2 - 
It will not be necessary for you to write this letter at 
once. It is so near the first of May now that I think it best to 
postpone giving notice until the middle of May or first of June, and 
come here later in the summer. Professor Proctor will take the 
matter up with the Commission today, and I will write you again 
..4 
early next week. 
The Civil Service law has been a great help in many ways 
and this is the first instance where we have come in contact with 
it in a way that bids fair to be injurious to the scientific inter- 
ests of Washington. I fully appreciate that you do not wish 
to appear to be competing for the position. If you write such a 
letter as I have suggested to the Commission., when the proper 
time comes it will clearly indicate that such is not the case. 
Truly yours, 
P.S. I have just returned from an interview with the Presi- 
dent of the Civil Service Commission, and he tells me that rather 
than not have you come, they will ask the President to make an ex- 
ception, and thus waive the Civil Service examination. On my way 
back I called to see Professor Langley, and he has ..suggest ed that 
we have an arrangement made by which scientific employes can be 
taken into the Smithsonian Institution, and subsequently transferred 
to the Museum. I will bring this up before the Commission on Mon- 
day . 
In consideration of the position of the Commission and 
Professor L&ngley, I think you need not give yourself any concern 
regarding a public competitive examination. In fact, under the 
scheme outlined in the first part of my letter, no person would 
know, outside of the committee appointed to pass upon the effi- 
ciency as shown by the publications and positions held, that you 
or any other individual had made application for examination, as 
the matter is entirely confidential. 
C.D.W. 
