Chapter XXV: Section 4: of the bill grants a certain portion of the military (3)

6. No person appointed to a place under any exception to examination
hereby made shall within one year after appointment be transferred to
another place not also excepted from examination; but a person who has
served not less than one year in an examination-excepted place may be
transferred in the post-office in which he is serving to a place not
excepted from examination: _Provided_, That before any such
transfer may be made the Commission must certify that the person whom
it is proposed to so transfer has passed an examination to test fitness
for the place proposed to be filled by such transfer.

POSTAL RULE III.

1. The papers of every examination shall be marked under the direction
of the Commission, and each competitor shall be graded on a scale of
100, according to the general average determined by the marks made by
the examiners on his papers.

2. The Commission shall appoint in each classified post-office a board
of examiners, which shall (_a_) Conduct all examinations held to
test fitness for entrance to or promotion in the classified service of
the post-office in which the board is located.

(_d_) Mark the papers of such examinations, unless otherwise
directed, as provided for by General Rule III, clause 12.

(_c_) Conduct such examinations for the classified departmental
service as the Commission may direct.

3. The papers of an examination having been marked, the board of
examiners shall ascertain--

(_a_) The name of every competitor who has, under section 1754 of
the Revised Statutes, claim of preference in civil appointments, and who
has attained a general average of not less than 65 per cent; and all
such competitors are hereby declared eligible to the class or place to
test fitness for which the examination was held.

(_b_) The name of every other competitor who has attained a general
average of not less than 70 per cent; and all such applicants are hereby
declared eligible to the class or place to test fitness for which the
examination was held.

4. The names of all preference-claiming competitors whose general
average is not less than 65 per cent, together with the names of all
other competitors whose general average is not less than 70 per cent,
shall be entered upon the register of persons eligible to the class or
place to test fitness for which the examination was held. The names of
male and of female eligibles shall be listed separately.

5. The grade of each competitor shall be expressed by the whole number
nearest the general average attained by him, and the grade of each
eligible shall be noted upon the register of eligibles in connection
with his name. When two or more eligibles are of the same grade,
preference in certification shall be determined by the order in which
their application papers were filed.

6. Immediately after the general averages shall have been ascertained
each competitor shall be notified that he has passed or has failed to
pass.

7. If a competitor fail to pass, he may, with the consent of the board,
approved by the Commission, be allowed reexamination at any time within
six months from the date of failure without filing a new application;
but a competitor failing to pass, desiring to take again the same
examination, must, if not allowed reexamination within six months from
the date of failure, make in due form a new application therefor.

8. No person who has passed an examination shall while eligible on the
register supplied by such examination be reexamined, unless he shall
furnish evidence satisfactory to the Commission that at the time of his
examination he was, because of illness or for other good cause,
incapable of doing himself justice in said examination.

9. The term of eligibility to appointment in the classified postal
service shall be one year from the day on which the name of the eligible
is entered on the register.

POSTAL RULE IV.

1. Vacancies in the classified service of a post-office, unless among
the places excepted from examination, if not filled by either transfer
or promotion, shall be rilled in the following manner:

(_a_) The postmaster at a post-office in which a vacancy may exist
shall, in form and manner to be prescribed by the Commission, request
the board of examiners to certify to him the names of either males or
females eligible to the vacant place.

(_b_) If fitness for the place to be filled is tested by
competitive examination, the board of examiners shall certify the names
of three males or three females, these names to be those of the
eligibles who, standing higher in grade than any other three eligibles
of the same sex on the register from which certification is to be made,
have not been certified three times from said register: _Provided_,
That if upon said register there are the names of eligibles who, under
section 1754 of the Revised Statutes, have claim of preference in civil
appointments, the names of such eligibles shall be certified before the
names of other eligibles higher in grade. The Commission shall make
regulations that will secure to each of such preference-claiming
eligibles, in the order of his grade among other preference claimants,
opportunity to have his claim of preference considered and determined by
the appointing officer.

(_c_) Each name on any register of eligibles may be certified only
three times.

2. Of the three names certified to him the postmaster must select one;
and if at the time of making this selection there are more vacancies
than one, he may select more than one name. Each person thus designated
for appointment shall be notified, and upon reporting in person to the
postmaster shall be appointed for a probational period of six months, at
the end of which period, if his conduct and capacity be satisfactory to
the postmaster, he shall receive absolute appointment; but if his
conduct and capacity be not satisfactory to said officer, he shall be
notified that he will not receive absolute appointment, and this
notification shall discharge him from the service.

3. The postmaster of each classified post-office shall require the
superintendent of each division of his office to carefully observe and
report in writing the services rendered by and the character and
qualifications of each probationer serving under him. These reports
shall be preserved on file, and the Commission may prescribe the form
and manner in which they shall be made.

POSTAL RULE V.

Until promotion regulations shall have been applied to a classified
post-office promotions therein may be made upon any test of fitness
determined upon by the postmaster, if not disapproved by the Commission:
_Provided_, That no employee shall be promoted to any grade he
could not enter by appointment under the minimum age limitation applied
thereto by Postal Rule II, clause 2.

POSTAL RULE VI.

1. Transfers may be made as follows:

(_a_) From one classified post-office to another, upon requisition
of the Postmaster-General.

(_b_) From any classified post-office to the Post-Office
Department, and from the Post-Office Department to any classified
post-office, upon requisition of the Postmaster-General.

2. No person may be transferred as herein authorized until the
Commission shall have certified to the officer making the transfer
requisition that the person whom it is proposed to transfer has passed
an examination to test fitness for the place to which he is to be
transferred, and that such person has been at least six months next
preceding the date of the certificate in the classified service of the
Department or post-office from which the transfer is to be made.

POSTAL RULE VII.

Upon the requisition of a postmaster the board of examiners for his
office shall certify for reinstatement, in a grade requiring no higher
examination than the one in which he was formerly employed, any person
who within one year next preceding the date of the requisition has
through no delinquency or misconduct been separated from the classified
service in said office.

POSTAL RULE VIII.

Each postmaster in the classified postal service shall report to the
board of examiners--

(_a_) Every probational and every absolute appointment, and every
appointment under any exception to examination authorized by Postal Rule
II, clause 5, made in his office.

(_b_) Every refusal to make an absolute appointment in his office
and every refusal or neglect to accept an appointment in the classified
service under him.

(_c_) Every transfer into the classified service under him.

(_d_) Every separation from the classified service under him, and
whether the separation was caused by dismissal, resignation, or death.
Places excepted from examination are within the classified service.

(_e_) Every restoration to the classified service under him of any
person who may have been separated therefrom by dismissal or
resignation.

These rules shall take effect March 1, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

[Footnote 18: Storekeepers shall be classed as clerks, and vacancies in that class shall be filled by assignment.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, D.C., March 1, 1888_.

In the exercise of authority vested in the President by the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised Statutes to prescribe such regulations for the admission of persons into the civil service of the United States as may best promote the efficiency thereof and ascertain the fitness of each applicant in respect to age, health, character, knowledge, and ability for the branch of the service into which he seeks to enter, I hereby direct that the officers, clerks, and other employees of the United States Civil Service Commission, now authorized or that may hereafter be authorized by law, shall be arranged in the following classes, viz:

Class A, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of less than $1,000 per annum.

Class B, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of $1,000 or more, but less than $1,200 per annum.

Class 1, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of $1,200 or more, but less than $1,400 per annum.

Class 2, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of $1,400 or more, but less than $1,600 per annum.

Class 3, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of $1,600 or more, but less than $1,800 per annum.

Class 4, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of $1,800 or more, but less than $2,000 per annum.

Class 5, including all persons receiving compensation at the rate of $2,000 or more per annum.

No person who is appointed to an office by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or by the President alone, and no person who is to be employed merely as a laborer or workman or as a watchman, shall be considered as within this classification.

_And it is ordered_, That the United States Civil Service Commission thus classified, as provided by clause 2 of Departmental Rule I of the civil-service rules approved February 2, 1888, and in force on and after the date hereof, shall be considered a part of the classified departmental service, and the rules applicable thereto shall be in force therein.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, March 21, 1888_.

_To the United States Civil Service Commission_.

Gentlemen: I desire to make a suggestion regarding subdivision (_c_), General Rule III, of the amended civil-service rules promulgated February 2, 1888. It provides for the promotion of an employee in a Department who is below or outside of the classified service to a place within said classified service in the same Department upon the request of the appointing officer, upon the recommendation of the Commission and the approval of the President, after a noncompetitive examination, in case such person has served continuously for two years in the place from which it is proposed to promote him, and "because of his faithfulness and efficiency in the position occupied by him," and "because of his qualifications for the place to which the appointing officer desires his promotion."

It has occurred to me that this provision must be executed with caution to avoid the application of it to cases not intended and the undue relaxation of the general purposes and restrictions of the civil-service law.

Noncompetitive examinations are the exceptions to the plan of the act, and the rules permitting the same should be strictly construed. The cases arising under the exception above recited should be very few, and when presented they should precisely meet all the requirements specified, and should be supported by facts which will develop the basis and reason of the application of the appointing officer and which will commend them to the judgment of the Commission and the President. The sole purpose of the provision is to benefit the public service, and it should never be permitted to operate as an evasion of the main feature of the law, which is competitive examinations.

As these cases will first be presented to the Commission for recommendation, I have to request that you will formulate a plan by which their merits can be tested. This will naturally involve a statement of all the facts deemed necessary for the determination of such applications, including the kind of work which has been done by the person proposed for promotion and the considerations upon which the allegations of the faithfulness, efficiency, and qualifications mentioned in the rule are predicated.

What has already been written naturally suggests another very important subject, to which I will invite your attention.

The desirability of the rule which I have commented upon would be nearly, if not entirely, removed, and other difficulties which now embarrass the execution of the civil-service law would be obviated, if there was a better and uniform classification of the employees in the different Departments. The importance of this is entirely obvious. The present imperfect classifications, hastily made, apparently with but little care for uniformity, and promulgated after the last Presidential election and prior to the installation of the present Administration, should not have been permitted to continue to this time.

It appears that in the War Department the employees were divided on the 19th day of November, 1884, into eight classes and subclasses, embracing those earning annual salaries from $900 to $2,000.

The Navy Department was classified November 22, 1884, and its employees were divided into seven classes and subclasses, embracing those who received annual salaries from $720 to $1,800.

In the Interior Department the classification was made on the 6th day of December, 1884. It consists of eight classes and subclasses, and embraces employees receiving annual salaries from $720 to $2,000.

On the 2d day of January, 1885, a classification of the employees in the Treasury Department was made, consisting of six classes and subclasses, including those earning annual salaries from $900 to $1,800.

In the Post-Office Department the employees were classified on February 6, 1885, into nine classes and subclasses, embracing persons earning annual salaries from $720 to $2,000.

On the 12th of December, 1884, the Bureau of Agriculture was classified in a manner different from all the other Departments, and presenting features peculiar to itself.

It seems that the only classification in the Department of State and the Department of Justice is that provided for by section 163 of the Revised Statutes, which directs that the employees in the several Departments shall be divided into four classes. It appears that no more definite classification has been made in these Departments.

I wish the Commission would revise these classifications and submit to me a plan which will as far as possible make them uniform, and which will especially remedy the present condition which permits persons to enter a grade in the service in the one Department without any examination which in another Department can only be entered after passing such examination. This, I think, should be done by extending the limits of the classified service rather than by contracting them.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _March 23, 1888_.

_To the People of the United States_:

The painful duty devolves upon the President to announce the death, at an early hour this morning, at his residence in this city, of Morrison R. Waite, Chief Justice of the United States, which exalted office he had filled since March 4, 1874, with honor to himself and high usefulness to his country.

In testimony of respect to the memory of the honored dead it is ordered that the executive offices in Washington be closed on the day of the funeral and be draped in mourning for thirty days, and that the national flag be displayed at half-mast on the public buildings and on all national vessels on the day of the funeral.

By the President:

T.F. BAYARD, _Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, May 26, 1888_.

Under the provisions of section 4 of the act approved March 3, 1883, it is hereby ordered that the several Executive Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Government Printing Office be closed on Wednesday, the 30th instant, to enable the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of the soldiers who fell during the rebellion.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
_Washington, D.C., June 2, 1888_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: In the force employed in the office of the collector of customs at
the port of New York there are eight tellers who receive and count the
money paid in at that office, amounting to $500,000 a day or upward, and
who should be persons qualified to handle money with skill and to detect
counterfeit coin and bills. One of these places is now vacant, and it is
important that it should be filled at the earliest practicable date. The
position is not one excepted from examination by Customs Rule II, clause
5; but the collector thinks that it would be imprudent and impracticable
for him to be restricted in filling the vacancy to the three names that
might be certified to him from the eligible register, and in this
opinion the Commission concurs. But whether this class of positions and
certain others in the customs service should be filled by noncompetitive
examination or by special exception is a matter which the Commission has
under consideration, but can not determine until after a visit to New
York and perhaps other ports. In view, however, of the necessity for
immediately filling the present vacancy--but without establishing a
precedent--the Commission has the honor to recommend that a
noncompetitive examination for the purpose be authorized under
subdivision (_e_), clause 2 of General Rule III, Civil-Service
Rules. Your obedient servants,

JNO. H. OBERLY,
CHAS. LYMAN,
_United States Civil Service Commissioners_.

Approved, June 5, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

CLASSIFIED POSTAL SERVICE, SPECIAL RULE NO. 1.

JUNE 16, 1888.

In addition to the exceptions from examination in the classified postal service made by Postal Rule II, clause 5, the following exception to examination in that service is hereby made:

Printers, employed as such.

_Provided_, That before any person may be employed under this
exception to examination the Post-Office Department shall inform the
Commission of the authority given to employ printers at any post-office
and of the number authorized to be employed at such office.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

_Ordered_, That noncompetitive examinations to test fitness for the following designated places in the classified departmental service be, and are hereby, authorized:

1. In all the Departments: Engineers, assistant engineers, pressmen, and
compositors.

2. In the Department of the Treasury:

In the office of the Secretary: Storekeeper, inspector of electric
lights, foreman of laborers, captain of watch, lieutenants of watch, and
locksmith and electrician.

In the office of the Treasurer: Seventeen clerks employed as expert
money tellers.

In the office of the Supervising Surgeon-General of Marine-Hospital
Service: Hospital steward, employed as chemist.

3. In the Department of the Interior:

In the office of the Secretary: Stenographer (to be confidential clerk
to Secretary), members of the boards of pension appeals, returns-office
clerk, and six clerks to act as assistant disbursing clerks.

In the Bureau of Pensions: Superintendent of buildings and two qualified
surgeons.

In the Patent Office: Librarian, principal examiners, machinists, and
model attendants.

In the office of the Commissioner of Railroads: One bookkeeper.

In the Bureau of Education: Clerk of class 4, as librarian.

In the Geological Survey: In permanent force--Librarian. In temporary
force--Assistant paleontologists, assistant geologists, topographers,
and assistant photographers.

4. In the Department of Agriculture:

In the disbursing office: Four clerks.

5. In the Post-Office Department:

In the office of the Assistant Attorney-General: Stenographer (to be
confidential clerk to the Assistant Attorney-General).

Approved, July 2, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

SPECIAL DEPARTMENTAL RULE NO. I.

In addition to the exceptions from examination made by Departmental
Rule III, clause 2, the following exceptions to examinations for the
classified departmental service are hereby made, viz:

1. In the Department of State: Lithographer.

2. In the Department of the Treasury:

In the office of the Secretary: Government actuary.

In the office of the Comptroller of the Currency: Bond clerk.

In the office of the Supervising Architect: Supervising Architect,
assistant supervising architect, confidential clerk to Supervising
Architect, and photographer.

In the Bureau of the Mint: Assayer, examiner, computer of bullion, and
adjuster of accounts.

In the Bureau of Navigation: Clerk of class 4, acting as deputy
commissioner.

In the office of Construction of Standard Weights and Measures: Adjuster
and mechanician.

In the Bureau of Engraving and Printing: Chief of the Bureau, assistant
chief of Bureau, engravers, and plate printers.

In the Coast and Geodetic Survey: Superintendent, confidential clerk to
Superintendent, the normal or field force, general office assistant,
confidential clerk to general office assistant, engravers and contract
engravers, electrotypist and photographer, electrotypist's helper,
apprentice to electrotypist and photographer, copperplate printers,
plate-printers' helpers, and mechanicians.

In the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue: Superintendent of
stamp vault.

3. In the Department of the Interior:

In the office of the Secretary: Superintendent of documents, clerk of
class 3 as custodian, clerk to sign land patents, and telephone
operator.

In the office of the Assistant Attorney-General: Law clerks--One at
$2,750 per annum, one at $2,500 per annum, one at $2,250 per annum, and
thirteen at $2,000 per annum.

In the Patent Office: Financial clerk, examiner of interferences, and
law clerk.

In the General Land Office: Two law clerks, two law examiners, clerk of
class 4 acting as receiving clerk, and ten principal examiners of land
claims and contests.

In the Bureau of Pensions: Assistant chief clerk, medical referee,
assistant medical referee, and law clerk.

In the Bureau of Indian Affairs: Principal bookkeeper.

In the office of Commissioner of Railroads: Railroad engineer.

In the Bureau of Education: Collector and compiler of statistics and
statistician.

In the Geological Survey: In permanent force--General assistant,
executive officer, photographer, twelve geologists, two paleontologists,
two chemists, chief geographer, three topographers, and three
geographers. In temporary force--Six paleontologists, eight geologists,
geographer, mechanician, and editor.

4. In the Department of War: Clerk for the General of the Army and clerk
for the retired General of the Army.

In the office of the Chief Signal Officer: Lithographer.

5. In the Department of the Navy:

In the Hydrographic Office: Engravers, copperplate printers, printers'
apprentices.

6. In the Department of Justice: Pardon clerk and two law clerks.

7. In the Department of Agriculture:

In the office of the Commissioner: Private secretary to the chief clerk,
superintendent of grounds, and assistant chief of each of the following
divisions: Of botany, of chemistry, of entomology, of forestry, and of
statistics.

In the Bureau of Animal Industry: Chief of the Bureau, assistant chief,
private secretary to chief, and chief clerk.

8. In the Post-Office Department: Assistant Attorney-General, law clerk,
and agents and employees at postal-note, postage-stamp, postal-card, and
envelope agencies.

9. In the Department of Labor: Statistical experts and temporary
experts.

Approved, July 2, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

SPECIAL DEPARTMENTAL RULE NO. 2.

No substitute shall hereafter be employed in any Department; and the head of any Department in which substitutes are now employed may appoint any of such substitutes to take the place of his principal, or to any place of lower grade: _Provided_, That no substitute shall be appointed as herein authorized until he shall have passed an appropriate examination by the Civil Service Commission and his eligibility shall have been certified by said Commission to the head of the Department in which he is employed.

Approved, August 3, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 9, 1888_.

_The Heads of Departments_:

As a mark of respect to the memory of General Sheridan, the President directs that the several Executive Departments in the city of Washington be closed and all public business at the national capital suspended on Saturday, August 11 instant, the day of the funeral.

By direction of the President:

DANIEL S. LAMONT,
_Private Secretary._

SPECIAL CUSTOMS RULE NO. 1.

In addition to exceptions from examination in the classified customs service made under Customs Rule II, clause 5, the following special exceptions are made:

In the Boston customs district, office of the naval officer: Assistant
deputy naval officer.

Approved, August 10, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

WAR DEPARTMENT,
_Washington City, August 14, 1888_.

By direction of the President, Major-General John M. Schofield is assigned to the command of the Army of the United States.

WM.C. ENDICOTT,
_Secretary of War._

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
_Washington, D.C., August 25, 1888_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: The Commission respectfully submits for your consideration the
following extract from the minutes of its proceedings of August 23,
1888:

"Navy Department, August 23. Harmony, Acting Secretary of the Navy,
refers, with a request that the examination asked for therein be held at
the earliest possible moment, a communication of the same date of G.S.
Dyer, lieutenant, United States Navy, in charge of the Hydrographic
Office, Navy Department, requesting that Francis A. Lewis, at New York
City, and Joseph T. McMillan, of San Francisco, may be noncompetitively
examined for the positions of assistants at the branch hydrographic
offices at those places, respectively, under General Rule III, paragraph
2 (_e_), stating that the positions of assistants at those offices
require men specially fitted by a technical nautical education, and
therefore such as is only obtained in the Navy, and that the young men
referred to are recent graduates of the Naval Academy and have been
honorably discharged from the service.

"The positions named in this communication, and similar positions at
other branch hydrographic offices, being regarded as in the classified
departmental service in the Department of the Navy, and subject to
examination, and in view of the qualifications required in such
positions and of the fact that the service is to be rendered at points
remote from the city of Washington, it is deemed impracticable to fill
these places by competitive examination. It is therefore ordered that
they be included among the places to be filled by noncompetitive
examination under the provision of General Rule III, clause 2
(_e_), and that the President be asked to approve this order."

The Commission respectfully requests that you indorse this communication
with your approval of the action above quoted and return it as the
authority of the Commission for including the places mentioned among the
noncompetitive examination places under General Rule III, clause 2
(_e_).

Very respectfully,

A.P. EDGERTON,
JOHN H. OBERLY,
CHAS. LYMAN,
_United States Civil Service Commissioners._

Approved:

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
_Washington, D.C., October 17, 1888_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: This Commission has been informed by the Treasury Department
that an additional teller has been authorized to be appointed at the
custom-house in the city of New York, and that his immediate employment
is desired.

This position is not one excepted from examination by Customs Rule II,
clause 5, but the collector thinks, in view of its fiduciary character,
that it ought to be filled by noncompetitive instead of by competitive
examination, and in this view the Commission concurs. It is therefore
respectfully recommended that a noncompetitive examination for the
purpose be authorized under subdivision (_e_) of clause 2 of
General Rule III, Revised Civil-Service Rules.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHAS. LYMAN,
_Commissioner, in Charge._

Approved, October 17, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
_Washington, D.C., October 31, 1888_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: Approval of the following order for noncompetitive examinations
under the provisions of General Rule III, section 2, clause (_e_),
of Revised Civil-Service Rules, is respectfully recommended:

_Ordered_, That noncompetitive examinations to test fitness for the
following-designated places in the classified customs service are hereby
authorized:

1. In the customs district of New York, collector's office: The tellers
employed in the cashier's office; three stenographers employed under the
immediate supervision of the collector.

2. In the customs district of San Francisco: Chinese interpreter.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHAS. LYMAN,
_Commissioner, in Charge._

Approved, November 1, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
_Washington, D.C., October, 3 1888_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: Approval of the following order for noncompetitive examinations under the provisions of General Rule III, section 2, clause (_e_), of Revised Civil-Service Rules, is respectfully recommended:

_Ordered_, That noncompetitive examinations to test fitness for the following-designated places in the classified departmental service are hereby authorized:

1. In the Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, permanent force: Assistant photographers.

2. In the Department of Labor: Special agents.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHAS. LYMAN,
_Commissioner, in Charge._

Approved, November 1, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

Clause (_e_) of section 2 of General Rule III is amended by adding thereto the following, and as thus amended is hereby promulgated:

But no person appointed to such a place upon noncompetitive examination
shall within one year after appointment be transferred or appointed to
any place not excepted from examination; but after having served in such
noncompetitive place not less than one year he may be transferred or
appointed in the bureau or office in which he is serving to a place not
excepted from examination upon the certificate of the Commission or the
proper board of examiners that he has passed an examination to test
fitness for the place to which his transfer or appointment is proposed.

Approved, November 1, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

SPECIAL DEPARTMENTAL RULE NO. I.

So much of Special Departmental Rule No. 1, approved July 2, 1888, as applies to-the Department of Agriculture is hereby amended and promulgated as follows:

7. In the Department of Agriculture:

In the office of the Commissioner: Private secretary to the chief clerk,
superintendent of grounds, and assistant chief of each of the following
divisions: Of botany, of chemistry, of entomology, of forestry, and of
statistics, and the director of experiment stations and the assistant
director.

In the Bureau of Animal Industry: Chief of the Bureau, assistant chief,
private secretary to the chief, and chief clerk.

Approved, November 1, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

SPECIAL CUSTOMS RULE NO. I.

Special Customs Rule No. 1, specially excepting from examination certain places in the customs service, is hereby amended by including among those places the following:

At the port of New York, office of the collector: Bookbinder.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, November 1, 1888_.

The foregoing amendment is hereby approved.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

Departmental Rule VII is hereby amended by inserting at the end of the first sentence of section 1 the following:

_Provided_, That no certification shall be made from the clerk or any
supplementary register to any Department to which promotion regulations
have been applied under General Rule III, section 6, to fill a vacancy
above the grade of class 1.

So that as amended the first paragraph of section 1 will read:

1. Vacancies in the classified departmental service, unless among the
places excepted from examination, if not filled by either promotion or
transfer, shall be filled in the following manner: _Provided_, That
no certification shall be made from the clerk or any supplementary
register to any Department to which promotion regulations have been
applied under General Rule III, section 6, to fill a vacancy above the
grade of class 1.

Approved and promulgated.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _November 1, 1888_.

The foregoing amendment is hereby approved.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

The following amendments to departmental rules are hereby made and promulgated:

To Departmental Rule IV: After the word "service," in section 1 of said rule, insert the following:

_Provided_, That any person may apply for the position of printer's
assistant in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who is not under 18
nor over 35 years of age.

And after the word "for," in the same section, strike out the words "which purpose" and insert in lieu thereof the words "such application," so that as amended section 1 will read:

1. Any person not under 20 years of age may make application for
admission to the classified departmental service: _Provided_, That
any person may apply for the position of printer's assistant in the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing who is not under 18 nor over 35 years
of age; and blank forms for such application shall be furnished by the
Commission.

To Departmental Rule VI: After the word "examination," where it first occurs in section 5 of said rule, insert the words "or an examination for printer's assistant in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing." After the word "which" strike out the words "supplementary or special," where they last occur in said section, and insert in lieu thereof "the," so that as amended section 5 will read:

5. But the names of all competitors who have passed a supplementary or a
special examination, or an examination for printer's assistant in the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, shall be entered, without regard to
State residence, upon the register of persons eligible to the class or
place to test fitness for which the examination was held.

To Departmental Rule VII: After the word "or," in the second paragraph of section 3 of said rule, strike out the article "a," and after the word "register" in said paragraph insert the words "or the printer's-assistant register," so that as amended said second paragraph of section 3 will read:

When certification is made from a supplementary or special register, or
the printer's-assistant register, and there are more vacancies than one
to be filled, the appointing officer may select from the three names
certified more than one.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, November 5, 1888_.

The foregoing amendments are hereby approved.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

UNITED STATES CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION,
_Washington, D.C., October 31, 1888_.

The PRESIDENT.

SIR: The order heretofore approved by you authorizing noncompetitive examinations under General Rule III, section 2, clause (_e_), to test fitness for certain designated places in the classified departmental service, included among such places the following:

In the office of the Treasurer of the United States, seventeen clerks employed as expert money tellers.

The attempts thus far made to make appointments to these places under this order have fully satisfied the Commission and the Treasury Department of the impracticability of this method of procedure, not because of any difficulty of applying suitable tests to determine the expertness required, but because there are really no experts to be tested. The duties of these positions can not be learned elsewhere than in the positions themselves, and therefore the only experts are those now occupying them and the very few who have left them for one cause or another, but who are not seeking to return. Therefore, since experts are not available, and persons will have to be appointed who must learn the duties of the positions in the actual performance of those duties, there would seem to be no good reason why such persons should not be selected from the eligible registers of this Commission, which are at all times abundantly supplied with the names of persons who are both competent and worthy. And besides, so long as these tempting places are in the noncompetitive list, the Department will be subjected to solicitation and pressure concerning them which it would rather avoid.

In view of these considerations it is respectfully recommended that you approve the revocation of so much of the order above referred to as provides for the appointment upon noncompetitive examination of seventeen clerks in the office of the Treasurer of the United States employed as expert money tellers.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

CHAS. LYMAN,
_Commissioner in Charge_.

Approved, November 13, 1888.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 3, 1888_.

_To the Congress of the United States_:

As you assemble for the discharge of the duties you have assumed as the representatives of a free and generous people, your meeting is marked by an interesting and impressive incident. With the expiration of the present session of the Congress the first century of our constitutional existence as a nation will be completed.

Our survival for one hundred years is not sufficient to assure us that we no longer have dangers to fear in the maintenance, with all its promised blessings, of a government founded upon the freedom of the people. The time rather admonishes us to soberly inquire whether in the past we have always closely kept in the course of safety, and whether we have before us a way plain and clear which leads to happiness and perpetuity.

When the experiment of our Government was undertaken, the chart adopted for our guidance was the Constitution. Departure from the lines there laid down is failure. It is only by a strict adherence to the direction they indicate and by restraint within the limitations they fix that we can furnish proof to the world of the fitness of the American people for self-government.

The equal and exact justice of which we boast as the underlying principle of our institutions should not be confined to the relations of our citizens to each other. The Government itself is under bond to the American people that in the exercise of its functions and powers it will deal with the body of our citizens in a manner scrupulously honest and fair and absolutely just. It has agreed that American citizenship shall be the only credential necessary to justify the claim of equality before the law, and that no condition in life shall give rise to discrimination in the treatment of the people by their Government.

The citizen of our Republic in its early days rigidly insisted upon full compliance with the letter of this bond, and saw stretching out before him a clear field for individual endeavor. His tribute to the support of his Government was measured by the cost of its economical maintenance, and he was secure in the enjoyment of the remaining recompense of his steady and contented toil. In those days the frugality of the people was stamped upon their Government, and was enforced by the free, thoughtful, and intelligent suffrage of the citizen. Combinations, monopolies, and aggregations of capital were either avoided or sternly regulated and restrained. The pomp and glitter of governments less free offered no temptation and presented no delusion to the plain people who, side by side, in friendly competition, wrought for the ennoblement and dignity of man, for the solution of the problem of free government, and for the achievement of the grand destiny awaiting the land which God had given them.

A century has passed. Our cities are the abiding places of wealth and luxury; our manufactories yield fortunes never dreamed of by the fathers of the Republic; our business men are madly striving in the race for riches, and immense aggregations of capital outrun the imagination in the magnitude of their undertakings.

We view with pride and satisfaction this bright picture of our country's growth and prosperity, while only a closer scrutiny develops a somber shading. Upon more careful inspection we find the wealth and luxury of our cities mingled with poverty and wretchedness and unremunerative toil. A crowded and constantly increasing urban population suggests the impoverishment of rural sections and discontent with agricultural pursuits. The farmer's son, not satisfied with his father's simple and laborious life, joins the eager chase for easily acquired wealth.

We discover that the fortunes realized by our manufacturers are no longer solely the reward of sturdy industry and enlightened foresight, but that they result from the discriminating favor of the Government and are largely built upon undue exactions from the masses of our people. The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor.

As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters.

Still congratulating ourselves upon the wealth and prosperity of our country and complacently contemplating every incident of change inseparable from these conditions, it is our duty as patriotic citizens to inquire at the present stage of our progress how the bond of the Government made with the people has been kept and performed.

Instead of limiting the tribute drawn from our citizens to the necessities of its economical administration, the Government persists in exacting from the substance of the people millions which, unapplied and useless, lie dormant in its Treasury. This flagrant injustice and this breach of faith and obligation add to extortion the danger attending the diversion of the currency of the country from the legitimate channels of business.

Under the same laws by which these results are produced the Government permits many millions more to be added to the cost of the living of our people and to be taken from our consumers, which unreasonably swell the profits of a small but powerful minority.

The people must still be taxed for the support of the Government under the operation of tariff laws. But to the extent that the mass of out citizens are inordinately burdened beyond any useful public purpose and for the benefit of a favored few, the Government, under pretext of an exercise of its taxing power, enters gratuitously into partnership with these favorites, to their advantage and to the injury of a vast majority of our people.

This is not equality before the law.

The existing situation is injurious to the health of our entire body politic. It stifles in those for whose benefit it is permitted all patriotic love of country, and substitutes in its place selfish greed and grasping avarice. Devotion to American citizenship for its own sake and for what it should accomplish as a motive to our nation's advancement and the happiness of all our people is displaced by the assumption that the Government, instead of being the embodiment of equality, is but an instrumentality through which especial and individual advantages are to be gained.

The arrogance of this assumption is unconcealed. It appears in the sordid disregard of all but personal interests, in the refusal to abate for the benefit of others one iota of selfish advantage, and in combinations to perpetuate such advantages through efforts to control legislation and improperly influence the suffrages of the people.

The grievances of those not included within the circle of these beneficiaries, when fully realized, will surely arouse irritation and discontent. Our farmers, long suffering and patient, struggling in the race of life with the hardest and most unremitting toil, will not fail to see, in spite of misrepresentations and misleading fallacies, that they are obliged to accept such prices for their products as are fixed in foreign markets where they compete with the farmers of the world; that their lands are declining in value while their debts increase, and that without compensating favor they are forced by the action of the Government to pay for the benefit of others such enhanced prices for the things they need that the scanty returns of their labor fail to furnish their support or leave no margin for accumulation.

Our workingmen, enfranchised from all delusions and no longer frightened by the cry that their wages are endangered by a just revision of our tariff laws, will reasonably demand through such revision steadier employment, cheaper means of living in their homes, freedom for themselves and their children from the doom of perpetual servitude, and an open door to their advancement beyond the limits of a laboring class. Others of our citizens, whose comforts and expenditures are measured by moderate salaries and fixed incomes, will insist upon the fairness and justice of cheapening the cost of necessaries for themselves and their families.

When to the selfishness of the beneficiaries of unjust discrimination under our laws there shall be added the discontent of those who suffer from such discrimination, we will realize the fact that the beneficent purposes of our Government, dependent upon the patriotism and contentment of our people, are endangered.

Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of rule.

He mocks the people who proposes that the Government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. Any intermediary between the people and their Government or the least delegation of the care and protection the Government owes to the humblest citizen in the land makes the boast of free institutions a glittering delusion and the pretended boon of American citizenship a shameless imposition.

A just and sensible revision of our tariff laws should be made for the relief of those of our countrymen who suffer under present conditions. Such a revision should receive the support of all who love that justice and equality due to American citizenship; of all who realize that in this justice and equality our Government finds its strength and its power to protect the citizen and his property; of all who believe that the contented competence and comfort of many accord better with the spirit of our institutions than colossal fortunes unfairly gathered in the hands of a few; of all who appreciate that the forbearance and fraternity among our people, which recognize the value of every American interest, are the surest guaranty of our national progress, and of all who desire to see the products of American skill and ingenuity in every market of the world, with a resulting restoration of American commerce.

The necessity of the reduction of our revenues is so apparent as to be generally conceded, but the means by which this end shall be accomplished and the sum of direct benefit which shall result to our citizens present a controversy of the utmost importance. There should be no scheme accepted as satisfactory by which the burdens of the people are only apparently removed. Extravagant appropriations of public money, with all their demoralizing consequences, should not be tolerated, either as a means of relieving the Treasury of its present surplus or as furnishing pretext for resisting a proper reduction in tariff rates. Existing evils and injustice should be honestly recognized, boldly met, and effectively remedied. There should be no cessation of the struggle until a plan is perfected, fair and conservative toward existing industries, but which will reduce the cost to consumers of the necessaries of life, while it provides for our manufacturers the advantage of freer raw materials and permits no injury to the interests of American labor.

The cause for which the battle is waged is comprised within lines clearly and distinctly defined. It should never be compromised. It is the people's cause.

It can not be denied-that the selfish and private interests which are so persistently heard when efforts are made to deal in a just and comprehensive manner with our tariff laws are related to, if they are not responsible for, the sentiment largely prevailing among the people that the General Government is the fountain of individual and private aid; that it may be expected to relieve with paternal care the distress of citizens and communities, and that from the fullness of its Treasury it should, upon the slightest possible pretext of promoting the general good, apply public funds to the benefit of localities and individuals. Nor can it be denied that there is a growing assumption that, as against the Government and in favor of private claims and interests, the usual rules and limitations of business principles and just dealing should be waived.

These ideas have been unhappily much encouraged by legislative acquiescence. Relief from contracts made with the Government is too easily accorded in favor of the citizen; the failure to support claims against the Government by proof is often supplied by no better consideration than the wealth of the Government and the poverty of the claimant; gratuities in the form of pensions are granted upon no other real ground than the needy condition of the applicant, or for reasons less valid; and large sums are expended for public buildings and other improvements upon representations scarcely claimed to be related to public needs and necessities.

The extent to which the consideration of such matters subordinate and postpone action upon subjects of great public importance, but involving no special private or partisan interest, should arrest attention and lead to reformation.

A few of the numerous illustrations of this condition may be stated.

The crowded condition of the calendar of the Supreme Court, and the delay to suitors and denial of justice resulting therefrom, has been strongly urged upon the attention of the Congress, with a plan for the relief of the situation approved by those well able to judge of its merits. While this subject remains without effective consideration, many laws have been passed providing for the holding of terms of inferior courts at places to suit the convenience of localities, or to lay the foundation of an application for the erection of a new public building.

Repeated recommendations have been submitted for the amendment and change of the laws relating to our public lands so that their spoliation and diversion to other uses than as homes for honest settlers might be prevented. While a measure to meet this conceded necessity of reform remains awaiting the action of the Congress, many claims to the public lands and applications for their donation, in favor of States and individuals, have been allowed.

A plan in aid of Indian management, recommended by those well informed as containing valuable features in furtherance of the solution of the Indian problem, has thus far failed of legislative sanction, while grants of doubtful expediency to railroad corporations, permitting them to pass through Indian reservations, have greatly multiplied.

The propriety and necessity of the erection of one or more prisons for the confinement of United States convicts, and a post-office building in the national capital, are not disputed. But these needs yet remain unanswered, while scores of public buildings have been erected where their necessity for public purposes is not apparent.

A revision of our pension laws could easily be made which would rest upon just principles and provide for every worthy applicant. But while our general pension laws remain confused and imperfect, hundreds of private pension laws are annually passed, which are the sources of unjust discrimination and popular demoralization.

Appropriation bills for the support of the Government are defaced by items and provisions to meet private ends, and it is freely asserted by responsible and experienced parties that a bill appropriating money for public internal improvement would fail to meet with favor unless it contained items more for local and private advantage than for public benefit.

These statements can be much emphasized by an ascertainment of the proportion of Federal legislation which either bears upon its face its private character or which upon examination develops such a motive power.

And yet the people wait and expect from their chosen representatives such patriotic action as will advance the welfare of the entire country; and this expectation can only be answered by the performance of public duty with unselfish purpose. Our mission among the nations of the earth and our success in accomplishing the work God has given the American people to do require of those intrusted with the making and execution of our laws perfect devotion, above all other things, to the public good.

This devotion will lead us to strongly resist all impatience of constitutional limitations of Federal power and to persistently check the increasing tendency to extend the scope of Federal legislation into the domain of State and local jurisdiction upon the plea of subserving the public welfare. The preservation of the partitions between proper subjects of Federal and local care and regulation is of such importance under the Constitution, which is the law of our very existence, that no consideration of expediency or sentiment should tempt us to enter upon doubtful ground. We have undertaken to discover and proclaim the richest blessings of a free government, with the Constitution as our guide. Let us follow the way it points out; it will not mislead us. And surely no one who has taken upon himself the solemn obligation to support and preserve the Constitution can find justification or solace for disloyalty in the excuse that he wandered and disobeyed in search of a better way to reach the public welfare than the Constitution offers.

What has been said is deemed not inappropriate at a time when, from a century's height, we view the way already trod by the American people and attempt to discover their future path.

The seventh President of the United States--the soldier and statesman and at all times the firm and brave friend of the people--in vindication of his course as the protector of popular rights and the champion of true American citizenship, declared: