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APPENDIX A
UNSKILLED LABORERS
Treasury Department, Nov. 11, 1903.
To Civil Service Commission:
Your letter of November 4th relative to the adoption of rules governing the employment of laborers in the Federal Service at Boston is at hand. I will have occasion to take the matter up with the President, and if he desires the rules signed I shall be glad to comply. Otherwise I shall decline.
My principal objection is the fact that paragraph 6, “Definition of Classified Work,” contained in the regulations governing the employment of classified laborers, adopted July 23, 1903, has proved very impracticable. In fact that Department not only violates these rules every day, but ignores them and is compelled to do so. I am also advised that the Civil Service Commission not only violates them, but ignores them. I respect the Commission for doing this, and my respect would not be diminished if it would repeal such regulations as have to be ignored by the very men who promulgate them. The fact that they are thus ignored by the Civil Service Commission is supported by the clear and repeated statement of a member of the Commission, made in my office.
And this is not all. It is well nigh impossible to secure from the skilled laborer register of the Commission persons who are willing to perform the menial service which is required of unskilled laborers. The rule referred to forbids our taking unskilled laborers from our payroll to perform this menial service, and permit them incidentally to perform service that requires a knowledge of reading and writing. We are now in the midst of a prolonged correspondence with the Civil Service Commission over a case arising at San Francisco where the offense was that an unskilled laborer, assigned to handle merchandise, was permitted to go to a pile of bales and boxes on the docks and select a package that was needed for examination, and exercised his ability to read the number on the package. Had some skilled laborer gone with the unskilled laborer, to read the number, and had then informed the unskilled laborer that that package bore the desired number, all would have been well. Under the rules for which you are contending it requires two men to get a package, when either one can get it alone, and then it takes a man and a stenographer in this office to conduct the correspondence that grows out of the offense of allowing either one to do it unaided by the other. If the President wants this condition inaugurated at Boston and other ports, as well as at San Francisco, I shall be very glad to see that it is done.
I will be very glad to co-operate with the Civil Service Commission to improve the service in this Department, not only in Boston but in every port. I am a firm believer in Civil Service, and, I may add, in the machinery of Civil Service but I am more interested in improving the product than in perfecting the machine. So far as I am concerned I will not voluntarily sign and promulgate rules for the mere sake of signing and promulgating rules. I will co-operate to the fullest extent in anything that will improve the service.
Very respectfully,
Leslie M. Shaw.
REQUIREMENTS FOR MALE UNSKILLED LABORERS
Treasury Department, Jan. 26, 1904.
To the Civil Service Commission:
Your letter of the 14th inst, submitting for approval a statement of physical requirements for male unskilled laborers is received.
I am unalterably opposed to a graduated scale of physical ability. If a man of medium weight, 130 lbs., and minimum height, 5 ft. 3 in., and with strength to carry a minimum weight, 150 lbs., is to be marked 70, as you propose, then a man weighing 200 lbs., 6 ft. tall, and able to carry 200 lbs., would I supposed be marked 80; and a man weighing 300 lbs., 6 ft. 5 in. in height, and able to carry 500 lbs., should be marked 100. No one would have such a man around. He would be physically incompetent. Either a man is physically competent or he is not. Most of the defects referred to as sufficient to justify rejection are all right. I have no objection to a list of competents being made and from that list we will select. But I would rather base my judgment upon the appearance of an applicant who would come into the office and say “good morning” and retire than all the physical examinations that the Civil Service Commission can give.
I do not care to prolong the correspondence; I simply will not consent to accept unskilled laborers on a graduated scale of physical ability. I do not care whether a man can lift 150 lbs. or 400 lbs. when there be only 10 lbs. to lift.
Very respectfully,
Leslie M. Shaw.
APPENDIX B
TEA EXAMINER
Treasury Department, Dec. 15, 1904.
To the Civil Service Commission:
I am in receipt of your communication of November 21st certifying three names from which to select a Tea Examiner.
I hereby file objection to each and all of the persons so certified because of mental unfitness for the position for which they apply.
There is no tariff duty on tea and the sole purpose of examination of tea is to protect the American people from cheap and deleterious preparations. A competent tea examiner must be able to pour hot water on a sample of tea and by tasting, tell within five cents per pound of what it is worth, and to determine accurately whether the sample is composed of tea or of some imitation or preparation thereof, and whether it has been adulterated. Whether he can speak the English language or sign his name is immaterial. If he knows tea, and is honest and incorruptible, the American people will get protection. These men know no more about tea than you or I and they are as unfit for the place as either of us.
In proof of the foregoing, one of the names certified is that of a clerk in the Customs Service and is known to this Department to be wholly unfit for Tea Examiner. He is a clerk and not a Tea Expert.
Another is a bookkeeper, and has been continuously thus employed since 1886, and knows nothing about tea and does not pretend to.
The third is now an opener and packer in the Customs Service and admits that all he knows about tea is the fact that he once sold coffee. The serious side of this matter is the absolute and literal truth of the foregoing.
Some conception of the importance of the position may be gained from the fact that over three hundred packages of alleged tea have been excluded in the last ninety days at that port alone.
Very respectfully,
Leslie M. Shaw.
The balance of the correspondence is unimportant in view of the Commissioner’s letter of Dec. 9, 1905, practically one year thereafter, quoted page 173, and in which the Commission states that after two examinations, on its recommendation the place was excepted by the President and filled independent of Civil Service.
APPENDIX C
TOBACCO EXAMINER
Treasury Department, December 15, 1904.
To the Civil Service Commission:
I am in receipt of your letter of the 12th inst. certifying three names eligible for selection as Tobacco Examiner at the port of – .
I hereby file objections to each and all because of mental unfitness for the position for which they apply.
The Tariff Duty on unmanufactured tobacco is in part as follows:
This is sufficient to show the importance of the position and the necessity of having an expert tobacco man as examiner. No one of these certified is competent. The first is a clerk and stenographer. He has been a letter carrier and is now a clerk in the Customs House at $1,200.00 per annum. He is a professional Civil Service Examination taker, and admits having “crammed” as he terms it for this examination. He has never had anything to do with the tobacco business except that he was once stenographer to a tobacco merchant.
The second is a storekeeper and clerk in the Customs Service. He has had no experience whatever in tobacco except to have seen bales of tobacco while storekeeper for the government.
The third has been a cigar maker but does not pretend to know anything about the tobacco business except a little experience in making cigars from tobacco purchased by others, and that in a very small way. He is in my judgment wholly unprepared to protect the revenues of the government against the frauds continually attempted by unscrupulous importers, who pursue the line of least resistance, and bring their tobacco to the port where deception is least likely to be detected. He is equally unprepared to protect the honest importer from competition with the unscrupulous.
In kindness but in honesty let me say that the man who conducted the examinations has no conception whatever of the qualifications needed in a tobacco examiner… These applicants may be nice men, and they may wear good clothes, and they may speak good English, and may be men of integrity, but no one of them is fit to hold the very important position to which he aspires, and for the simple reason that he knows nothing at all about the only thing he needs to know anything about, to-wit: Tobacco!
Very respectfully,
Leslie M. Shaw.
The balance of the correspondence is unimportant in view of the Commission’s statement in its letter of Dec. 9, 1905, quoted page 173, that after three examinations the President on request had excepted one tobacco examiner and the place had been filled independent of examinations.
APPENDIX D
Correspondence between the Secretary of the Treasury and the Civil Service Commission in re Trial Lawyers.
Treasury Department, Sept. 20, 1905.
To the Civil Service Commission:
Gentlemen:
I wish you would hold an examination for special agents at the earliest possible moment. As I explained to your Mr. – the other day, the Department needs some special agents with legal training. Not all special agents need legal training, but there are many times when cases have to be prepared for presentation to the Board of General Appraisers, or to the Court, where legal experience is almost essential. I will give you an illustration: Not long ago I needed to send a man to Europe to investigate alleged undervaluations in crockery and chinaware. I had the matter investigated by three special agents and special employees with no satisfactory results. They did not know what was essential, and did not seem to know evidence when they saw it. I then appointed an experienced lawyer as special employee and sent him over. The evidence he collected ought to secure a fifty percent advance on these goods.
I want to urge that in this instance you prepare the questions so as to exclude everyone who is not an experienced lawyer. I also desire to see the questions before the examination is held. I want to cooperate with the Commission, and I urge the Commission to cooperate with me in getting material absolutely necessary to good administration.
Very truly yours,
Leslie M. Shaw,
Secretary of the Treasury.
SECOND LETTER
Treasury Department, October 14, 1905.
To the Civil Service Commission:
Gentlemen:
How are you progressing preparatory to the examination for special agents? I am very anxious that this shall be done at the earliest possible moment. I have a well-defined policy that I would like to put in operation before I retire.
Very truly yours,
Leslie M. Shaw.
FIRST LETTER FROM THE COMMISSION
December 2, 1905.
The Honorable
The Secretary of the Treasury:
Sir:
Referring to the examination for special treasury agents which you desire this Commission to hold and with respect to which you make oral inquiry today, the Commission has the honor to state that the questions on government, law, and customs matters prepared by your Department have been given careful consideration. It is the opinion of the Commission that the questions are of such a character that they might be answered by a person without testing his qualifications for the position of Special Treasury Agents, and that, on the other hand, failure to answer the questions would not indicate lack of qualification for such position.
The Commission is sincerely desirous of co-operating with your Department in securing competent persons for the service, but it does not believe that an examination along the lines indicated in the material submitted by your Department would have the desired effect.
The Commission very seriously doubts whether the position of Special Agent can be filled as satisfactorily by open competitive examinations as by transfer or promotion of trained and experienced employees in the service who are familiar with the workings of your Department and especially with customs matters.
Very respectfully,
–
Commissioner.
REPLY TO FOREGOING
Treasury Department, December 5, 1905.
To the Civil Service Commission:
I am in receipt of your letter of the 2nd relative to an examination for Special Agents to the Treasury Department.
I know you will pardon me if I insist that I know better the necessary qualifications of Special Agents than any person who knows nothing about it whatever. If there were experienced employees in the service who could be transferred I certainly should do so rather than to await an examination. You will remember a personal interview I had with you about this some months ago, and several requests, some of them personal and some of them in writing followed by the preparation of the questions in this Department, still followed by oral inquiry to which you courteously refer. I will explain again that I need some lawyers in the Special Agent Force. The government loses millions every year (and I speak within bounds) for want of suitable preparation of cases for presentation to the Board of General Appraisers. I want men who know evidence when they see it and who know how to present a case. I do not want a physician or a preacher, but I do want and must have lawyers. I care very little whether they know anything about Customs matters or not – they can learn that but they may know everything about Customs matters and cannot become lawyers. I have clerks in the Department who have graduated in law but that does not make a lawyer of a man. I know what the Department needs, and I want that need supplied. Please advise whether you will hold the required examinations or whether I will have to fill the vacancies with incompetent clerks, or by executive order. If you will join in a request that suitable men be put into this important work by executive order I will let the Civil Service Commission make the nominations from a list which I will furnish, or I will ask them to furnish the list and I will make the nominations. I am not trying to escape the Civil Service, for I heartily believe in it when so applied as to bring material that can be used to bring results. I appreciate your expressed desire to co-operate and I only ask that you make it good by co-operating.
Very truly yours,
Leslie M. Shaw.
LETTER FROM THE COMMISSION
December 9, 1905.
The Secretary of the Treasury:
The Commission has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th inst. in which are indicated your wishes with respect to the proposed examination for Special Agents.
In reply your attention is invited to the general questions on government, law and customs matters which have been submitted to the Commission by your Department. Of the fifty-three questions so submitted, fifteen are of a general character and could be readily answered by any law student. Only three relate to evidence in any form. These are of such an elementary character that they may be found in any text book on the subject and are not sufficient to bring out a satisfactory knowledge of evidence. There are thirty-seven questions bearing directly upon customs matters although your letters indicate that a knowledge of the subject is not to be required of applicants. After careful consideration of the matter and in view of your recent letter it is believed that the questions submitted by your Department are not suitable for an examination of Special Agents.
After discussing the responsibility which the Commission must bear the letter proceeds:
In this connection your attention is invited to an examination for law clerk, Class 4, held for your Department in April, 1903. This examination was prepared along the lines indicated by you and your statement that only graduates of reputable law colleges who had had at least three years practical experience subsequent to graduation would be acceptable to the Department, was incorporated in the announcement. The examination consisted principally of practical questions in law and the preparation of opinions upon stated cases. Of the 367 persons who competed only 20 attained eligibility. The results of this examination were very unsatisfactory to the Commission and to a large number of the competitors who felt that injustice had been done them. It is understood that several persons who were regarded by the officials of the Treasury Department as qualified for the position failed in the examination. A large number of appeals from the ratings were received, some of them being from men who were graduates of the best law schools in the country and who had many years experience in the practice of law in the general field.
Then follows reference to examinations for Tobacco and Tea Examiners quoted in Chapter XXIII; and the letter closes as follows:
The Commission is strongly of opinion that in the entire force of the Treasury Department, comprising as it does many thousand employees, persons can be found who possess suitable qualifications for Special Agents.
Very respectfully,
–
Commissioner.
Treasury Department, December 11, 1905.
To the Civil Service Commission:
For three months I have been trying to get some lawyers on the eligible list that I may improve the Special Agent Service, and I am this near success: I have had the solicitor for this Department prepare a list of questions to be submitted with others which the Commission may be pleased to prepare. I have not examined the questions. They were prepared by Judge O’Connell, who has been a practicing lawyer of extensive experience for twenty years, and has several times served on the committee to examine applicants for admission to the Supreme Court of his state. These questions your Commission refused to use and declined to prepare others. You tell me that I must fill the vacancies from clerks in the Department. This I will never do. The vacancies will remain while I remain unless I can fill them in a way that in my judgment will improve the service. Possibly some clerk in your Department can prepare a better list of questions than Judge O’Connell has submitted. If so I have no objection. In fact I have no objection to any course you may be pleased to pursue and I have no further suggestions to make. I only ask that some time within a year or so the Civil Service Commission get a few lawyers within reach for the special service where lawyers are necessary. The government loses millions every year for the want of men in the Special Agent force, competent to prepare cases for submission to the Board of General Appraisers. If the Commission shall elect to assist me in the premises I shall appreciate it very much, and if it declines to act in the future, as it has declined in the past I shall submit, unless I can devise some other way to improve the service.
Very truly yours,
Leslie M. Shaw.
COMMISSION’S REJOINDER DATED DEC. 20, 1905
We are clear that vacancies in the position as Special Agent cannot be satisfactorily filled by open competitive examinations…
… If it be your desire as indicated in your letter that we should hold an examination for law clerk we will do so; and if you wish to make use of that register in filling vacancies in the position as Special Agent, it is of course your privilege to do so.
Very respectfully,
–
Commissioner.
Thereupon the Secretary of the Treasury made request:
“Replying to your letter of December 20th handed to me by your Mr. – and in harmony with our verbal understanding I request that the Civil Service Commission hold an examination, giving it such name as it may deem appropriate but so arranged as to exclude all but graduates from law colleges, and who in addition have had not less than three years experience in active practice including trial of cases in Nisi Prius Courts. I desire to make use of these clerks as Special Agents. They should be eligible for appointment direct or by immediate transfer without waiting six months. I need them now, and will be pleased if the Commission will expedite the examination in every possible way.”
On December 29, 1905, the Commission submitted draft of an announcement of an examination for law clerks in the Treasury Department and added: “It is requested that the announcement be returned to this office at your earliest convenience with such suggestions as you may desire to make in regard thereto.”
Suggestions were made January 4, 1906.
“I suggest that you eliminate from the first paragraph the following:
‘In making certifications to positions in the Customs Branch of the Treasury Department, consideration will be given to experience showing familiarity with Customs Law and practice in Customs Cases.’
There is not a lawyer in the United States who has had experience in Customs Cases whom I would appoint Special Agent, except those who are earning five times what the position will pay. There are some in the cities, and especially in New York, quite a number of disreputable fellows who have had some experience in practice in Customs Cases, but there is not a New York lawyer of experience in Customs Cases whom I would appoint Special Agent except as I say those who would not accept. I care nothing for familiarity or practice in Customs Cases. What I want is a man competent to practice in Customs Cases, and with integrity enough to justify his appointment.”
As already stated, without fault of the Commission no lawyer who had ever tried a case in any court was ever made eligible and the Secretary of the Treasury could secure one only from the eligible list. There was an eligible list of law clerks but no list of lawyers.
