permanent secretaries are responsible to the Cabinet Secretary or the Head of the Civil Service for the effective day-to-day management of the relevant department, or the particular issues for which they are responsible (for more information on the Cabinet Secretary, see Chapter Four, paragraphs 4.53 and 4.54) . 7.10 The permanent secretary is normally the accounting officer for their department, with a personal responsibility to report directly to Parliament for the management and organisation of the department. ”

“ For the better direction, management, and outcome of said suits, an intelligent advocate is appointed for him to whom he may apply in all his doubts. And in all that which he does in pursuance of this order, he gives account in all the board meetings which are regularly held semi-weekly. A secretary, who keeps the keys of the archives, is obliged to give him all the documents that he asks for, and shall keep a record of the withdrawal of such. ”