held elsewhere than in Washington, and attendance at meetings of public officials," $12,000?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. Another question, "held elsewhere than at Washington," that applies purely to the fourth-class post offices?

Mr. McILHENNY. It applies to the 500 vacancies a month that I have been talking about.

Mr. BARTLETT. The examinations held elsewhere than at Washington are held for other places than the fourth-class post offices? Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. Why not let it state what it is for? You propose to use this money for examinations for offices other than the fourthclass post offices?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir; every phase of examination, something like 100 different kinds of examinations that I have held up pending the action of you gentlemen on this deficiency bill.

Mr. BARTLETT. You have a deficiency in other than the examinations for fourth-class post offices. You have talked altogether about this deficiency being occasioned by the examinations for fourth-class post offices?

Mr. McILHENNY. It is not entirely occasioned by that. That point was emphasized by the fact that the chairman asked me where this increased expense lay; and as one item of the increased expense, I called attention to the fact that we were holding examinations for an average of 500 fourth-class post offices a month.

Mr. BARTLETT. Which, in part, causes this deficiency?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. Not altogether?

Mr. McILHENNY. Not altogether.

Mr. BARTLETT. So all of this $12,000 is not needed for the examination of fourth-class postmasters?

Mr. McILHENNY. No; only a part.
Mr. BARTLETT. How much of it?

Mr. McILHENNY. $6,000.

Mr. BARTLETT. $6,000 is needed for examinations in other work than the fourth-class post offices?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. You said nothing about anything else.

The CHAIRMAN. I understood that the deficiency was occasioned by that fact. What else is there? There have not been any other classifications this year, have there?

Mr. BARTLETT. What other work has the commission to do that has increased the estimate of the deficiency other than the examinations to fill vacancies in the fourth-class post offices; that is, held elsewhere than in Washington?

Mr. McILHENNY. Well, the commission has undertaken a supervision of the other departments of the service in the field which is much more careful and efficient than it has ever undertaken before. The Engineer Department at large under the old regulations virtually held all their own examinations and in many instances rated their minor examination papers without any reference to the Civil Service Commission. We found there was a great deal of laxity. The CHAIRMAN. What department.

Mr. McILHENNY. The Engineer Department at large under the War Department, the Chief Engineer's office.

The CHAIRMAN. The Army engineers?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. They held their own examinations?

Mr. McILHENNY. They had their registration examinations and a few of the examinations for minor positions. Under the old regulations they had control of all that. I found that it was not working satisfactorily and I have rewritten the regulations and provided that the district secretaries should sit in with the examining board and have virtual control over the holding of these examinations and the rating of the papers, be responsible for them.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean that all the clerical and subordinate positions under the War Department in connection with the Army Engineers were filled wholly by examinations held under the Army Engineers?

Mr. McILHENNY. No; I mean the registered positions, such as stationary engineer, engineer on a dredge, transit man, levelman, rodman, and positions of that kind, of rather a semiscientific character, were all filled by registration tests. A man came up and applied for a position and he appeared before the local board of examiners, and he was questioned as to his abilities and where he worked last, and brought vouchers from his past employers, and they were then put on the list in the order of their apparent fitness. All of that work was under the immediate control of the Engineer Department at large; that is, for that service. Under the new regulations the virtual control of that work has been imposed in the district secretaries, who visit these boards at the time they hold the examinations and sit with them and see that the work of the board is properly conducted, and who afterwards have control of the certifications.

Mr. BARTLETT. Would that add $6,000?

Mr. McILHENNY. No, sir; that is only an item. Also, the commission have taken up virtually the same kind of control of the navy yards. The district secretaries often have to travel considerable distances to meet these boards and to assist in rating the papers, and they have to stay a week or 10 days at a time away from their headquarters at the expense of the Government to establish and maintain the control that I speak of. That is another item.

Mr. BARTLETT. That would not be much affected by the navy yards?

Mr. McILHENNY. We have quite a number.

Mr. BARTLETT. The men would not have to go very far?

Mr. McILHENNY. The fourth district, for instance, embraces the navy yard here at Washington, where there would not be any travel, Norfolk, and Charleston, and he has half a dozen places under the Engineer Department at large where he has to travel.

Mr. BARTLETT. As to the examinations for minor places in the navy yards, so far as I have been informed, those positions have been filled by the applicant filing a blank, stating his age, his residence, his qualifications, past experience, and upon that his name is put upon a roll. Do you mean that the Civil Service Commission supervises those examinations?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. How long have you been doing that?

Mr. McILHENNY. Last May, I think, was the time that we assumed absolute control over it.

Mr. BARTLETT. Why did you not assume control before; what induced you to assume control?

Mr. McILHENNY. Up to that time, although the yards were eligible to classification, they had not been classified by the President's order, and there was no basis for the commission to assume authority which was not lodged in it.

Mr. BARTLETT. Since that time they have been classified by Executive order?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What can you do at the navy yards? A man who is a machinist fills out certain papers and gives his age, where he has been employed, but there is no examination?

Mr. McILHENNY. There is not an educational examination, but he appears before the board and the board questions him.

The CHAIRMAN. The board is composed of naval officers?
Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. A constructor and a representative of the engineering force?

Mr. McILHENNY. And the chief mechanic of the trade in which he is to be employed.

The CHAIRMAN. What does your local secretary know about that? Mr. McILHENNY. The local secretary sits with them and sees that the conduct of the work is properly carried out and that the chief mechanic who assists in rating the papers with the local board makes a fair rating of the man and that there is no favoritism shown. The CHAIRMAN. How can he tell that?

Mr. McILHENNY. How could he tell it?

The CHAIRMAN. How could the district secretary tell whether those men were showing favoritism or not?

Mr. McILHENNY. By the exercise of his common sense, I should say, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. He would not know anything about it.

Mr. BARTLETT. These men who attend to the technical part of the examinations, are they generally men of experience in the particular work which the applicant is examined for?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. You have men?

Mr. McILHENNY. They are the members of the local board. The district secretary is supposed to be a man thoroughly trained in the work of the commission and of more than usual intelligence and ability.

The CHAIRMAN. He would not know anything more about whether a man was qualified as a coppersmith or a blacksmith or an ironworker or a pattern maker than I would, would he?

Mr. McILHENNY. No; he would not; but he sits there and hears the master mechanic ask the questions. He would not be able to say that John Jones is a coppersmith and that Bill Smith is not quite as good, but he takes the vouchers which those two men offer to him and he listens to all the procedure, and on that basis he says, "Why, the whole thing is being carried on exactly the way it should be; it is absolutely fair, and I agree with the master mechanic that John

Jones ought to be rated No. 1 and Bill Smith No. 2." The commission being imposed with certain responsibility by reason of the classification of these people extends that control just far enough to see that the local board of examiners, composed of navy-yard employees and under the charge of the naval officers, are conducting the examinations with absolute fairness and for the good of the service. That is all that we propose to do. It costs some money to do it, but it seems necessary that the commission should have proper supervision over the work that is being done there.

Mr. BARTLETT. The papers of the people examined in the navy yards go to the commission?

Mr. McILHENNY. No; the district secretary sits in with the local board and rates those papers.

Mr. BARTLETT. Do you keep an eligible list of those applicants in the Civil Service Commission?

Mr. McILHENNY. The eligible list is maintained in the office of the labor board at the navy yard.

Mr. BARTLETT. Have you a copy of the order that placed these positions under the civil service?

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Please put it in the record.

Mr. McILHENNY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARTLETT. How much does the supervision of that work cost?
Mr. McILHENNY. I do not know, Judge, just exactly what it does

cost.

Mr. BARTLETT. Is the rule with reference to alloting quotas to the various States observed in those cases?

Mr. McILHENNY. No, sir; there is no apportionment.

The following is a copy of the Executive order of December 7, 1912, classifying artisan and supervisory artisan positions in the navy-yard service:

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

All artisan and supervisory artisan positions under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Navy are hereby included in the competitive classified service of the United States, unless specifically exempted from examination by law or Executive order. Such positions will hereafter be filled in accordance with the regulations which have been approved by me, except that employment from the present registered lists, without classification, is authorized for the limited period necessary to establish eligible lists through open competitive examination in the manner provided in the regulations.

No artisan or supervisory artisan whose position is included in the classified service by this order shall be classified unless he has established his capacity for efficient service or has been examined and found qualified by the labor board and is recommended for classification by the commanding officer under whom he is employed. Eligible registers under the new regulations will be established, and eligibility from registered lists established under Navy Yard Order No. 23, revised, shall not be extended beyond June 30, 1913. Persons employed before that date from the present registered lists shall not be eligible to classification except in the manner provided in the regulations.

Section 3 of Civil Service Rule III is hereby revoked. Appointments to positions mentioned in said section will be governed hereafter by the provisions of the civilservice rules.

THE WHITE HOUSE, December 7, 1912.

WM. H. TAFT.

Mr. BARTLETT. Why ought they not to be, if they are to be under civil service? If it was intended that they should stand a civilservice examination to test their fitness just as other employees of the

Government are required to do under the civil-service law, why should not the various States have their allotments as in other cases? Mr. McILHENNY. Because it has never been so ordered by Congress. No law has been passed by Congress requiring that it should be done, and until such an act is passed by Congress we have no authority for doing it.

Mr. BARTLETT. Don't you think that the men at the navy yard and at the War Department are capable of determining whether an applicant for employment is qualified for such employment? Are not the officials of the navy yards and War Department as capable of determining that matter as the Civil Service Commission, which simply sits and hears what is going on?

Mr. McILHENNY. What I have tried to show you is that the representative of the Civil Service Commission is there in an advisory capacity. He is there in a supervisory and advisory capacity. I tried to show you that the representative of the Civil Service Commission assists the labor board, composed of people in the navy yard trained in the handling of the work, in holding the examinations, in the rating of papers, and the certification of these people to fill vacancies. That is the full scope of the duties required of them.

Mr. BARTLETT. Has that particular work necessitated an increase in the force of the Civil Service Commission? In order to carry out that work, have you been obliged to appoint more men, or men especially for that purpose?

Mr. McILHENNY. Not yet.

Mr. BARTLETT. Will you have to do so?

Mr. McILHENNY. I do not know what the future will bring forth.

STATIONERY.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is for stationery, $1,500. The appropriation is $5,500, and you are asking us for $1,500 additional. Mr. McILHENNY. We have two appropriations for stationery. One is $5,000 for the commission's work proper, and we have an additional amount of $500 for the efficiency division. In this statement I do not take into consideration at all the $500 appropriated for the benefit of the efficiency system.

The following statement of the condition of the appropriation for stationery is submitted: Allotment to March 31, 1914, $3,750; requisitions drawn, $3,743.90; available to March 31, 1914, $6.10.

As will be seen from the above, requisitions have been drawn for stationery amounting to $3,743.90 for the first seven months of the fiscal year 1914. During the corresponding period of last year there was expended $2,943.13, showing an increase of expenditures of 1914 over 1913 of $800.77.

The CHAIRMAN. That is nine months instead of seven months? Mr. McILHENNY. March is the end of this quarter.

The CHAIRMAN. Your allotment to March 31, 1914, is $3,750, which is nine months.

Mr. McILHENNY. The allotment to March 31 is $3,750, and we have requisitions against that allotment of $3,743.90, which leaves us $6.10 to cover the time between February 5 and March 31. Therefore, for the first seven months the requisitions drawn for stationery amounted to $3,743.90. During the corresponding