full list of the employees of the United States. Unfortunately, it may not be accessible to all of you.

For many examinations, especially examinations requiring technical qualifications, the Civil Service Commission distributes special printed announcements about one month in advance of the examination. Any professor of engineering may have all such announcements, covering specified lines, sent to him regularly merely by making a request in writing to that effect. The student, or graduate, may also, as an individual, apply for these announcements and receive them as they appear.

Do not write for an application blank for an examination which has not yet been officially announced.

By using the manual and annual report and the special announcements of examinations, the professor of engineering may keep in close touch with nearly all the opportunities for appointment of his graduates to the classified civil service, except the following two large classes.

First, the five hundred positions which have been referred to in connection with the navy yards and naval stations are filled by examinations held under the direction of the Navy Department, not the Civil Service Commission. Many of these examinations are advertised and held only in the locality in which the appointment is to be made. Information in regard to these examinations must be obtained at the Navy Department at Washington, or from the officers having local charge of the work.

Second, there are two methods of entrance to the position of junior engineer under the Chief of Engi

neers; namely, by a civil service examination, known as the "civil engineer, departmental service" examination, and by promotion from lower grades in the service, under the Chief of Engineers, such, for example, as inspector, recorder, transitman, levelman, rodman, or chainman. Appointments are made to these lower grades from registers of eligibles established at various points by local boards of civil service examiners, without examination. Any employee may be promoted from one of these lower grades to the grade of junior engineer on the recommendation of his employing officer, provided he passes the appropriate examination held under the direction of the Civil Service Commission. If he holds a diploma of graduation in an engineering course from an approved technical school he may, after one year's service, be so promoted without examination. This is the class to which your attention is especially called. For more complete data apply to the Chief of Engineers for the circular known as "information concerning positions under the engineer department at large.

Information in regard to rates of promotion, prospects of promotion, character of service required, and the conditions of service, must, in general, be obtained from the different bureaus or departments concerned in much the same way that it is obtained in regard to positions outside the government service; that is, by correspondence or personal acquaintance with those in charge or with the employees. Such information cannot, except to a limited extent, be obtained from the Civil Service Commission.

Promotions in the government service are made on

merit. Merit is, as a rule, ascertained in much the same manner as in any large organization, by observations of the employee's work by his official superiors. It is placed on record by the recommendations of those superiors.

In the Reclamation Service, such recommendations are all placed twice a year in the hands of a committee of three men of high rank in the service who have a wide acquaintance with the personnel. This committee virtually decides what promotions shall be made, subject, of course, to approval. A similar system is in force in the Geological Survey as a whole.

Under the Chief of Engineers, promotions from junior engineer to assistant engineer depend upon recommendations by the official superiors but are also subject to two conditions. The candidate must, at some time, have passed the civil engineer examination before the Civil Service Commission, and he must possess the professional qualifications that are required for full membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers. In general, an assistant engineer is selected from among the junior engineers in the district in which he is to serve. That is, the civilian employees in general stay in a given district on the work with which they are familiar, though the officers of the Corps of Engineers, under whom they serve, are periodically transferred from station to station.

As a rule, any attempt on the part of a government employee to bring political influence to bear to secure a promotion is interpreted as a confession on his part that he does not feel that he has sufficient merit to warrant promotion. The confession is apt to be taken at face value. Such confessions are rare.

The theory of the system of promotion is that since the reputation of the executive officer depends directly and intimately upon the efficiency of the force under him, he can be depended upon for selfish, as well as unselfish, reasons to promote the best men.

There is a saying that in the government service few die and none resign. How much truth is there in it? About as much as there is in the mother-in-law joke. In the portion of the service in which the tendency to remain for life is apparently greatest, namely, in the classified service in Washington, there are about five times as many resignations as deaths each year. In the civil service as a whole, there are about ten times as many resignations as deaths.

Closely associated with the idea that few die and none resign is the idea that all work under fixed salary lists, that no promotions can be made except to fill vacancies caused by death or resignations, and that such promotions are based almost entirely on seniority. Only about one half of the 2,600 engineers are paid from a fixed salary list. The remainder are paid from lump sum appropriations. Where the fixed salary list exists, seniority is considered, and properly so, in making promotions, but it does not control when there is a well-marked difference of merit in favor of the junior.

An unsuccessful attempt was made to secure statistics as to the rates of pay of engineers outside the government service for comparison with those given in the first part of this paper. I shall be much indebted to anyone who can put me in the way of obtaining such statistics.

In comparing the rates of pay stated in this paper with similar rates outside the government, four advantages of the government service should be kept in mind. First, the government is liberal in paying traveling expenses and subsistence, and in some cases, in furnishing quarters. Second, the hours of service required by the government in office positions are short. Third, the government employee is liberally treated in regard to leave with pay. Fourth, the engineer under the government has more continuous service, as a rule, than an engineer outside. Even under the great corporations, such as the largest of the railroad systems, the service is much less continuous than under the government. A change among the higher officials in a railway service frequently leads to many changes in subordinate positions on account of favoritism. The new official brings with him the subordinates with whom he is acquainted and makes removals to provide room for them. On account of restrictions by the Civil Service Act and rules, and for other reasons, these wholesale removals do not occur in the government service.

There is a prejudice against the government service on the ground that young men do not get a chance to develop, that they are kept in minor positions with little responsibility, that they lose energy, that their powers of initiative remain undeveloped. In so far as engineers in the government service are concerned this prejudice bears little relation to the facts. As a rule, the young engineer is worked hard, and is given all the responsibility he is competent to carry. The officials in control are constantly hunting among their subordinates for men who will stand responsibility. In the