Civil Service
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Civil Service. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the great body of clerks, secretaries, and other employes required to attend to the business of a government. The civil service does not include the military service or the naval service. In connection with the postoffices, revenue offices, courts, and custom houses, and the departments at Washington, the United States government employs not less than 100,000 persons in a civil capacity. Under the Constitution, all these are to be appointed directly by the president, except as he leaves the matter to the heads of departments. This is the theory of the Constitution. Practically, when of the same party as the president, the congressmen have claimed the privilege of making appointments in their own districts, and the president has yielded so long that the custom has acquired well nigh the force of law. When a district is represented by members of the opposite party it is customary for the president to make appointments at the suggestion of his party leader in that district. When a party goes out of power, its officeholders are likely to be dropped, and members of the successful party appointed to office. Prior to 1829, six presidents made but 112 removals from office, but rotation in office, as described, has been the prevailing method ever since the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. He stood for the principle that "to the victors belong the spoils." It is called the spoils system. It is vicious. It gives a political party a large body of party workers to labor for party success rather than for good government. It has a tendency to fill the offices with those who are active for the party, regardless of personal fitness. It induces young men to join the dominant party for the sake of office. It leads to dishonesty and scandal. Though described in the present tense, this vast political machine is partly of the past. In 1883 a bill was signed by President Arthur authorizing the president to establish a classified service to which appointments should be made for merit and during good behavior. Appointments and promotions were to be made on the basis of examinations and fitness, regardless of political or religious belief. This work of examining is placed in the hands of a Civil Service Commission of three members. Every effort is made to ascertain the actual efficiency of the candidates for the various positions. Successive presidents have extended the system until it now covers 80,000 employes, or four-fifths of the entire civil service, and a pay roll of $75,000,000. The higher salaries are not as yet included. Now that the pressure for appointments has been taken from the congressmen, the tendency to pass acts creating more clerkships has been arrested. It is said that in the ten years succeeding the Civil Service Reform Act the number of clerks actually fell off a little, even in the face of increased work. The one argument urged by practical men against the reform is that appointees, feeling that they are in for life, grow independent and even disobliging. In spite of drawbacks civil service reform, that is to say, the plan of holding office during efficiency and good behavior, is making reasonable headway. It has been taken up by several of the states and by a number of large cities. Of course the civil service of the states and cities contains a vastly larger body of workers than does the national service described above. Chinese Art. Woman's shoe. Head-dress of empress. Porcelain vase. Tea service
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
that branch of the public service which includes the nonmilitary servants of the government. The purpose of the civil-service act, as declared in its title, is to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States." It provides for the appointment of three commissioners, not more than two of whom shall be adherents of the same political party, and makes it the duty of the commission to aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying the act into effect. The act requires requires that the rules shall provide, among other things, for open competitive examinations for t testing the fitness of applicants for the classified service, the making of appointments from among those passing with highest grades, an apportionment of appointments in the departments at Washington among the States and Territories, a period of probation before absolute appointment, and the prohibition of the use of official authority to coerce the political action of any person or body. The act also provides for investigations touching the enforcement of the rules, and forbids, under penalty of fine or imprisonment, or both, the solicitation by any person in the service of the United States of contributions to be used for political purposes from persons in such service, or the collection of such contributions by any person in a government building. The commission was organized organized on March 9, 1883. The first classification of the service applied to the departments at Washington and to postoffice and custom houses having as many as 50 employees, embracing 13,294 employees. The commission then consisted of three commissioners, the chief examiner, secretary, stenographer, and messenger boy. On June 30, 1917, there were 517,805 officers and employees in the executive civil service, of which 326,899 held posi- CIVIL SERVICE REF'M LEAGUE 4 tions subject to competitive examination under the civil service rules. On June 30, 1920, the total number of employees was approximately 640,000. Examinations are held in the principal cities throughout the country through the agency of local boards of examiners, of which there are approximately 3,000. The members of these boards are detailed from other branches of the service. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, the commission examined 438,259 persons, and of this number 179,533 were appointed. The present force of the commission consists of 287 clerks and examiners and 37 sub-clerical employees at Washington, and 12 district secretaries and 29 clerks and examiners in the field service. The expenditure for salaries in the Executive Civil Service is over $200,000,000 a year. The commission also holds examinations in Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. Under the rules, it is required to render all practicable assistance to the Philippine Civil Service Board. Appointments of unskilled laborers in the departments at Washington and in the large cities are required to be made in accordance with regulations promulgated by the President, restricting appointments to applicants who are rated highest in physical condition. This system is outside the civil service act, and is auxiliary to the civil service rules. Similar provisions have been made in most of the States and their political subdivisions.