REPORT OP THE SECRETARY. 5 



appointments as will permit an exemption of such scientific positions 

 under the Smithsonian Institution as the Secretary may deem best for 

 the interests of the Institution." 



Present: The Chancellor, the Chief Justice of the United States, in 

 the chair; the Vice-President of the United States; Senator Morrill, 

 of Vermont; Senator Cullom, of Illinois; Senator Gray, of Delaware; 

 Representative Hitt, of Illinois; Representative Wheeler, of Alabama; 

 Representative Adams, of Pennsylvania; ex-Senator Henderson, of 

 Washington City; the Hon. William L. Wilson, president of Wash- 

 ington and Lee University; Prof. Alexander Graham Bell, of Wash- 

 ing Cit}-; the Secretar}^ of the Smithsonian Institution. 



In accordance with this instruction I respectfully request of the 

 President the exemption from the operations of the civil-service regu- 

 lations of the assistant secretaries in charge of the bureaus of the 

 Smithsonian Institution and of the heads of its several ])ureaus, 

 namely, the National Museum, the International Exchanges, the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, the Zoological Park, and the Astrophysical Observatory, 

 and to further respectfully rei)resent that the above exemptions are 

 indispensable to enable the Institution to serve the Government's 

 interests as it has hitherto done. 



I further respectfully represent that in the opinion of the Regents 

 it is desirable that the Secretary should also have the power, as here- 

 tofore, of appointing scientific men of eminence as curators. 



I ask to be permitted to state that men of high scientific position 

 have been usually found to be unwilling to subject themselves to exami- 

 nations, that the Smithsonian Institution has for more than a half cen- 

 tury secured to the Government the services of eminent men by selec- 

 tion from the whole body of American science, and that in my opinion 

 the public service will sufl'er if this can no longer be done. 



I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



S. P. Langley, Secretary. 



In adopting the recommendations of the Regents the President, on 

 May 29, 1899, amended the civil-service regulations in the following 

 respects : 



Under section 3, Rule IV, noncompetitive examinations are per- 

 mitted to test the fitness of persons whom the Secretary of the 

 Smithsonian Institution shall nominate for appointment in the classi- 

 fied service, provided the Secretary shall certify that in his opinion 

 the positions to be filled "require such peculiar qualifications in 

 respect to knowledge and ability, or such scientific or special attain- 

 ments wholly or in part professional or technical as are not ordinaril}^ 

 acquired in the executive service of the United States," on which 

 account " an examination should be waived in whole or in part." It 

 is required that the President of the United States shall approve such 

 nominations, whereupon the Civil Service Commission shall grant a 

 certificate of qualification, " upon such evidence as may be satisfactory 

 to it, that the person so nominated is eligible for and may be appointed 

 to such position by reason of his ascertained qualifications and by rea- 

 son of his age, health, and moral character." Such appointee may 

 not be transferred to any other position in the classified service except 



