WEATHER BUREAU. 189 



field, have had for their sole object the performance of a maximum 

 amount of work with a minimum number of employees. 



The number of permanent appointments in the classified service 

 during the year, including those eirected by transfer and reinstatement, 

 was 37 less than in the preceding year. The temporary appointments 

 were 22 less. During the same period tlie promotions, amounting 

 to 172, were also less by 29. ^Vll promotions were to the next higher 

 grade, with but one exception, that of an official assigned to a newly 

 established station where the responsibilities of his position were 

 much greater than at the station formerly held. 



The number of voluntary resignations in the classified service 

 during the year was 70, or 17 more than in the previous year. Of 

 this number 31 were in the grade of messenger and messenger boy, 

 and 15 were recently appointed assistant o jservers. The loss in the 

 messenger service is naturally to be looked for as the boys advance 

 toward manhood. The inability to hold all of the new assistant 

 observers is doubtless due to the small salary paid them during the 

 first year or two of their service. At the present rate of wages young 

 men of their attainments are able to command, the temptation to 

 engage in employment giving more lucrative immediate returns 

 than those offered in the lower grades of the Government service, has 

 often proved irresistible. 



Of the 69 probationary appointments made, only 2 failed to com- 

 plete successfully the 6 montlis' probationary period. There were 9 

 forced resignations from the classified service, for various causes, 

 during the year, while the removals for reasons reflecting upon the 

 character of the employees were 3. Of the 14 reductions during the 

 year, 6 were brought about through causes reflecting in no manner 

 upon those reduced, while 8 suffered a decrease in salary for failure 

 to measure up to the standards of efficiency and conduct required by 

 the bureau. 



In the unclassified service there were 5 permanent and 2 temporary 

 appointments, as compared with 5 permanent and no temporary 

 appointments in the preceding year. 



The absence record for the service as a whole showed a fraction of a 

 day more sick leave and a fraction of a day less annual leave for each 

 employee than in the preceding year. 



There were 4 deaths in the commissioned force during the year, as 

 compared, with 8 for the year before. Among these was Mr. Jesse H. 

 Robinson, chief of the Telegraph Division at the central office of the 

 Weather Bureau, in whose death on May 1, 1911, the bureau sus- 

 tained the loss of a valued official. Mr. Robinson entered the service 

 on March 6, 1872, and was appointed chief operator in 1891, and 

 chief of the Telegraph Division in 1902. 



