540 ROSA: REORGANIZED CIVIL SERVICE 



intimate knowledge of the quality of the personnel of their 

 respective departments, and would serv^e an important function 

 in helping the Commission to keep the salary scale equalized 

 in the various departments. 



They would keep in touch with the eligible lists of the Com- 

 mission, and would be able to advise administrative officers as 

 to the qualifications of the men available for appointment or 

 transfer, and whether the standard for promotion in a given 

 bureau or department was in agreement with the service gen- 

 erally. Indeed, without the coordinating influence of such 

 liaison officers, it is difficult to see how a standardized service 

 could be kept standardized and uniform. 



An alternative method would be for the bureaus and depart- 

 ments to employ expert personnel officers (corresponding to em- 

 ployment managers in the industries) who would keep in close 

 touch with the Civil Service Commission, and thus secure the 

 close personal contact and cooperation between the Commission 

 and the departments which is so necessary. Of the two, it would 

 seem that the extension agents of the Commission are to be 

 preferred, although in any event the employment of trained 

 specialists as personnel officers or employment managers in the 

 bureaus and departments should be encouraged.^ 



* To realize how utterly impossible it is for the Civil Service Commission at 

 present to perform all the functions described above, one has only to consider the 

 low salaries paid and the inadequate staff provided. Whereas many other branches 

 of the service pay their most responsible officers $3000, to $4500, and in some cases 

 $5000 to $7500 or even more, the Civil Service Commission has only two positions 

 (aside from the Commissioners themselves) paying more than $2400, namely the 

 chief examiner at $3500 and the secretary who gets $2500 and no bonus. They 

 have a lump sum of $100,000 for salaries, carrying a provision that no salary higher 

 than $1800 shall be paid therefrom. 358 clerks and examiners have an average 

 salary of $1311 (besides the bonus). Included in this number are 41 college grad- 

 uates averaging $1602. These are the men who examine and rate those entering 

 the service, even in the highest grades, including all the technical services, and who 

 are supposed to supervise the administration of the government's employment 

 policy, approve promotions and transfers, and see that the law is obeyed. 



The Civil Service Commission maintains 12 district offices and holds examina- 

 tions all over the United States, and because of the great turnover in the service 

 was called upon to recruit 200,000 new employees last year in spite of the fact that 

 the whole number of employees was reduced by 100,000 during the fiscal year. 

 But for lack of funds to pay salaries, they are obliged to operate these offices largely 



