Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 312, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1920 — EX-FIGHTERS IN CIVIL SERVICE [ARTICLE]

EX-FIGHTERS IN CIVIL SERVICE

Sixty Thousand Have Passed Examinations for Positions Under the Government. PUT smp- INTO THE WORK Amendments to the Law Establish Preference for Soldiers—Not Disqualified by War Wounds—Number Increases Steadily. Washington.—The civil service is undergoing a change, for many former army men are “still in the service” and are injecting some of the old-time war pep into their handling of the mail, keeping records of government insurance; helping to liquidate the nation’s war contracts, putting together the results of the 1920 census, opening up and irrigating «and draining new government land, clerking In all the various government departments doing anything that needs to be done around the national household. The number of ex-service men working for the government is increasing steadily, and today numbers 60,000 who have passed the examination and 40,000 who have been certified for appointment. At the present time the actual count is 15,750 ex-service folk now detailed for duty with the government, but with these new appointments the number will be doubled and trebled in the near future. Like Old Times. “It reminds a person of old times to wander through some government buildings and hear a head clerk shout out the never-to-be-forgotten ‘snap to It,”* writes J. W. Rixey Smith. “Many a sedate and settled-for-the-ages government bureau has had its papers and its calm ruffled recently as the thousands of men who did their hitch In the army or the navy walked in under civil service to occupy desks In just about the same manner as they would take trenches. They hurl papers aronnd as If they were throwing Mills bombs, and they chase In and out as If they were always after a German, bitterly lamented one old-timer about to be retired to make way for the new blood. “Many amendments looking toward civil. service Jobs for ex-service man and women and their dependents have been added to the civil-service laws. Five such amendments and two executive orders of the President have been Instrumental in opening the gates of government service as wide as possible to the ex-service man. i “One amendment establishes preference for all honorably discharged sol> fliers, sailors and marines, wives of disabled men and widows of service men in appointments to certain positions in the District of Colombia. “Another amendment provides for the reinstatement of all civil service employees who went to war.JgAnother restores to their places on the civil service eligibility list all those who £*t their civil service status by reason

of joining the military or naval forces. “A fourth amendment makes it possible for a disabled ex-service man to hold a civil service position In spltjf'of his disability upon the ceftTtteaJtlen of the federal board for vocational education that he has been trained for and is capable of performing the work. “The fifth and last amendment provides that, Instead of the percentage of 70 required to be made on the regular civil service examinations, a percentage of 65 made by ex-service persons shall result not only in thffir passing but in their being placed on the civil service, eligibility list above ail others regafdless of the marks made. Civij Service Preference. “Of the two executive orders of the President on the subject of civil service and 4he ex-service man, one provides for the reinstatement, within five years of an honorable discharge, of those who held positions before the war in the competitive classified service, and the other extends civil service preference regulations to all postmasterships of the first, -second and third classes. • “Despite the fact that 60,000 war veterans are on the civil service eligibility list and that these changes have been made in the law in their interest, only 15,750 have so far received civil service appointments. There are two reasons for this: The first and most obvious is that there have not been 60,000 vacancies. The second is that the law requires In the making of the civil service appointments the names of the three eligibles shall be submitted the department head. Where the name of an ex-service man Is. submitted, along with the names of two other persons who have made the highest marks of any civilians taking the examination, the department head may choose either the ex-service man or one of the other two eligibles for tb» position. Thus all of the congressional amendments and preference talk notwithstanding, the civil service Job for the ex-service man depends In a, great measure upon the department heads of the government. “Salaries In the civil service vfiryt greatly. The average departmental po-» sitlon in Washington pays anywhere from $1,200 to $3,500 a year, while many civil service positions In the work of the different departments throughout the country pay es-tow as SSOO a year with quarters and mount as high as $5,000 a year. All salaries under $2,500 carry a yearly bonus of $240.” ; ' \