​CIVIL SERVICE, the generic name given to the aggregate ofall the public servants, or paid civil administrators and clerks,of a state. It is the machinery by which the executive, throughthe various administrations, carries on the central governmentof the country.

British Empire.—The appointments to the civil service untilthe year 1855 were made by nomination, with an examinationnot sufficient to form an intellectual or even a physical test.It was only after much consideration and almost years of discussionthat the nomination system was abandoned. Variouscommissions reported on the civil service, and orders in councilwere issued. Finally in 1855 a qualifying examination of astringent character was instituted, and in 1870 the principleof open competition was adopted as a general rule. On thereport of the Playfair Commission (1876), an order in councilwas issued dividing the civil service into an upper and lowerdivision. The order in council directed that a lower divisionshould be constituted, and men and boy clerks holding permanentpositions replaced the temporary assistants and writers.The “temporary” assistant was not found to be advantageousto the service. In December 1886 a new class of assistantclerks was formed to replace the men copyists. In 1887 theRidley Commission reported on the civil service establishment.In 1890 two orders in council were issued based on the reportsof the Ridley Commission, which sat from 1886 to 1890. Thefirst order constituted what is now known as the second divisionof the civil service. The second order in council concerned theofficers of the 1st class; and provision was made for the possiblepromotion of the second division clerks to the first division aftereight years’ service.

The whole system is under the administration of the civil service commissioners, and power is given to them, with the approval of the treasury, to prescribe the subjects of examination, limits of age, &c. The age is fixed for compulsory retirement at sixty-five. In exceptional cases a prolongation of five years is within the powers of the civil service commissioners. The examination for 1st class clerkships is held concurrently with that of the civil service of India and Eastern cadetships in the colonial service. Candidates can compete for all three or for two. In addition to the intellectual test the candidate must fulfil the conditions of age (22 to 24), must present recommendations as to character, and pass a medical examination. This examination approximates closely to the university type of education. Indeed, there is little chance of success except for candidates who have had a successful university career, and frequently, in addition, special preparation by a private teacher. The subjects include the language and literature of England, France, Germany, Italy, ancient Greece and Rome, Sanskrit and Arabic, mathematics (pure and applied), natural science (chemistry, physics, zoology, &c.), history (English, Greek, Roman and general modern), political economy and ​economic history, mental and moral philosophy, Roman andEnglish law and political science. The candidate is obliged toreach a certain standard of knowledge in each subject beforeany marks at all are allowed him. This rule was made to preventsuccess by mere cramming, and to ensure competent knowledgeon the basis of real study.

The maximum scale of the salaries of clerks of Class I. is asfollows:—3rd class, £200 a year, increasing by £20 a year to£500; 2nd class, £600, increasing by £25 a year to £800; 1stclass, £850, increasing by £50 a year to £1000. Their pensionsare fixed by the Superannuation Act 1859, 22 Vict. c.26:—

Sick leave can be granted on full salary for not more than sixmonths, on half-salary for another six months.

The scale of salary for 2nd division clerks begins at £70 a year,increasing by £5 to £100; then £100 a year, increasing by £7, 10s.to £190; and then £190 a year, increasing by £10 to £250. Thehighest is £300 to £500. Advancement in the 2nd division to thehigher ranks depends on merit, not seniority. The ordinaryannual holiday of the 2nd division clerks is 14 working days forthe first five years, and 21 working days afterwards. They canbe allowed sick leave for six months on full pay and six monthson half-pay. The subjects of their examination are: (1) handwritingand orthography, including copying MS.; (2) arithmetic;(3) English composition; (4) précis, including indexing and digestof returns; (5) book-keeping and shorthand writing; (6) geographyand English history; (7) Latin; (8) French; (9) German;(10) elementary mathematics; (11) inorganic chemistrywith elements of physics. Not more than four of the subjects(4) to (11) can be taken. The candidate must be between theages of 17 and 20. A certain number of the places in the 2nddivision were reserved for the candidates from the boy clerksappointed under the old system. The competition is severe, onlyabout one out of every ten candidates being successful. Candidatesare allowed a choice of departments subject to the exigenciesof the services.

Candidates for the civil service of India take the same examinationas for 1st class clerkships. Candidates successful inthe examination must subsequently spend one year in England.They receive for that year £150 if they elect to live at one of theuniversities or colleges approved by the secretary of state forIndia. They are submitted to a final examination in the followingsubjects—Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure,the principal vernacular language of the province to which theyare assigned, the Indian Evidence Act (these three subjects arecompulsory), either Hindu and Mahommedan Law, or Sanskrit,Arabic or Persian, Burmese (for Burma only). A candidate maynot take Arabic or Sanskrit both in the first examination and inthe final. They must also pass a thorough examination in riding.On reaching India their salary begins at 400 rupees a month.They may take, as leave, one-fourth of the time on activeservice in periods strictly limited by regulation. After 25 years’service (of which 21 must be active service) they can retire on apension of £1000 a year. The unit of administration is the district.At the head of the district is an executive officer called eithercollector-magistrate or deputy-commissioner. In most provinceshe is responsible to the commissioner, who corresponds directlywith the provincial government. The Indian civilian after fouryears’ probation in both branches of the service is called uponto elect whether he will enter the revenue or judicial department,and this choice as a rule is held to be final for his future work.

The civil service also includes student interpreterships forChina, Japan and Siam, and for the Ottoman dominions, Persia,Greece and Morocco. Both these classes of student interpretersare selected by open competition. Their object is to supply theconsular service in the above-named countries with personshaving a thorough knowledge of the language of the countryin which they serve.

In spite of the general rule of open competition, there are stilla few departments where the system ofnomination obtains,accompanied by a severe test of knowledge, either active orimplied. Such are the foreign office, British Museum, and boardof education.

The employment of women in the civil service has beenprincipally developed in the post office. Women are employedin the post office as female clerks, counter clerks, telegraphists,returners, sorters and post-mistresses all over the United Kingdom.The board of agriculture, the customs and the India officeemploy women. The department of agriculture, the board ofeducation generally, the local government board, all to a certain ​extent employ women, whilst in the home office there are anincreasing number of women inspectors of workshops andfactories.

United States.—Civil service reform, like other great administrativereforms, began in America in the latter half of the 19thcentury. Personal and partisan government, with all the entailedevils of the patronage system, culminated in Great Britainduring the reign of George III., and was one of the efficientcauses of the American revolution. Trevelyan characterizes theuse of patronage to influence legislation, and the giving of colonialpositions as sinecures to the privileged classes and personalfavourites of the administration, by saying, “It was a systemwhich, as its one achievement of the first order, brought aboutthe American War, and made England sick, once and for all,of the very name of personal government.” It was natural thatthe founders of the new government in America, after breakingaway from the mother-country, should strive to avoid the evilswhich had in a measure brought about the revolution. Theirintention that the administrative officers of the governmentshould hold office during good behaviour is manifest, and wasgiven thorough and practical effect by every administrationduring the first forty years of the life of the government. Theconstitution fixed no term of office in the executive branch ofthe government except those of president and vice-president;and Madison, the expounder of the constitution, held that thewanton removal of a meritorious officer was an impeachableoffence. Not until nine years after the passage of the Four Years’Tenure of Office Act in 1820 was there any material departurefrom this traditional policy of the government. This act(suggested by an appointing officer who wished to use thepower it gave in order to secure his own nomination for thepresidency, and passed without debate and apparently withoutany adequate conception of its full effect) opened the doors ofthe service to all the evils of the “spoils system.” The foremoststatesmen of the time were not slow to perceive the balefulpossibilities of this legislation, Jefferson,^[1] Webster, Clay, Calhoun,Benton and many others being recorded as condemning anddeploring it in the strongest terms. The transition to the“spoils system” was not, however, immediate, and for the nextnine years the practice of reappointing all meritorious officerswas practically universal; but in 1829 this practice ceased,and the act of 1820 lent the sanction of law to the system ofThe “spoils system.”proscriptions which followed, which was a practicalapplication of the theory that “to the victor belongthe spoils of the enemy.” In 1836 the provisions ofthis law, which had at first been confined mainly toofficers connected with the collection of revenue, were extendedto include also all postmasters receiving a compensation of $1000per annum or more. It rapidly became the practice to regard allthese four years’ tenure offices as agencies not so much for thetransaction of the public business as for the advancement ofpolitical ends. The revenue service from being used for politicalpurposes merely came to be used for corrupt purposes as well,with the result that in one administration frauds were practisedupon the government to the extent of $75,000,000. The corruptinginfluences permeated the whole body politic. Political retainerswere selected for appointment not on account of theirability to do certain work but because they were followers ofcertain politicians; these “public servants” acknowledgedno obligation except to those politicians, and their public duties,if not entirely disregarded, were negligently and inefficientlyperformed. Thus grew a saturnalia of spoils and corruptionwhich culminated in the assassination of a president.

Acute conditions, not theories, give rise to reforms. Inthe congressional election of November 1882, following theassassination of President Garfield as an incident in the operationof the spoils system, the voice of the people commandingreform was unmistakable. Congress assembled in December 1882,and during the same month a bill looking to the improvementof the civil service, which had been pending in the Senate fornearly two years, was finally taken up and considered by thatbody. In the debate upon this bill its advocates declared thatit would “vastly improve the whole civil service of the country,”which they characterized as being at that time “inefficient,expensive and extravagant, and in many instances corrupt.”^[2]Law of
1883.This bill passed the Senate on the 27th of December1882, and the House on the 4th of January 1883, andwas signed by the president on the 16th of January1883, coming into full operation on the 16th of July 1883.It is now the national civil service law. The fundamental principlesof this law are:—(1) selection by competitive examinationfor all appointments to the “classified service,” with aperiod of probationary service before absolute appointment;(2) apportionment among the states and territories, accordingto population, of all appointments in the departmental serviceat Washington; (3) freedom of all the employees of the governmentfrom any necessity to contribute to political campaignfunds or to render political services. For putting these principlesinto effect the Civil Service Commission was created, and penaltieswere imposed for the solicitation or collection from governmentemployees of contributions for political purposes, and for theuse of official positions in coercing political action. The commission,in addition to its regular duties of aiding in the preparationof civil service rules, of regulating and holding examinations,and certifying the results thereof for use in making appointments,and of keeping records of all changes in the service, was givenauthority to investigate and report upon any violations of theact or rules. The “classified” service to which the act applieshas grown, by the action of successive presidents in progressivelyincluding various branches of the service within it, from 13,924positions in 1883 to some 80,000 (in round numbers) in 1900,constituting about 40% of the entire civil service of the governmentand including practically all positions above the grade ofmere labourer or workman to which appointment isnot madedirectly by the president with the consent of the Senate.^[3] Avery large class to which the act is expressly applicable, andwhich has been partly brought within its provisions by executiveaction, is that of fourth-class postmasters, of whom there arebetween 70,000 and 80,000 (about 15,000 classified in 1909).

In order to provide registers of eligibles for the various grades of positions in the classified service, the United States Civil Service Commission holds annually throughout the country about 300 different kinds of examinations. In the work of preparing these examinations and of marking the papers of competitors in them the commission is authorized by law to avail itself, in addition to its own corps of trained men, of the services of the scientific and other experts in the various executive departments. In the work of holding the examinations it is aided by about 1300 local boards of examiners, which are its local representatives throughout the country and are ​located at the principal post offices, custom houses and othergovernment offices, being composed of three or more Federalemployees in those offices. About 50,000 persons annuallycompete in these examinations, and about 10,000 of those whoare successful receive appointments through regular certification.Persons thus appointed, however, must serve six months “onprobation” before their appointment can be made absolute.At the end of this probation, if his service has not beensatisfactory, the appointee is simply dropped; and the fact that lessthan 1% of those appointed prove thus deficient on trial is hightestimony to the practical nature of the examinations held bythe commission, and to their aptness for securing persons qualifiedfor all classes of positions.

The effects of the Civil Service Act within the scope of itsactual operation have amply justified the hopes and promises ofits advocates. After its passage, absentee holders of lucrativeappointments were required to report for duty or to sever theirconnexion with the service. Improved methods were adoptedin the departments, and superfluous and useless work was nolonger devised in order to provide a show of employment and alocus standi for the parasites upon the public service. Individualclerks were required, and by reason of the new conditions wereenabled, to do more and better work; and this, coupled withthe increase in efficiency in the service on account of new bloodcoming in through the examinations, made possible an actualdecrease in the force required in many offices, notwithstandingthe natural growth in the amount of work to be done.^[4]Experience proves that the desire to create new and unnecessarypositions was in direct proportion to the power to control them,for where the act has taken away this power of control the desirehad disappeared naturally. There is no longer any desire onthe part of heads of departments to increase the number orsalaries of classified positions which would fall by law within thecivil service rules and be subject to competitive examinations.Thus the promises of improvement and economy in the servicehave been fulfilled.

The chief drawback to the full success of the act within itsintended scope of operation has been the withholding ofcertain positions in the service from the application of thevital principle of competition. The Civil Service Act contemplatedno exceptions, within the limits to which it was madeapplicable, to the general principle of competition upon meritfor entrance to the service. In framing the first civil servicerules, however, in 1883, the president, yielding to the pressureof the heads of some of the departments, and against theurgent protest of the Civil Service Commission, excepted fromthe requirement of examination large numbers of positions in thehigher grades of the service, chiefly fiduciary and administrativepositions such as cashiers, chief clerks and chiefs of division.These positions being thus continued under the absolute controlof the appointing officer, the effect of their exception fromexamination was to retain just that much of the old or “spoils”system within the nominal jurisdiction of the new or “merit”system. Even more: under the old system, while appointmentsfrom the outside had been made regardless of fitness, still thoseappointments had been made in the lower grades, the higherpositions being filled by promotion within the service, usually ofthe most competent, but under the new system with its exceptions,while appointments to the lower grades were filled on the basis ofmerit, the pressure for spoils at each change of administrationforced inexperienced, political or personal favourites in at the top.This blocked promotions and demoralized the service. Thus, whilethe general effect of the act was to limit very greatly the numberof vicious appointments, at the same time the effect of theseexceptions was to confine them to the upper grades, where thedemoralizing effect of each upon the service would be a maximum.By constant efforts the Civil Service Commission succeeded inhaving position after position withdrawn from this exceptedclass, until by the action of the president, on the 6th of May 1896,it was finally reduced almost to a minimum. By subsequentpresidential action, however, on the 29th of May 1899, theexcepted class was again greatly extended.^[5]

A further obstacle to the complete success of the merit system,and one which prevents the carrying forward of the reform tothe extent to which it has been carried in Great Britain, isinherent in the Civil Service Act itself. All postmasters whoreceive compensation of $1000 or more per annum, and allcollectors of customs and collectors of internal revenue, areappointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, andare therefore, by express provision of the act, not “requiredto be classified.” The universal practice of treating theseoffices as political agencies instead of as administrative businessoffices is therefore not limited by the act. Such officers areactive in political work throughout the country, and theirofficial position adds greatly to their power to affect the politicalprospects of the leaders in their districts. Accordingly theSenate, from being, as originally intended, merely a confirmingbody as to these officers, has become in a large measure, actuallyif not formally, a nominating body, and holds with tenacityto the power thus acquired by the individual senators. Thoroughcivil service reform requires that these positions also, and allthose of fourth-class postmasters (partly classified by order of1st Dec. 1908), be made subject to the merit system, for inthem is the real remaining stronghold of the spoils system. Eventhough all their subordinates be appointed through examination,it will be impossible to carry the reform to ultimate and completesuccess so long as the officers in charge are appointed mainlyfor political reasons and are changed with every change ofadministration.

The purpose of the act to protect the individual employeesin the service from the rapacity of the “political barons” hasbeen measurably, if not completely, successful. The powergiven the Civil Service Commission, to investigate and reportupon violations of the law, has been used to bring to light suchabuses as the levying of political contributions, and to set themachinery of the law in motion against them. While comparativelyfew actual prosecutions have been brought about, andalthough the penalties imposed by the act for this offence havebeen but seldom inflicted, still the publicity given to all suchcases by the commission’s investigations has had a wholesomedeterrent effect. Before the passage of the act, positions wereas a general rule held upon a well-understood lease-tenure, thepolitical contributions for them being as securely and as certainlycollected as any rent. Now, however, it can be said that theseforced contributions have almost entirely disappeared. Theefforts which are still made to collect political funds from governmentemployees in evasion of the law are limited in the mainto persuasion to make “voluntary” contributions, and it hasbeen possible so to limit and obstruct these efforts that theirpractical effect upon the character of the service is now verysmall.

The same evils that the Federal Civil Service Act was designed to remedy exist to a large degree in many of the state governments, and are especially aggravated in the administration of the local governments of some of the larger cities. The chief, if not the only,State examina-
tion. test of fitness for office in many cases has beenparty loyalty, honesty and capacity being seldom more than secondary considerations. The result has been the fostering of dishonesty and extravagance, which have brought weakness and gross corruption into the administration of the local governments. In consequence of this there has been a constantly growing tendency, among the more intelligent class of citizens, to demand that honest business methods be applied to local public service, and that appointments be made on the basis of intelligence and capacity, rather than of party allegiance. The movement for the reform of the civil service of cities is going hand in hand with the movement for general municipal reform, those reformers regarding the merit ​system of appointments as not merely the necessary and onlysafe bulwark to preserve the results of their labours, but also asthe most efficient means for bringing about other reforms.Hence civil service reform is given a leading position in allprogrammes for the reform of state and municipal governments.This has undoubtedly been due, in the first instance, at least, tothe success which attended the application of the merit systemto the Federal service, municipal and state legislation followingin the wake of the national civil service law. In New York an actsimilar to the Federal Civil Service Act was passed on the 4thof May 1883, and in 1894 the principles of the merit systemwere introduced by an amendment into the state constitution,and made applicable to cities and villages as well. In Massachusettsan act was passed on the 3rd of June 1884 which inits general features was based upon the Federal act and theNew York act. Similar laws were passed in Illinois and Wisconsinin 1895, and in New Jersey in 1908; the laws provide for theadoption of the merit system in state and municipal government.In New Orleans, La., and in Seattle, Wash., the meritsystem was introduced by an amendment to the city charterin 1896. The same result was accomplished by New Haven,Conn., in 1897, and by San Francisco, Cal., in 1899. In stillother cities the principles of the merit system have been enactedinto law, in some cases applying to the entire service and inothers to only a part of it.

The application of the merit system to state and municipalgovernments has proved successful wherever it has been givena fair trial.^[6] As experience has fostered public confidence in thesystem, and at the same time shown those features of the lawwhich are most vulnerable, and the best means for fortifyingthem, numerous and important improvements upon the pioneeract applying to the Federal service have been introduced inthe more recent legislation. This is particularly true of the actsnow in force in New York (passed in 1899) and in Chicago.The power of the commission to enforce these acts is materiallygreater than the power possessed by the Federal commission.In making investigations they are not confined to taking thetestimony of voluntary witnesses, but may administer oaths,and compel testimony and the production of books and paperswhere necessary; and in taking action they are not confinedto the making of a report of the findings in their investigations,but may themselves, in many cases, take final judicial action.Further than this, the payment of salaries is made dependentupon the certificate of the commission that the appointmentsof the recipients were made in accordance with the civil servicelaw and rules. Thus these commissions have absolute powerto prevent irregular or illegal appointments by refractoryappointing officers. Their powers being so much greater thanthose of the national commission, their action can be muchmore drastic in most cases, and they can go more directly to theheart of an existing abuse, and apply more quickly and effectuallythe needed remedy.

Upon the termination of the Spanish-American War, thenecessity for the extension of the principles of the merit systemto the new territories, the responsibility for whose governmentthe results of this war had thrown upon the United States, wasrealized. By the acts providing for civil government in PortoRico (April 12th, 1900) and Hawaii (April 30th, 1900), theprovisions of the Civil Service Act and Rules were applied tothose islands. Under this legislation the classification appliesto all positions which are analogous to positions in the Federalservice, those which correspond to positions in the municipaland state governments being considered as local in character,and not included in the classification.

On the 19th of September 1900 the United States PhilippineCommission passed an act “for the establishment and maintenanceof an efficient and honest civil service in the PhilippineIslands.” This act, in its general features, is based upon thenational civil service law, but includes also a number of thestronger points to be found in the state and municipal lawmentioned above. Among these are the power given the civilservice board to administer oaths, summon witnesses, and requirethe production of official records; and the power to stop paymentof salaries to persons illegally appointed. Promotions aredetermined by competitive examinations, and are made throughoutthe service, as there are no excepted positions. A justright of preference in local appointments is given to natives.The president of the Philippine commission in introducing thisbill said: “The purpose of the United States government . . .in these islands is to secure for the Filipino people as honestand as efficient a government as may be possible. . . . It is thehope of the commission to make it possible for one entering thelowest ranks to reach the highest, under a tenure based solelyupon merit.” Judging by past experience it is believed thatthis law is well adapted to accomplish the purpose above stated.