March. 1922. 



SCIEXTIP-IC AGRICULTL'RF: 



211 



: : EDITORIAL 



For tlie last four years the Civil Service 

 Commission and ro-elassification have been 

 'b3'words in Ottawa, and tlie grievances of 

 ■employees in the Dominion Department of 

 Agriculture have surely been thoroughly 

 aired by this time. There Avas a period, 

 about 1918, when individual appeals and 

 group appeals were almost a weekly oc- 

 currence. Some members of the Depart- 

 ment were particularly gifted in the mat- 

 ter of drafting appeals and in giving evid- 

 ence before the Appeal Board. In those 

 days the position of Deputy Minister was 

 a most unenviable one and his office hours 

 must have been long and often almost un- 

 bearable. He was expected, as a matter of 

 course, to use his influence, especially in 

 the case of technically trained men, and if 

 action was delayed or, when taken, was 

 open to criticism, the blow more often fell 

 upon the Deputy Minister than upon any- 

 one else. And it was, of course, always 

 the matter of salary which caused the dif- 

 ference of opinion. Appeals were always 

 revisions of salaries. A comparison of the 

 wages of street car conductors with the 

 salaries of technically trained agricultu- 

 rists probably appeared in every appeal. 



There is no doubt that the Civil Service 

 Commission was inexcusably out of joint 

 in some of its so-called classifications of 

 trained men. Odious comparisons could 

 be found, by the dozen, in their published 

 scale of salaries. A plant pathologist with 

 a University degree and post graduate 

 training did not command as high a salary 

 as the .superintendent of char service with 

 primary school education. Some of the 

 technical men in the Department facetious- 

 ly figured out that an "un-edueating cour- 

 se" should be introduced so that they 

 would better qualify for higher salaries. 



The Civil Service Commission was un- 

 usually firm. It listened — slightly — to 

 some appeals, and in some cases it modi- 

 fied — slightly — its previous decisions. 

 But in nine cases out of ten (approxim- 

 ately) the teclmically trained man in the 

 Department of Agriculture was given a 

 low salary rating — low when compared 



with the .salaries paid to trained men in 

 other branches of the Service, and low 

 when the cost, in money and in time, of 

 his academic training was considered. The 

 Civil Service Commission in its desire to 

 be always consistent did not look very far 

 ahead. It made no provision for keeping 

 a good man in the Department when out- 

 side financial influences attracted him. 

 Civil servants receiving salaries higher 

 than their classified positions called fof 

 were not interfered witli, but they must be 

 replaced when they retired or died, by 

 men attracted by the lower salary. 



Wliat has been the result of all this re- 

 classification ? If a full enquiry were 

 made, in every branch of the Department 

 at Ottawa, and if a list were compiled of 

 the trained men who had left the service as 

 a direct result of this same re-classification, 

 it would not reflect special credit upon the 

 Civil Service Commission. Such a report 

 might go further and give a comparison 

 of the professional training -and experience 

 of the men w^o left and the men who 

 took their places (if anyone had been ap- 

 pointed). It is certain that the efficiency 

 of the Department of Agriculture has not 

 been improved by re-classification. Per- 

 haps it is being operated more economical- 

 ly — we doubt it — but efficiency and 

 economy can surely be joined together in 

 some way. This country needs such men, 

 for instance, as Dr. Charles Saunders. We 

 cannot have them because the salary listing 

 of tlieir positions is too low. Is there no 

 way under this new system ( ?) of keeping 

 men whose value to the profession and to 

 the country cannot be estimated in mere 

 dollars and cents? 



What will be the future result of this 

 method of grading salaries in accord- 

 ance with certain stipulated qualifications 

 and assigned duties/ It will mean that 

 vacancies in the Civil Service — and there 

 will probably be many of them — will be 

 filled by. incompetent applicants, because 

 the salaries offered will not attract trained 

 and qualified workers. If re-classification 



