by the civil-service rules and which therefore constitutes the nonpolitical service of the country. Strictly speaking, however, not all those who are recognized by civil-service Rule II as in the classified service are in the competitive nonpolitical service, since Schedule A of the civil-service rules specially excepts from the operation of most of them quite a long list of positions, among them being positions appointment to which is made by the President alone, and positions which are regarded as in the nature of positions of confidence, between the incumbents of which and the appointing officer close personal relations exist.

Outside of these excepted positions, however, appointment to a position in the classified service follows the successful passing of an examination conducted by the Civil Service Commission, and is made by the head of an executive department under section 169 of the Revised Statutes or some similar statutory provision. The appointment of a person not already in the classified service to a position therein is nearly always made to one of the lower positions. Appointment to the higher positions in that service is almost invariably made as the result of the promotion of one at the time in the classified service. In the case of some of the technical and professional services, however, the positions to which appointment is made of persons outside of the service are of comparatively high rank.

SENATE APPOINTMENTS.

Generally speaking the executive and administrative officers who are appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate are of six classes:

1. Ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls.

2. Heads of departments.

3. Assistant secretaries.

4. Heads and assistant heads of bureaus.

5. Other officers in the departments.

6. Local officers, such as collectors of customs, etc.

1. AMBASSADORS, OTHER PUBLIC MINISTERS, AND CONSULS. With regard to the first of these classes it may be said that no method of appointment, except that by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, is regarded as constitutionally possible, since this method is provided specifically by the Constitution.

It has, however, been felt, particularly in recent years, that appointment by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate was in the case of consuls objectionable as giving to political considerations too great an influence in the appointment to these positions, and the attempt has been made by Executive order to provide qualifications for the office which a candidate must possess in order to be nominated to the Senate by the President. This attempt was made by an Executive order issued June 27, 1906, which, with the purpose of securing qualified persons as consuls, prescribes certain Regulations governing appointments and promotions" for the Consular Service. (See Exhibit 1.)

It is thus seen that it is possible for the President, even in the case of Senate appointments, to provide under section 1753 of the Revised Statutes for qualifications of capacity, which must be shown by all candidates for appointment. These regulations are, however, depend

ent for their effective enforcement upon the cooperation of the Senate, since the Senate may, if it sees fit, refuse to confirm the appointment of one who has been nominated by the President after having passed successfully the examination provided by the regulations.

2. HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS.

Little need be said with regard to the appointment of the heads of departments since they are properly regarded as distinctly political officers and since it is rarely the case that the Senate fails to confirm the appointment of a head of department by the President.

3. ASSISTANT SECRETARIES.

In respect to these officers the commission believes that a distinction should be made between those having the duty of assisting the secretaries in respect to the general supervision and control of all the services comprehended by the department and those having for their duty supervision and direction over the manner in which the business operations of the departments are conducted.

In other reports the commission lays emphasis upon the importance of intrusting to one assistant secretary in each department the duty of exercising direct supervision and control over the business methods followed. In these reports the position is taken that in each department there should be one assistant secretary who would in effect be the business manager of the department. There is little doubt that one of the needs of the administrative service of the United States at the present time is the existence in each department of an officer of this character who will be intrusted with the routine or general business administration of the department, and whose knowledge of the needs of the department may be placed at the disposition of the head of the department.

This distinction is of importance from the standpoint of the present report, since the commission believes that different methods should be followed in appointing to these two classes of positions.

In respect to the first, that is, the assistant secretaries acting as the general assistants to the secretaries, the commission recognizes that in a measure at least these officers are responsible for the policy of the administration and that they should on that account be differentiated from the ordinary members of the classified service as now organized. To this extent these officers may be said to have a quasi-political character. Nevertheless, as primarily administrative officers, the commission believes that their appointment should be made by the President alone, and it so recommends.

In respect to the second class, that is, assistant secretaries acting as general business managers, the commission believes that their nonpolitical character should be definitely recognized. In order that an assistant secretary of this character may satisfactorily fill the post to which he is appointed, two things are necessary. These are, first, that he shall be qualified and, second, that he shall be permanent. Inasmuch as his qualifications are in great measure dependent upon the permanence of his incumbency it is more necessary that incumbency of office be actually permanent than that the incumbent be theoretically qualified.

First. How may the position of undersecretary or business manager be actually permanent?

The actual permanence of incumbency may be secured by providing that he shall be made a member of the competitive classified service. If the present definition of the classified service be retained, his inclusion in the classified service necessarily involves the abandonment of the method of appointment usually provided by law at the present time, viz, by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. At the present time the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor is by law appointed by the President, and not by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. If, further, Schedule A of the civil-service rules were so amended as to permit of the inclusion in the competitive service of persons appointed by the President alone, it might also be provided that one assistant secretary in each department, who should be in the competitive classified service, should be appointed by the President alone.

Appointment by the President alone is preferable to appointment by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, since Senate appointments are usually to offices regarded as political in character, and the purpose of placing one assistant secretary in each department in the competitive classified service is to emphasize the nonpolitical character of the position. Furthermore, so long as the civil-service act remains in its present form it is difficult to make any special provisions for securing the necessary qualifications on the part of any person appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Second. How shall the necessary qualifications for the position be secured?

The mere inclusion of an assistant secretary in the competitive classified service not only would have the effect of making the position permanent and thereby of causing the person appointed to be qualified as the result of the experience acquired in the performance of the duties of the office, but would also bring it about that the position would ordinarily be filled as the result of promotion from among those already in the classified service. Such a method of appointment would thus of itself also bring into the position of assistant secretary one who had considerable administrative experience.

The commission accordingly recommends that provision be made by law for the appointment, in each department, of an assistant secretary who will discharge the duties of a general business manager; that this officer be appointed by the President alone, as is recommended in the case of the other assistant secretaries; but that this position be placed in the competitive classified service.

4. HEADS AND ASSISTANT HEADS OF BUREAUS.

The departments are, when of large size, usually divided into bureaus or offices, at the head of each of which is either an officer with a distinctive title, as is the case with certain of the offices in the Department of the Treasury, such as the comptroller, the treasurer, and register, or a commissioner, superintendent, director, chief, or head.

In some of the smaller departments, such as the Department of State, the sections of the department are called bureaus, but their heads are appointed by the head of the department. These sections

are not treated as legally in the position of bureaus; i. e., their heads or chiefs are regarded rather as clerks than as heads of bureaus (21 Op. Atty. Gen., 363), and as a result the Secretary may distribute the work of the department among the various employees as he sees fit.

In the case of the Departments of War and Navy, also, where the heads of the bureaus are chosen from among military and naval officers, the bureau heads do not have all the characteristics of heads of ordinary bureaus. Thus in the case of the Department of the Navy the assistants of such heads of bureaus, being commissioned naval officers serving as the result of a detail and not of any statutory provisions, may not perform the duties of the chief, as is usually the case under section 178 of the Revised Statutes, in the case of his absence, sickness, etc.

Finally, there are in some departments services which in many cases grew up outside of the departments to which they are now attached, either in connection with some other department or independently of any department, and which occupy the position of bureaus but do not have the name. Such are:

The Geological Survey, established in 1879, in the Department of the Interior and under the direction of a director appointed without fixed term by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey, now in the Department of Commerce and Labor and under a superintendent appointed without term by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Steamboat-Inspection Service, in the same department and under a supervising inspector general appointed without term by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Life-Saving Service, in the Department of the Treasury and under the control of a superintendent appointed without term by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, in the Department of the Treasury and under the control of a surgeon general appointed without term by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Reclamation Service, in the Department of the Interior, under the control of a director employed by the Secretary of the Interior without term.

1. Method of appointment.-The heads or chiefs of bureaus, services, or offices corresponding to bureaus, are at the present time usually, but not always, appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. In certain cases, such as the Bureau of Manufactures, the Bureau of Corporations, and the Bureau of Lighthouses, in the Department of Commerce and Labor, they are appointed by the President alone. In other cases, such as the socalled bureaus in the State Department, and of all the bureaus, except the Weather Bureau, in the Department of Agriculture, they are appointed by the Secretary of the department.

In most instances the heads of bureaus are appointed without definite term. The only exceptions to this rule are the heads of the following bureaus:

All the heads of the bureaus of the War Department are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a period of four years.

The Comptroller of the Currency and the Director of the Mint, in the Treasury Department, are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of five years, unless removed by the President upon reasons to be communicated to the Senate. The commandant and chief of division of the RevenueCutter Service, also in the Treasury Department, is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of four years and is reeligible.

The heads of all the bureaus in the Navy Department are appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of four years.

In the Department of Commerce and Labor the Commissioner of Labor is appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of four years.

2. Method of removal.-It is seldom the case that the statutes have anything to say about the removal of the head of a bureau. The only exceptions to this rule are the Comptroller of the Currency and the Director of the Mint, whose terms of five years may be shortened by removal by the President upon reasons to be communicated to the Senate; and the Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries who, according to law, is removable at the pleasure of the President. The general principles of law applicable to the power of removal apply, therefore, to most of the heads of bureaus who may be removed by the President or by the head of department appointing them.

3. Qualifications. There are few instances in which the law provides for any qualifications for those who are appointed as the heads of bureaus. Such qualifications are provided specifically in the

case of:

1. All the bureaus in the Department of Agriculture except the Weather Bureau. Thus the Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry must be a chemist, the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology must be an entomologist, and so on.

2. The Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service must be familiar with the means employed in the service for the saving of life and property.

3. The Supervising Inspector General of the Steamboat-Inspection Service is to be selected with reference to his fitness and ability to systematize and carry into effect all the provisions of the law relating to the Steamboat-Inspection Service.

4. The Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries shall be a person of scientific and practical acquaintance with fish and the fisheries.

No method, however, is provided by law for the ascertainment of the existence of these qualifications.

In addition to the heads of bureaus just mentioned, there are a number of bureaus whose heads may be appointed only from certain ranks of a well-recognized service. This is true of the bureaus in the Departments of War and of the Navy, and of the Revenue-Cutter Service, and of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service. In the Revenue-Cutter Service the captain, commandant, and chief of division must be appointed from active officers of the line of the rank of captain. In the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, the Surgeon General must be chosen from assistant surgeons general and surgeons.