Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1904 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

A bulletin Issued by the census bureau gives the total number of employes In tho executive civil service of the United. States as 150,383. These figures include only those employes who are required to take an examination, so that about 85,000 postmastera and employes of small postoffices are excluded, as are about 15,000 employee with small salaries in the field branches of the War Department, about 16,000 employes at navy yards, who are classified, but appointed under navy yard regulations, and a few thousand* in other parts of the service. Of th* 150,383 given, 25,675 are employed in the District of Columbia; 137,061 are males, 135,575 are native born, and 102,431 are engaged in clerical work. Of the entire number, 46,162 are between the ages of 80 and 40 years; 89,218 between 20 and 80, and 80,394 between 40 and 50. One hundred and one are over 80, and 8,422 below 20 years of age. More than one-third of the number have been employed for less than five years, and more than a fifth for less than a year. Only 828 have occupied places for more than forty years. Those who receive salaries of $2,500 or more number 851; less than $720, 50,001.

The new salary schedule for rural mall carriers has been completed, to apply from July 1. The last Congress raised the maximum salary from S6OO to $720 a year. It was found that the maximum route was 24 miles long and to carriers on routes of this length, numbering about 12,000, the maximum salary will be paid. The salaries of for each mile less than twenty-four, carriers on routes shorter than the maximum was fixed by deducting $lB The net result has been that slightly over two-thirds of the whole force of 24,500 rural carriers have received increases of SIOO a year In their salaries. The remaining carriers have received Increases of less than this amount This schedule takes into consideration the expenses for equipment, and makes what is stated to be a liberal allowance for such expense to carriers on routes less than the maximum length. It leaves about the same appropriation available for new service during the coming /ear that the department had during the last fiscal year.

The eagerness with which men seek appointive positions under the government almost amounts to a craze, and like all crazes it is not readily explainable. In Boston, for example, where examinations for custom housa employes are about to begin, there are 1,589 applicants for 30 possible appointments. These figures are. somewhat>xceptlonal, to be sure, but In other large' cities there is always a marked disproportion of applicants to places. The Isthmian Canal Commission has already had a hundred applications for every position It Is authorized ,to fill. Yet the salaries are not large, rarely exceeding $1,200 a year; and though the civil service law may give some assurance of permanency of tenure, there Is little assurance of promotion. That there should be such eagerness for the appointments is not creditable to the seekers. Men with '.ven an average equipment of ability ynd enterprise case find much more promising careers.

The National Civil Service Commission has recently arranged to open branch headquarters In Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago, St Paul, St. Louis, New Orleans, Denver, Portland and San Francisco. Each of these thirteen cities will be the center to which the civil service boards in the districts surrounding them will refer all matters which they cannot decide for themselves. Heretofore it has been necessary to communicate directly with Washington when vacancies were to be filled In the classified service. This has occasioned delay, especially In cities distant from the capital. Under the new system the Washington office will be relieved of practically all the detail of preparing for examinations, and the national' commissioners will be able to devote themselves more fully to the enforcement of the spirit of the civil service reform laws. In decreeing that the Washington policemen must give up the use of toothpicks while on duty, Major Sylvester, the chief of the capital police force, has established a new record In rules governing the men. The order rends as fallows: "It is observed that officers, among them special street railway crossing policemen, walk the streets with toothpicks in their mouths, giving evidence of having enjoyed refreshments.. I advise against this practice, as it Is unbecoming and unofficerllke.” A special report of the census bureau on occupations shows that in continental United States the total number of persona engaged In gainful occupations in 1900 was 29,073,233, which was one-half of the population, 10 years of age and over, and nearly twofifths of the entire population. The total number comprises 22,480,425 men. 4,833,880 women, and 1,700,178 children, of whom 1,204.4 n were boys and 06,767 girl*.