General BLACK. The one other particular thing that I want to urge is this: The examinations of the commission cover every branch of applied human knowledge so far as governmental affairs are concerned. We have an examining force which has come forward in the common walks of American education to a very high state of efficiency. There is not anything that goes under the common run of knowledge for which we can not furnish an examiner. But once in a while a man is needed who knows something about the very highest of all educational requirements. There is an examination that involves an appointment in the astronomical force, the Naval Observatory force, or in some of the skilled offices and branches of the Agricultural Department and they are multiplying right straight along. They are multiplying, and the departments are increasing in their demands. They need chemists and bacteriologists, and all of the long line of men that analyze the soil and give good crops and fruit in return. For the supervision of the examination of such men we ought to have one thoroughly equipped and competent man; and as we can not under existing law have one, we have asked for an appropriation of $2,400 in order that we may employ such a man, and we have asked for a lump appropriation of $5,000 in order that when an emergency comes we may from time to time employ other such men.

Mr. BINGHAM. Have you asked for that lump appropriation before?

General BLACK. Yes; we have asked for the lump appropriation before, but it has never been granted.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. It has been our policy in this room to cut out all lump appropriations.

General BLACK. I agree with that policy; but if you will give us

one man

Mr. LIVINGSTON. Why do you not ask for it?

General BLACK. We do ask for one man; but we specify his duties rather than the fact that it is to be one man. If you gave us other men from time to time, as needed, or let us (as we could) change rapidly and secure the best men, and gave us the $5,000 to pay salaries for that purpose, we would be greatly helped.

I believe I have now presented everything that is not included in

the statement.

Mr. GILLETT. If you will give a copy of that statement to me, I will give it to the stenographer. (See Exhibit A.)

General BLACK. I will. There may be one or two little amplifications. (See p. 30.)

EXTENT OF CIVIL SERVICE.

Mr. BINGHAM. General, have you anything there about the sum total of those who are under civil service?

General BLACK. Yes, sir; we have. It is right here, General; I will give it to you in one moment. On June 30, 1910, there were 384,088 persons in the executive civil service. Of these, 222,278 were in the classified service, excepted from examination. That includes the laborers.

Mr. BINGHAM. That includes the laborers?

General BLACK. Yes. Sixty-four thousand eight hundred and ninety-two were unclassified.

Mr. BINGHAM. What does that include?

General BLACK. That includes some of the fourth-class postmasters that are not yet covered in.

Mr. BINGHAM. Does that include labor at navy-yards and quartermasters' departments?

General BLACK. And the mechanics at navy-yards.

Mr. BINGHAM. They are under their own supervision at each place?

General BLACK. They are under their own supervision. There are 9,525 that are presidential offices. There are 28,191 that are in the Canal Zone force, and are not yet subject to competitive examination. Mr. BINGHAM. You will leave that statement with us?

General BLACK. I will.

Mr. GILLETT. General, have you anything in your bureau showing the full number of men of every kind employed in the service, either competitive or noncompetitive or civil service or not-all government employees?

General BLACK. That is the nearest we are able to get―the number I have just read, 384,088.

Mr. BINGHAM. That is the sum total?

Mr. GILLETT. That can not be.

General BLACK. Yes.

Mr. GILLETT. Mr. Courts says that there are 315,000 in the postal service alone.

The CLERK. The Postmaster-General, in his annual report for 1909, made that statement. It was rather startling.

General BLACK. It was rather startling: but that includes all the contract employees, star-route employees, and all that kind of employees, and clerks hired.

Mr. DOYLE. The commission does not count the star-route contractors and a multitude of minor positions.

General BLACK. That is just what I have said.

Mr. GILLETT. All right.

General BLACK. Those differences between the Postmaster-General's figures and ours are explained in that way. There are a whole lot of people that they have, that they contract for and pay and we know nothing about them. That makes the difference.

Mr. BINGHAM. Yes; all kinds of mechanics, and so on.

General BLACK. Is there anything to be added to what I have said? Mr. GILLETT. That is all, General. You have covered it nicely.

SALIENT FACTS ABOUT THE COMMISSION.

The whole number of employees of the commission is 209. Of this number 170 are employed in Washington with a pay roll of $213,350 per annum, making an average salary of $1.255 per annum. The remaining 39 are employed at district headquarters with a pay roll of $52,840, their average salary being $1,354. The commission is assisted by 1,703 local boards with a membership of 5,068. These board members are borne on the rolls of and paid by the departments and, as a rule, perform their duties as members of local boards in addition to the work of their positions.

On June 30, 1910, there were 384,088 persons employed in the executive civil service, according to the most accurate figures obtainable. Of these 222,278 were in the competitive classified service, 59,202 were in classified positions excepted from examination, 64,892 were unclassified, and 9,525 were Presidential officers. The remainder, 28,191, constituted that part of the force in the Canal Zone which is not subject to competitive examination. A part of this force

is unclassified and a part excepted from examination, but the exact numbers in each class could not be ascertained. Approximately seven-eighths of the government employees serve outside of Washington, D. C., hence the necessity of district offices and local boards.

During the year ended June 30, 1910, 115,644 persons were examined, of whom 87,769, or 76 per cent, passed. During the same period 43,585 persons were appointed, a considerable percentage of whom were appointed from examinations held during the previous year, but the percentage of persons appointed to those passed is 49 per cent. These figures relating to examinations and appointments include examinations and appointments under navyyard regulations, although the Attorney-General in an opinion of July 6, 1909, held that certain of the positions to which these regulations apply have not been brought within the classified service, mechanical positions-clerks, bookkeepers, and purely classical positions in the departmental (navy-yard) service being under the rules.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

STATEMENT OF MR. HUNTINGTON WILSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, ACCOMPANIED BY MR. WILBUR J. CARR, DIRECTOR OF THE CONSULAR SERVICE.

SECRETARY'S OFFICE.

Mr. WILSON. The only changes the Department of State has requested in existing appropriations are the addition of one telegrapher at $1,200; two messengers, amounting to $1,560; and the increase of the salary of the Chief of the Bureau of Trade Relations from $2,100 to $3,000-an increase of $900. Then we ask for the abolition of the post of carpenter, at $1,000. The net increase requested, therefore, is $2,660.

Mr. BINGHAM. Give us the reason for the increase.

TELEGRAPHERS.

Mr. WILSON. The reason for the estimate for an additional telegrapher is that with the present force we are unable to keep anyone on duty in the telegraph office at night or Sundays; and besides we have to work our telegraphers far beyond the ordinary office hours to keep up with the volume of cipher telegrams.

Mr. GILLETT. How many telegraphers have you now?

Mr. WILSON. Two, regularly appropriated for.

Mr. GILLETT. And you want one more.

Mr. WILSON. Yes.

Mr. GILLETT. Do not two make an all-day and all-the-evening shift?

Mr. WILSON. No, Mr. Gillett; one telegrapher can not manage the office during the day. The volume of work is so great that it takes three or four.

Mr. GILLETT. Oh! It takes two at the same time?

Mr. WILSON. Oh, yes; sometimes four.

Mr. GILLETT. Where do you get them?

Mr. WILSON. We have several men in the department who understand telegraphy, and we are obliged to detach them from other duties to assist with the telegraph and cipher work.

Mr. GILLETT. Who are carried as clerks?

Mr. WILSON. Who are carried as clerks, and who incidentally know telegraphy. The volume of cipher telegrams has increased tremendously in the last few years, naturally due to the amount of correspondence over the commercial plans which the department is trying to carry out. That is undoubtedly necessary, and we want in this way to give each man one day off a week, and have one man sleep there, to be there at night and on every Sunday and holiday. Mr. LIVINGSTON. You have cut out one chief of division here, I see. Mr. WILSON. No.

Mr. WILSON. We omit one at $2,100 and put in one at $3,000, an increase of $900; so, you see, it takes one out of the $2,100 category.

MESSENGERS.

Then the two messengers are required because of increased messenger work incidental to placing certain bureaus and offices outside of the State, War, and Navy Department building as provided for in the appropriations. That is necessary because the available space in that building is entirely inadequate.

Mr. GILLETT. Where do you need them outside?

Mr. WILSON. We have in the Union Trust Building the Bureau of Trade Relations and the Bureau of Accounts, and on Seventeenth street

Mr. GILLETT. Have they not messengers now?

Mr. WILSON. Not enough for the constant running about. We have the Bureau of Citizenship and the solicitor's office also across the street from the department, and we have had to get some additional space for those law officers who are handling the pecuniary claims with Great Britain and the Chamizal arbitration with Mexico. So there are three buildings outside with which we have to be sending things back and forth very constantly.

CHIEF, BUREAU OF TRADE RELATIONS.

The reason for asking an increase of $900 in the salary of the chief of the Bureau of Trade Relations is that we had to pay $4,500 to get those trained experts-Mr. Pepper and Mr. Davis-which, of course, is a small salary for such highly trained, expert commercial men. Mr. GILLETT. They are the ones who go abroad?

Mr. WILSON. They occasionally go abroad. One has been in Germany recently investigating the potash question, and in Austria about petroleum. But their usual work is the tariff and all the intricate trade matters. The salary of the chief of the bureau comes down from the old days; and his work, of course, has increased immensely in importance. He is just as useful and necessary a man and just as highly trained in his long service as these men who are under him. Mr. GILLETT. Who is he?

Mr. WILSON. Mr. Osborne. He has been there for some years. It seems to us entirely inequitable that he should not have more nearly as much as the two experts whose chief he is. We feel that he is an expert of the same class, and that his ability and usefulness is worth that compensation.

Mr. GILLETT. What are they paid out of?

Mr. WILSON. Those are two of the posts specifically provided for by law last year in the allotment of the $100,000 which was given us by Congress a year and a half ago.

Mr. GILLETT. They were paid out of the $100,000? That is all I wanted to know. But they were specifically provided for in the last appropriation bill?

Mr. WILSON. Last year; yes, sir.
Mr. GILLETT. At $3,000?

Mr. WILSON. At $4,500.

CARPENTER.

The carpenter is omitted because it is believed to be less expensive to have carpenter work done under contract by the job than to keep one at a fixed salary.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. You are certainly right about that.

Mr. GILLETT. You differ from most of the departments in saying that.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. They ought to be taken out of every department in town in the same way.

Mr. CARR. A carpenter on a salary does not turn out as much work as a carpenter who works by piecework.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. That is what we suspect.

CHIEF, BUREAU OF TRADE RELATIONS (AGAIN).

Mr. BINGHAM. The position of Chief of Trade Relations is entirely new, is it?

Mr. WILSON. He has been a chief of bureau at $2,100 for many years. But with the tariff negotiations, and the great expanse of business in pressing American opportunities in the Far East, in Latin America, in Turkey, and everywhere, and in the new tariff system (which involves constantly watching the treatment of American interests by other countries with a view to the possible use of the maximum), that bureau's work has been made so heavy that it was quite essential to make it more scientific and to have enough men to give scientific attention to this subject. Therefore, when Congress gave us the $100,000 a year and a half ago, we got in two or three experts, and we had to pay them $4,500. The salaries of those experts were made specific charges in the language of last year's act.

Mr. BINGHAM. This is their first appearance in an appropriation bill?

Mr. WILSON. No, sir; last year.

Mr. BINGHAM. Using this same language?

Mr. WILSON. Exactly the same language. That is exactly the same. language as last year. The only change we are asking does not affect any of those officers, but increases the salary of one of the old bureau chiefs (having nothing to do with the appropriation of $100,000 a year and a half ago) by $900, in order to make it correspond to the salaries of the other experts in his bureau.

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